The Capitals finished up their western Canadian road trip in Vancouver…starting yesterday here on the east coast. The boys looked to make the trip a real successful one by grabbing another two points.
Evgeny Kuznetsov had a puck ricochet off a stanchion, hit him in the chest, and end up in the net to open the scoring. Kuzy would double the Caps lead only seconds later as he swept an Alex Ovechkin shot over the line.
Quinn Hughes got the Canucks on the board early in the third to cut the lead in half. Bo Horvat ripped one past Vitek Vanecek to tie the game and potted another soon after to give Vancouver the lead.
Kuznetsov finished off the hat trick on a late power play to force the game to overtime. Lars Eller overtime winner!
Capitals beat Canucks 4-3!
- I liked what I saw offensively from the Caps in the first frame but the defense has been on a bit of a struggle bus in Canada this trip. They’re asking their goaltenders to do way too much by making silly turnovers and avoidable mistakes. Luckily, Vitek Vanecek stood tall and the boys took a two-goal lead into the second.
- Evgeny Kuznetsov scored twice in 43 seconds in the first period on a couple of strange bounces. The first was like a Rube Goldberg machine on a hockey rink that I don’t think he even knowingly scored. The second was like half a second away from being Alex Ovechkin’s goal to pass Jaromir Jagr.
- Sending good, healing vibes to one of the dopest people in professional wrestling in Big E. Big get well soon!
Birdseye view meets the bird, a duel for the ages #ploffs pic.twitter.com/moV11XGHUY
— EVERYTHING COLLEGE HOCKEY (@TeamECH) March 12, 2022
- The Caps dominated the mess out of the Canucks in the second. Much, much, much better defensively and they turned that defense into offense. Thatcher Demko was the only reason the game wasn’t five or six to zero after forty minutes.
- Connor McMichael was moving his feet the best he has in a good while. I think having Tom Wilson on the other flank really helps free him up. Just everything but the finish again for Mikey though.
- Joe B says Nicklas Backstrom has never scored against the Canucks. That’s just him paying respect to the Sedins right?
- Huge congratulations to the Churchill Hockey team on their State Championship win! They took home a double-overtime victory over Oakdale High School (which is where Ian’s son Ethan will eventually go and get revenge for this loss) after being down 2-0 in the game. Pretty sure they whipped my Good Counsel team’s butt during my sophomore year like 6-1. That’s ancient history now but I was probably a solid minus-four.
- Brutal third. Just didn’t come into the period ready to play and it cost them. Really tough to watch after how good that second period was. Luckily, they were able to recover and force overtime. Two more points.
- Alex Ovechkin is officially snakebit. I’m gonna call it now. About ten chances in these past two games that he literally always finishes.
- Second career hat trick for Evgeny Kuznetsov! Three pretty bizarre, greasy goals. Thank you to Quinn Hughes for that Ryan Reaves-esque cross-check on Backstrom that probably made it tough for Demko to save Kuzy’s third.
Another late night for @JoeBpXp and @Laughlin18 #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/ss24zrUzQf
— Good Tweet Pete 🌮 (@peterhassett) March 12, 2022
Next up for the Caps will come at Capital One Arena on Tuesday as former bench boss Barry Trotz and his New York Islanders are in town. Just playing all the former coaches right now.
Headline photo courtesy of @pavelrusm
