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What on earth was that sloppy nonsense game: Senators beat Capitals 4-3 (OT)

By Chris Cerullo

 3 Comments

December 29, 2022 9:41 pm

The Washington Capitals’ winning streak is over and they really didn’t do much to make sure it stayed intact.

It took a full period but Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring with a breakaway strike early in the second. Dylan Strome quickly doubled that lead with a pinpoint shot to the roof.

Jake Sanderson sent a puck off of multiple bodies in front to get Ottawa on the board. Evgeny Kuznetsov restored the Caps’ two-goal advantage with a sweet move. Tim Stützle was the beneficiary of an absolute gift from Trevor van Riemsdyk to score a very late second-period goal to cut that lead back down.

Alex DeBrincat tied things up late in the third and finished things in overtime.

Senators beat Capitals 4-3.

  • If you hate watching the Capitals overpass, well, then you hated that first period. The Senators had the first eleven shots on goal. None of them were very threatening, but it was almost solely due to the Caps passing themselves out of scoring chances. Sometimes, you just gotta shoot the darn thing. It felt like they had the puck two feet from Cam Talbot multiple times and just…didn’t. It was a bad, bad, bad first twenty minutes from the home side.
  • Marcus Johansson left the Caps’ bench during the first frame but returned for the beginning of the second period. Just in case you needed another injury to worry about.
  • Someone, clearly, recently let Alex Ovechkin know that “Milano” is an Italian surname and he has recently been putting Sonny through whatever this (following video) is before games.

  • The Capitals were arguably worse in the second from a numbers perspective but managed to score three goals. This game was downright awful from them. The Senators absolutely, positively owned the neutral zone. It wasn’t even close. Massacre.
  • Was Darcy Kuemper tripped by Claude Giroux before the Sens’ second goal? Yea, probably. Does that mean Trevor van Riemsdyk should gift them a goal immediately after? No. Horrendous from a player I am normally praising on almost every other night than this one.
  • Ovi scored career goal number 803 on a breakaway which pretty much made this game a win. Great outlet pass from a red-hot Erik Gustafsson to spring him.
  • The prettiest goal of the period came from Evgeny Kuznetsov as fully against the run of play he made multiple defenders look silly and outwaited Cam Talbot for a sneaky down-low strike. That felt like some vintage 2018 Kuzy to me.

  • The Caps somewhat limited the quantity against in the third but it still wasn’t good at all. I don’t know what the heck they were doing in this game. Throw the tape out.
  • Like, can you name a Caps player that played well in this game? I don’t even think Kuemper was that good compared to his shutout in New York. He definitely saved them a point though. That’s for sure and that’s also huge right now.
  • Anthony Mantha drives me absolutely insane. I’m a stats nerd so I know his game looks great in that realm but he just does not do anything impactful for incredibly long stretches of the season to my eyes. He’s on another seven-game streak without a goal. He has so much “reach” and softness in his game. Am I the only one who feels this way?
  • I feel like a lot of people are really going to notice John Carlson‘s absence if he’s truly out longterm with whatever he’s got going on.

Another team from north of the border will be in town next for the Caps as they look to immediately bounce back. The Montreal Canadiens and Cole ‘Goal’ Caufield will make the trip to DC on Saturday.

Headline photo courtesy of @pennybacker

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