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Hagelin scores, Caps beat Ducks 4-3 in the shootout

By Peter Hassett

 4 Comments

December 6, 2021 9:49 pm

The Washington Capitals welcomed the better-than-I-thought Anaheim Ducks to town on Monday night for darn good hour-plus of hockey.

The only goal in the first period was when Tom Wilson scored his 100th career goal, a keen one-timer from low in the slot.

The second period got a bit out of control. The Zegras-Rakell-Milano line got two goals, sandwiching Carl Hagelin’s layup. Vinni Lettieri got a rush goal against the Ovi line to give the Ducks the lead, but then John Carlson cleaned up a rebound to tie it heading into the third period.

Alex Ovechkin went bananas in the third period but scored zero goals. Both teams, and both conferences, earned a standings point. Overtime was boring, so here’s some shootout bullets.

  • Terry put the biscuit in the basket
  • Oshie did NOT put the biscuit in the basket
  • Zegras did NOT put the biscuit in the basket
  • Kuznetsov did NOT put the biscuit in the basket
  • Shattenkirk did NOT put the biscuit in the basket
  • Sprong put the biscuit in the basket
  • Rakell put the biscuit in the basket
  • Ovechkin put the biscuit in the basket
  • Milano did NOT put the biscuit in the basket
  • Carlson put the biscuit in the basket

CAPS WIN!

  • Not part of our game, but I wanna say that I’m so happy for Bruce Boudreau, who has become head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. He’s such a great personality — and a darn good coach. I hope that club is truly on the rebound now (please don’t hire Bergevin).
  • The 34th shot of Carl Hagelin‘s season was his first goal. This is an In Memoriam to all our “Carl Hagelin will never score” jokes. To be frank, the guy generates chances, and his normal line with his two covidian linemates is elite. He was just unlucky for a while. We will get off his back. Possibly.

  • Hagelin officially exits this list of players with lots of shots and no goals. Sheena tells me that Lindblom scored tonight too, which means I thik the updated version of this would have Dmitrij Jaskin on it.

  • Here in game 26, Tom Wilson got in his first fight of the season. Wilson punched Simon Benoit because Benoit had earlier put a low hit on John Carlson. Wilson’s fight did not un-hit John Carlson. Instead, it took Wilson off the top line, so that Conor Sheary was on the ice filling in with Ovechkin and Kuznetsov when the Ducks took the lead. Just one reason among billions why fighting in hockey is dumb. Tom has done so much to de-dumb himself, but this is a reminder that there is yet further to go.
  • I wish Garnet Hathaway weren’t on COVID protocol. I’d be more okay with him fighting, as he’s progressively taken the load off Wilson in recent seasons.
  • John Carlson had an iffy night on defense, but he secured free McNuggets for you or something and got the shootout game-winner. I don’t know how the nuggets thing works, man.
  • The Ducks have one really good line, the aforementioned Zegras-Rakell-Milano, but they’re not really deep just yet. The Caps who didn’t go up against them much fared pretty well in this one —  Sheary’s defensive coverage on the Lettieri goal notwithstanding.

With Washington’s lineup still dealing with gaping holes, Peter Laviolette started improvising lines late in this one. There was an Ovi-Eller-Oshie shift for a minute there. As much as Washington has been racking up points, this team is in another sense just barely getting by.

Also they’re trash at three-on-three overtime. But that doesn’t matter.

The Caps now get four days of rest before hosting the Penguins on Friday. I hope they perhaps stay apart, get healthy and off the COVID list. Maybe get a booster.

Headline photo: Molly (thanks!)

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