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Caps beat Blue Jackets 4-3 in Hendrix Lapierre’s breakout

By Peter Hassett

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November 18, 2023 10:20 pm

The Washington Capitals narrowly downed the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night. The win makes four in a row for the Caps, with a 8-1-1 record in their last ten games.

Johnny Gaudreau broke a seven-game scoring slump to put the Caps in the hole, but they climbed out 100 seconds later off the stick of Sonny Milano, assisted by Aliaksei Protas, who scored himself later in the second period. Alex Ovechkin took a pass from Dylan Strome to make it 3-1 after two periods.

In the third, Ivan Provorov scored on a wild scramble that inexplicably survived a coach’s challenge. Sonny Milano served Hendrix Lapierre for a great backhand on the rush to restore the two-goal lead, but Justin Danforth got a free shot from high-danger to make it a one-goal game late. The Caps held on.

Caps win!

  • The Caps started strong in the possession game but lost ground steadily before spending the third period entirely on their heels. It’s been a poor run of controlling play lately, which is concerning for the future even as the W’s keep coming.
  • Aliaksei Protas had a big night: one goal, two assists. His pass on the Milano goal – if that was at all representative of like latent playmaking skill, he’s going to be a solid Cap for a long time.

  • Tonight I learned that Protas’ goal song is from Vegas partisans, Imagine Dragons. I submit to you now that Sleep Token is Imagine Dragons from an alternate universe where they’re cool.
  • Playing in his 11th NHL game, Hendrix Lapierre recored his first assist – and then minutes later his second assist. Then he added his second career NHL goal, a great speedy rush finished off with a backhand that Merzlikins didn’t figure out.
  • Way overdue, Dylan Strome recorded his first assist of the season, and boy did he earn it. He fended off three Jackets (all below the goal line?) to set up Ovechkin.

  • Ovi came right off the bench to score that goal, the fifth of his season. He had no coverage from Columbus. Easiest and best shift of his career.
  • After ten days on the shelf with a ruptured ear drum, Anthony Mantha returned to action, skating with Oshie and McMichael, who was filling in for ailing Evgeny Kuznetsov. They were not a very good line, but I don’t think it was necessarily the fault of Mantha or McMichael.
  • TJ Oshie, the most due player in the league, had a weirdly physical game. He seemed to almost want to fight in the first period and delivered an almost-late hit in the second. Is the schneid getting to him?
  • Washington can’t catch a break no coach’s challenges. By my count they’ve lost five goals this season, and tonight they failed a challenge on Columbus’ goal. It sure seemed like Mathieu Olivier boxed out Charlie Lindgren, but the officials know best. The ensuing penalty kill was white-knuckle.

Tonight was Hockey Fights Cancer night. That’s a topic I know a little bit about, personally and professionally. I think there are two best ways to fight cancer. The first is public investment into early detection for everyone, without qualification. The other is public investment into treatment, both developing new ones and making the existing ones available to everyone, without qualification. Let’s raise all the money we can spare for charity while we organize for better public policy that serves all of us.

Meanwhile, and more brightly, the Caps are the second hottest team in the league, behind the New York Rangers. They’ll again have three days off before they take on the Sabres.

Headline photo: Kurly from Crashers

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