The Washington Capitals played host to the Atlantic Division’s Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday. Could the Caps wrap up their season-long homestand with two points?
Anthony Mantha took a very pretty feed from Lars Eller and potted it past Andrei Vasilevskiy to open the scoring. Sonny Milano streaked out of the penalty box and was able to deke the Caps into a 2-0 lead on a breakaway. Big Aliaksei Protas set up in front of the net and potted a rebound to extend that lead to three.
Conor Sheary added the team’s fourth at the beginning of the third period. Nicklaus Perbix slipped one by Darcy Kuemper to give the Lightning their first on the night. Sonny Milano banked his second of the game off Steven Stamkos.
Capitals beat Lightning 5-1!
- Really nice first period from the Caps against a Lightning team that is good every single season at this point. Getting an early goal at five-on-five was refreshing as the team has really lacked in that department lately. Outside of one real breakdown, the neutral zone defense was almost perfect.
- That one breakdown caused a breakaway for Nikita Kucherov who got two whacks at the net but was beaten both times by Darcy Kuemper. Really nice to see Kuemper shake off that bad mojo from the game against the Pens and immediately come up huge in this one. He was excellent the entire game.
- Ivan Miroshnichenko, the Caps’ top draft pick from the latest NHL draft, threw a humongous hit in his game earlier today in Russia. He then followed it up by scoring a goal as well. He is a Russian, right-handed, left wing that likes to throw his weight around and scores goals. Hmm.
Ok, I promised you a Remembrance Day thread. Here we go. There might be slight delays as I have class tonight.
— Jen (@NHLhistorygirl) November 11, 2022
- Well, can’t say that the second period wasn’t entertaining. Good lord. Only twelve minutes of it was played at five-on-five and in those minutes the Caps kept up what they started in the first. Just all-around fantastic, hard-working play in neutral, and the five-man cycle work in the offensive zone was absolutely cooking.
- Capitals forward for like less than a week, Nicolas Aube-Kubel threw a very bad hit on Tampa’s Cal Foote. He received a match penalty and put the Caps on a penalty kill for five minutes. How many games do we think he’s going to have to sit and who will jump into the lineup for him?
- Good thing the Caps saved what was probably their best-shorthanded effort of the season for that long kill as they probably somehow had the better chances in the extended five minutes down a man. Then, Sonny Milano, serving the penalty for NAK, jumped out of the box and immediately scored his first goal as a member of the Caps with an absolutely saucy move on a breakaway to beat Vasilevskiy. What an insane run of play that was.
- On that goal, the returning John Carlson recorded his 600th career NHL point. He passed Michal Pivonka (599) for the fifth-most points in franchise history. Welcome back, John.
now we’re talkin pic.twitter.com/xs4Sw78fZ1
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) November 12, 2022
- Less good in the third but not anything that really mattered. Really nice win.
- I was critical of Anthony Mantha (again) on Discord and then he literally scored less than a minute later. He also added a pretty pass to set Conor Sheary free for the team’s fourth goal. Mantha just absolutely has to be on the scoresheet more consistently. The Caps need him.
- We got a fight during a review and a line brawl later in the game. By the way, these two teams play again on Sunday.
John Carlson is back and so are Joe B and Locker #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/5elFQr1ltw
— RMNB (@rmnb) November 11, 2022
It’s a Caps-Lightning home and home so the next time we’ll see the Caps will be down in Florida inside Amalie Arena. Good memories in that building and it should be a spicy one.
Headline photo via @Amykinsss
