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A well-earned point: Golden Knights beat Capitals 3-2 (OT)

By Chris Cerullo

 7 Comments

November 1, 2022 9:46 pm

The Washington Capitals returned home to Capital One Arena to play the back half of a back-to-back with travel against the Vegas Golden Knights. Could the Caps pick up a hard-fought point in the standings or would they falter with no rest?

Marcus Johansson opened the night’s scoring with a quick, power-play strike. Jack Eichel tied things up at the end of the first on Vegas’ own power play. Trevor van Riemsdyk opened the second frame with a shot from the point that found its way in off a defender.

William Carried found the tying goal with about six minutes left in regulation. Shea Theodore overtime winner.

Golden Knights beat Capitals 3-2.

  • I wasn’t in love with the five-on-five zone entries in the first period at all. A whole lot of nothing and Vegas was turning retained possession into chances going the other way. It didn’t turn into anything on the scoreboard but you’d want to at least start the second half of a back-to-back on the front foot.
  • Really interesting wrinkle from the Caps on the power play saw them set up down low in their normal formation but just flipped due to Marcus Johansson‘s handedness while playing the bumper spot. Johansson potted one past what could have been a confused Vegas penalty kill due to the change.
  • The Martin Fehervary and Reilly Smith “hit” situation wasn’t even really a penalty in my book. Both players were off balance, moving very fast, and collided in a very scary way. It’s basically the play the NHL got rid of when no-touch icing became a thing. Just really unfortunate and I think the matching minors was more than fair.

  • The second period was really, really, really good from the Caps. They limited Vegas to just about that one big stop Charlie Lindgren had to make on a bang-bang netfront play and otherwise had the puck in the offensive zone a ton. They’ve put together a couple of games in a row now with periods like that one where they seem to be putting things together system-wise.
  • One negative we have to address is Beck Malenstyn as he left the game after blocking a shot with what the team listed as an upper-body injury and did not return. They’re dropping like flies right now, folks.
  • Really nice to see Trevor van Riemsdyk rewarded with a nice bounce. His jumping up into a bigger role is something I’ve wanted to see for a long time now. I really think he can play top-four minutes in the NHL and play them very well.
  • I want to see more Aliaksei Protas. Give the kid more ice time. He had a rush in the second where he basically took the center role on a breakout and drove all the way up the ice himself to eventually force an offensive-zone draw. Impressive.s

  • The Caps turtled in the third and it cost them. Assistant coach Scott Allen basically preached the turtle during his bench interview and I knew trouble was coming.
  • The Caps had an all-Russian trio wearing letters on their sweaters tonight in what could be an NHL first. The three obviously being captain Alex Ovechkin and his good buddies Dmitry Orlov and Evgeny Kuznetsov wearing the A’s.
  • Charlie Lindgren was great again. Typical of Caps goaltending this season.

The Caps have a day off tomorrow and then will be right back on the road for a date in Detroit against the Red Wings on Thursday.

Headline photo via @kereag/Twitter

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