This is your place to check for updates and comment along with the Capitals vs. Hurricanes game on October 31, 2022.
Happy Halloween, all you goobers, goblins, and witches! Tonight the Washington Capitals will take on the Carolina Hurricanes and — just to be totally upfront here — I’m just going to lean heavily into Halloween puns for this introduction because the Caps’ roster is so grim.
The Capitals are facing the scary possibility of being without TJ Oshie for most of the season after the team announced he was out indefinitely due to a lower-body injury earlier in the day. John Carlson will also ride his figurative broomstick up to press row due to an awkward fall Saturday.
What to watch for? Connor McMichael will get into his second game of the season and skate on the second line. Will he get a prolonged look up in the top six with big minutes or will he be sent away to go Trick or Treating on the bench? I don’t know, but I bet Peter Laviolette gives away toothbrushes.
Matt Irwin will unshroud himself from the figurative linen wrapping his body and waddle arms forward into his first game of the season tonight. The guy’s a pro’s pro and has played for Laviolette forever. Bet big mummy on him having a solid game.
The Capitals shut out the Predators after getting shut out by the Stars. That kind of symmetric opposite-ness is terrifying to me. But perhaps that’s the perfect potion to avoid a shutout of any kind tonight.
Tonight’s game is on NBC Sports Washington Plus and puck drop is a little after 7 pm.
PS – I’m sorry for the puns. Why do you read what I write?
Happy Halloween!
Who am I?
Pregame links
- Oshie out indefinitely
- Laviolette on Oshie’s latest misfortune
- More on John Carlson’s injury
- McMichael and Irwin in
- Hershey Bears’ Halloween costumes
- Alex Ovechkin wants to dad more kiddos
Lines
Lineys!#CapsCanes | @JackDaniels_US pic.twitter.com/sZ8CEHYRA3
— Washington Capitals 🎃 (@Capitals) October 31, 2022
1st Period
The Capitals started the fourth line — Malenstyn-Dowd-Hathaway — with the second defense pairing, Fehervary-Jensen.
Aliaksei Protas took a tripping penalty 3:15 into the game against Jordan Martinook.
🚨 1-0 Hurricanes. Stefan Noesen scored on the power play via a deflection from the bumper spot to give the Canes the early lead. The Capitals have surrendered the first goal in 7 of the first 10 games this season. The Hurricanes are 3-0-1 when scoring first. (GIF)
The Hurricanes have the first five shots on goal eight minutes in.
The Capitals got a power play but the Hurricanes ended up with the best shorthanded chance, a breakaway on Darcy Kuemper.
The Hurricanes outshot the Capitals 11-5 in the first period and out-attempted them 17-8 five-on-five.
2nd Period
🚨 1-1. Dylan Strome tied it up with some nice work in front of the net. After Nick Jensen got a shot on net from the left circle, Strome found the rebound in front of the net and potted it past Frederik Andersen. It’s Strome’s second goal as a Capital. The goal came 1:23 into the period. (Video)
It’s such a Reese’s penis butter cups kinda night pic.twitter.com/ETBlXFHJR8
— Heatdaddy (@heatdaddy69420) October 31, 2022
🚨 2-1 Capitals. Alex Ovechkin gave the Capitals the lead with his 785th career goal. It came on the power play from his office. The pass was from Erik Gustafsson. Ovechkin now has 47 goals in 86 career games against the Carolina Hurricanes.
🚨 2-2. Andrei Svechnikov tied it up after a seeing-eye puck found his blade right by the far post.
The Hurricanes finished the second period ahead in shots 17-12 and 5v5 shot attempts 26-18.
3rd Period
Darcy Kuemper took his first minor penalty as a Capital for interference against Martin Necas.
No goals. Hurricanes ended regulation with a 32-19 shots-on-goal advantage and out-attempted the Caps at 5v5, 38-24.
Overtime
Lars Eller took a tripping penalty 2:09 into extra session.
Shootout
✔️ Brent Burns
✔️ Evgeny Kuznetsov
✔️ Andrei Svechnikov
❌ Alex Ovechkin
❌ Martin Necas
❌ Dylan Strome
Carolina beat the Capitals in the shootout 3-2 (SO).
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