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Lucky to be playing who they were playing: Capitals beat Canadiens 5-2

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A new coach for the Montreal Canadiens and a struggling Caps team is his first test. New coach magic or new coach tragic?

Joe Snively pounced on a terrible rebound for his first career goal in the NHL to open the scoring. Only twenty seconds later, Connor McMichael doubled the advantage. Carl Hagelin found one of his rare goals, putting a puck up high on Cayden Primeau from a bad angle.

Rem Pitlick jammed in a loose puck to get the Habs on the board. Snively sniped home his second career goal, chasing Primeau from the net. Cole Caufield beat Ilya Samsonov up high with a backhand.

Tom Wilson empty netter.

Capitals beat Canadiens 5-2.

  • The Caps were the beneficiaries of some terrible Montreal goaltending to take a 2-0 lead and were generally good to start the game. The power play ruined that momentum per usual and the Habs got into the action more as the period went on which is annoying because they are a terrible hockey team. You want to see more poured in after the two goals in only twenty seconds which was not what we saw.
  • Joe Snively scored his first in the NHL. He is the eighth rookie this season for the Caps to score their first which would sound absolutely insane to anyone from like the “beforetimes” of COVID. 2018 me would have thought half the roster was traded in one offseason.
  • Martin St. Louis is a whole lot less threatening from behind the bench. That man tortured the Caps for too many years. What a player he was. Let’s hope he’s a terrible coach as long as he’s manning that ship when the Habs play the Caps.

  • The Caps defense was not good in the second. They were not taking the Habs seriously at all and the laziness was evident. In no world should this Montreal team be out-chancing you like they did the Caps in that frame. 6-0 for Montreal in terms of high danger chances at five-on-five. That’s a joke.
  • Joe Snively’s second was a lot prettier than his first. He absolutely burned Jeff Petry with a pretty move to the inside and sniped one past Primeau who was left sliding in the wrong direction. He’s making it clear that he doesn’t want to go back to Hershey.
  • Cayden Primeau showed one of the reasons why the Habs suck this season. What an absolutely horrendous showing from him with four goals allowed on 15 shots. He came into the game sporting a .874 save percentage and a 4.62 goals-against average which will somehow get worse after this one.
  • I literally just don’t even watch the game if the Caps power play is on the ice. Better for my mental health.

  • The Caps did little to nothing in the third. I didn’t like the goals Ilya Samsonov gave up but he was clutch in the third as the team in front of him just stood around. They were lucky that they were playing who they were playing. Yeesh.
  • Some of the softest officiating in a game I’ve seen this season. I disagreed with like four of the penalty calls. Call it like that and you should have 56 penalties every game.
  • This team is not playing good hockey right now at literally any strength. It’s not fun to watch. We can only hope this is just a slump that turns around and soon.

Next up for the Caps will be a Super Bowl Sunday matinee in DC against the Ottawa Senators. Alex Ovechkin will be back in the lineup.

Screenshot via NBC Sports Washington

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