The Washington Capitals trounced the Columbus Blue Jackets on the road on Thursday night. It wasn’t a pretty game, but it was a pretty good win.
Johnny Gaudreau had been slumping until the Caps made a half dozen mistakes on his path to scoring the game’s first goal. In the second, TJ Oshie tied the game with a one-timer on a loose puck, then Nicolas Aube-Kubel did a big solo effort to give Washington the lead. That lead lasted scarcely a minute before Gavin Bayreuther notched his first goal since May 2021, taking advantage of a failed zone exit by Milano and Jensen. Martin Fehervary legit headed a puck into the net, then Garnet Hathaway ended a heavy shift to give Washington a 4-2 lead after forty minutes.
Bayreuther got his second of the game in the third until it got called back. TJ Oshie actually scored his second of the night as Columbus disapparated while trying to clear their zone. Alex Ovechkin scored on a gorgeous one-timer to make it 6-2.
Caps win!
- This was an unfortunate game for a national broadcast. Ovechkin was the only real draw, and he didn’t even score until the third period. Columbus is terrible this season, and with Washington they put together a disjointed, flow-less first period. It got better not because it got more competitive, but just because Washington took over almost entirely.
- Alex Ovechkin scored his 29th goal of the season, aka the 809th of his career. It was a thundering one-timer setup expertly by Dylan Strome. Ovechkin was also announced as Washington’s representative for the All-Star Game. I’d put his chances of going at 6 in 10. Ian will say it and I am too high.
- With Nic Dowd out on paternity leave, Anthony Mantha got fourth line duty. That makes me sad as I think Mantha is quite simply the team’s best neutral-zone player and a great passer to boot. I’m sure I’ll have more to say on this soon, but the failure here is not on the player and his production, but instead on the team and their appreciation. Mantha set up Hathaway on his goal.
- The other night we had the Johansson-Kuznetsov loop-de-loop goal. Now we have Martin Fehervary‘s header goal. Gimmick goals are good for the hockey blogging business.
header FTW pic.twitter.com/kbBiofoDDt
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 6, 2023
- Great to see Nicolas Aube-Kubel get his goal – a snazzy takeaway in neutral that he carried through listless defenders to score a big goal. I get the feeling NAK isn’t long for the Caps – with a gazillion dollars coming off LTIR soon, he might be bound for the waiver wire.
- Gavin Bayreuther is a 28-year-old defender who had played in 85 games before tonight. He had scored 3 goals in those 85 games. And yet for a moment we were on Gavin Bayreuther hat trick watch – until his second goal was called back for being offside.
- I’ve been nonplussed about TJ Oshie this season, but he was solid on Thursday – on and off the scoreboard. His first multi-goal game since March 2022.
- Two things I want to mention about Evgeny Kuznetsov, neither of them strictly about tonight’s game. He snowed Emily Kaplan pre-game, who was very professional about the mischief. Also he leads the league in five-on-five primary assist rate.
No Joe B suit tonight, but this is still pretty good:
The camera angle keeps making it look like Peter Laviolette is pounding Bud Lights behind the bench
📸: @pennybacker pic.twitter.com/O6ptNcge3d— RMNB (@rmnb) January 6, 2023
Before the game I made a strip steak sous vide. 129 dF for one hour. Garlic mashed potatoes. Roasted brussels sprouts. Pan sauce with red wine. Good dinner.
Oh also this game. This game wasn’t pretty, but it was pretty good.
Headline photo: @Ozzdog12
