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The Caps lost but Backstrom got point number 1000 so who really won: Oilers beat Capitals 4-3 (OT)

By Chris Cerullo

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March 9, 2022 11:00 pm

The Washington Capitals looked to match their season-best four-game win streak by taking down the Oilers, Wednesday night. Could Ovi and the boys keep McDavid and co. quiet?

Nicklas Backstrom opened the scoring with a spinning backhand that found its way through Mikko Koskinen. Kailer Yamamoto tied the game later in the second on a power play. Cody Ceci placed a chip shot into the top shelf to give Edmonton a lead.

TJ Oshie tied things back up with a power-play strike of his own that earned Nicklas Backstrom point number 1,000!

Brad Malone quickly restored the Oilers lead. TJ Oshie buzzer-beater to send the game to overtime! McDavid winner.

Oilers beat Capitals 4-3.

  • The number of shots allowed in the first (20) wasn’t the most fun thing in the world but seven of them came on two Oilers power plays which I’ll talk about in a bullet here shortly. I thought the play at five-on-five was rather even although Ilya Samsonov clearly had the tougher work to deal with. Luckily he likes a big workload.
  • Tom Wilson traded a warmup puck for a dog toy and you’d think it’d immediately go to a trainer or something to stash away for his pup Halle…but no, he proceeded to give it to Nic Dowd who put it in his mouth. To be honest, very on-brand.
  • The two Edmonton power plays in the first period came from two of the worst calls I’ve seen this season. Dmitry Orlov got called for “roughing” because he…I guess touched a player that was already down on the ice? I don’t know. Martin Fehervary’s penalty was even worse. If that’s interference, they’re apparently playing a new sport because it isn’t hockey. No call on Connor McMichael getting taken down or Tom Wilson getting literally slide tackled by Darnell Nurse though.

  • You could see the very old team struggling in the second period with the back-to-back. They really needed a goal from their power play and just couldn’t find one. That’s been the case multiple times this season. Five high danger chances at five-on-five to the Caps zero in the second.
  • Elliotte Friedman had a segment during the game where he talked about the Capitals still potentially being interested in trading for goaltending help. He brought up the name of Marc-Andre Fleury again and says the team still hasn’t fully gone away from that idea. I personally think Fleury is completely done and would be a disaster. Vanecek has been far, far, far better than him this season.
  • Nick Jensen made a couple of very uncharacteristically terrible plays that led straight to Oilers odd-man chances, one ending up with Ceci’s goal. A bizarre little stretch of play from a guy who is normally nothing but solid.
  • On the other hand, I liked what I saw from Justin Schultz against his former club. Schultz used to be considered an offensive juggernaut from the blueline and I’d love to see him access some of that old game more often. He was using his smooth skating to set up a handful of good offensive opportunities in this one.

  • Just terrible blown coverage on the go-ahead goal for Edmonton in the third. Brutal. Thank the hockey gods for TJ Oshie stealing a point. What a player. Heartbeat of the team.
  • Congrats to the absolute legend that is Nicklas Backstrom on recording point 1,000! Let’s go for 1,000 more, Nicky.
  • Ilya Samsonov gave up a brutal rebound on the Ceci goal but the dude was playing out of his mind for the majority of this game. You needed two hands to count the number of ten bellers. He was full-on Hasek out there.
  • Was anyone else just utterly befuddled by Darren Pang and Brendan Burke justifying that slash that snapped Mantha’s stick in half in the third period? What in the world was that commentary? Do you know that GIF where the guy is blinking and looks just completely baffled? That was me during that.
  • Not gonna lie, the officiating sure evened up at the end there. I would be otherworldly pissed off if an opposing team got away with some of the stuff the Caps did with the netminder pulled and in overtime. NHL refs gonna NHL ref though.

The Capitals finish up their western Canadian road swing with a visit to Bruce Boudreau’s boys in Vancouver, Friday. Take a good look at a couple of those Vancouver forwards.

Screenshot via Sportsnet

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