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Caps beat Hawks 6-1 in John Carlson’s return

By Peter Hassett

 3 Comments

March 23, 2023 9:29 pm

The Washington Capitals positively washed the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night.

Chicago goalie Anton Khudobin served Conor Sheary a free goal to start us off, then Anthony Mantha pounced on a loose puck in the slot, making it 2-0 after one period.

Nic Dowd scored his 13th of the season in the second period, and Nicklas Backstrom piled on with a power-play freebie in front of the Chicago net.

John Carlson scored during a power play early in the third period, but then Nikita Zaitsev got a screened shot past Darcy Kuemper to end the shutout. Alex Ovechkin scored an unassisted breakaway goal in the final five minutes.

Caps win 6-1!

Five goals. Let’s dance.

  • The most important thing of the night, by far, is the return of John Carlson. Carlson’s injury just before Christmas was scary, and his recovery has been slow. Carlson’s impact on Washington’s offense is profound, and the team missed him dearly – even if some of you commenters didn’t. Carlson immediately took up his old spot on the power play and scored. Me, I’m just glad he’s healthy.
  • Also making a return was Hawks goalie Anton Khudobin, who last played an NHL in January of last year and had been toiling in the AHL up until Petr Mrazek got hurt earlier this month. Ten minutes into his biggest game in forever, Dobby did this:

  • Khudobin’s goof gave Conor Sheary his second goal of the week, also his second of the month. He had zero points in February. All that quietude as Washington’s playoff hopes evaporated.
  • Before he scored that gorgeous breakaway goal, Alex Ovechkin got busted for two penalties. The first was an interference, hitting Jarred Tinordi in retaliation for a hit Tinordi did on Tom Wilson, which was in retaliation for a hit Wilson did on Philipp Kurashev, who did not return to the game. This is literally what Game of Thrones was about.
  • This was a very physical game. I like to imagine the Hawks at this point are kind of okay with losing, but they’re not okay with getting beat, if you know what I mean. So there were big hits throughout, but none bigger than this one from Alexander Alexeyev, which was downright Orlovian:

  • Chicago is real bad. Even aside from the Sheary thing, Nicklas Backstrom’s goal was practically a bounce pass from Connor Murphy. Chicago’s only goal of the night required a whole bunch of screens to happen. Washington nearly doubled ’em up in scoring chances. In the Battle for Bedard, the Caps can’t compete.
  • Darcy Kuemper played his first game in a week, and I get the feeling Peter Laviolette was happy to give Charlie Lindgren the night off. Kuemper nearly had the shutout.
  • The broadcast took some liberties in discussing Washington’s playoff hopes. Before tonight’s game, the team was on pace to miss the cutoff by eight points. It’s suspect to me when media folks pretend it’s still close. The thing that’s close is mathematical elimination.

NBC Sports Washington said Saturday’s game in Pittsburgh has major playoff implications. In the wrestling business, they call that kayfabe: no one really believes it, but we all pretend together.

It doesn’t matter. The Caps played a good game, they got a good guy back, the big guy got a goal, and it was a fun time. If they do it again on Saturday, that’ll be fun and good too. That’s all that matters. That’s all that ever mattered.

Headline photo: @CMarshallWill

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