The Washington Capitals got the mess beat out of them in Toronto and traveled to Montreal looking to quickly put that game in the rearview mirror. The Habs had lost four in a row coming into Saturday…could the Caps make it five?
Nic Dowd deftly deflected home a Dmitry Orlov point drive to open the scoring. Jake Evans slammed the Habs right back into the game with a rush slapper. Anthony Mantha put two straight behind Sam Montembeault four-on-four right before Ryan Poehling potted one under the same game context. Alex Ovechkin restored his team’s two-goal lead shortly after.
Ryan Poehling grabbed another early in the third but Garnet Hathaway, Dmitry Orlov, and Justin Schultz would respond with three more for the Caps. Nick Suzuki one more. TJ Oshie…I’m running out of ways to describe goals again.
Capitals beat Canadiens 8-4!
- A good first period at least analytically for the Caps as NaturalStatTrick had them on top of the Canadiens in terms of five-on-five high danger chances 6 to 2. I didn’t like how easily Montreal was entering the zone with speed and possession though. Vitek Vanecek had to be very good on more than one occasion to keep rush chances out of the net.
- Nic Dowd deflected home his 10th goal of the season and his 100th career point. Dowder now has 22 points on the season which ties his career-high that he’s hit twice before. Great player.
- Rousing conversation in the RMNB Crashers Discord tonight started by the legendary Cara Bahniuk about how unfortunate a last name “Pitlick” is. Can’t say she’s wrong.
Everyone's happy to see Carey! pic.twitter.com/4aSrG05P9b
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) April 16, 2022
- I actually liked the second more than the first. It didn’t start well at all but I thought the Caps really took it to the Habs in the back half of the period. Plus-five on both the five-on-five scoring chance and high danger chance differentials. Four-on-four remains an absolute trip though, eh?
- Anthony Mantha probably could have had about six goals in this game. He’ll settle for two and two assists as the big man is now one goal away from double digits on the season. Mantha scores in bunches so there should be a couple more from him on this road trip.
- Alex Ovechkin with goal 47 on the season and 777 in his career after a fantastic pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov. Add Sam Montembeault to the list as he’s the 159th goaltender Ovi has scored on in his career. Three more please, GOAT.
- That GIF of Tom Wilson trolling Josh Anderson with a thumbs up on the bench is going to be around on Caps Twitter for like the next decade. We witnessed history tonight, folks.
Wendy Rieger, one of a kind.
Back in 2018, Wendy brought us her 4 Keys to the Cup. And wouldn't you know, they worked.
We'll miss you Wendy.@ThisShowStinks #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/ucYDlTz8jT
— NBC4 Sports (@NBC4Sports) April 16, 2022
- The Caps are playing a lot of third periods lately that end up being just scrimmages like five minutes into them. This was another.
- First career four-point game for Dmitry Orlov in his first fixture back from injury. One of the most underrated players in the entire league.
- David Savard was on the ice for six of the Capitals goals and deflected home one of them in basically own goal fashion. That’s a rough night.
Some Easterly pastel pinks and blues from @JoeBpXp and @Laughlin18 tonight #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/BcQT8M3ymg
— Good Tweet Pete 🌮 (@peterhassett) April 17, 2022
Next up for the Caps is a flight out west to take on Andre Burakovksy and the rest of the Colorado Avalanche. That will not be an easy one.
Headline photo via Caitlyn Duffy/@cdcaitlynduffy
