The Washington Capitals ended their long dark trek through the wilds of Western Canada with a win over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night. Our bedtimes can finally return to normal.
Pierre-Luc Dubois scored on the first shot of the game, made possible by some great forechecking by Aliaksei Protas. The Flames drew even when Blake Coleman tipped a long bomb on a power play.
In the third period, Dylan Strome busted his slump with a five-on-three goal that restored Washington’s lead. Aliaksei Protas scored on a breakaway late to lock in the win, even with the Flames pushing on a six-on-four power play.
Caps win!
- Before his very nifty power-play goal, Dylan Strome had not scored in 14 days, which is approximately two weeks, or approximately thirty thousand news cycles. Carlson gave Strome a clean feed, and the refs gave the Caps an overdue power play. Good to say Strome producing again.
- Pierre-Luc Dubois, future Selke finalist, still kinda/sorta joking but only sorta, is red hot with four goals in his last five games. But then he back-sassed an official (understandable crime, pardon is in the works) and put the Flames on a power play that they quickly converted. PLD didn’t see the ice for the final seven minutes of that second period, so I think Spencer Carbery might have been peeved.
- Further peeving Carbery: the Capitals did another too many men penalty. The team has now committed eight superfluous gentlemen offenses, most in the league, surpassing Colorado, Nashville, and Philadelphia, who each have committed six surplus fella crimes.
- From the United States Government out-of-town scoreboard, ex-Caps goalie (and who incidentally but also trivially is finishing out a contract eerily similar to Thompson’s) Philipp Grubauer did work to keep Seattle – momentarily – in this game against Anaheim.
ROBBERY FROM PHILIPP GRUBAUER 🤯 pic.twitter.com/Vvdkhqeubt
— NHL (@NHL) January 29, 2025
- Rasmus Sandin took a puck to the leg, courtesy of Matt Roy. He played through it because hockey players employ sophisticated biofeedback techniques that can temporarily disable pain receptors. Yeah, that’s it.
- Ethen Frank drew two penalties because he’s fast as hell. Al Koken said early in the second period that Frank has been thriving on the high-quality ice sheets of Outermost Canada, which is a nice tidbit but everyone heard it and thought, “oh, so then the ice at Cap One must truly suck.”
- Adam Klapka, playing in his 13th career game, delivered a dirty crosscheck on Tom Wilson. Could have seriously hurt him. Previous sentence applies to Klapka but also to what Wilson declined to do in retribution. Then Rasmus Andersson appeared to mock Wilson for getting cross-checked? I don’t even know; Ian will figure it out.
- In front of a hometown crowd and with his next six years secured, Logan Thompson had a typically excellent performance. His record with the Caps is now 23-2-3. That’s stupid good. He just stole another one for his team.
- I don’t want to be glib, but I still have to send best wishes to Wes Johnson and Craig Laughlin, two fine men who have been the twin beating hearts of my hockey fandom for decades.
Last late-night game for the next like 45 days let's gooooo (to bed in 2.5 hours) #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/yphXWv1zAb
— RMNB (@rmnb) January 29, 2025
Three wins in four late-night games. This is the part of schedule I dread the most, and the Vancouver game was a bummer, but on balance this has been a great road trip.
It’s not over yet: Ottawa on Thursday. That’s the last game left in this very good month (hockey-wise, not in any other way), and then things will start developing quickly. We’ve got four games in February before the Four Nations Faceoff break, which will suck if you’re an independent hockey website covering primarily a team with zero players playing in the Four Nations Faceoff, and then the trade deadline will follow after that. I hope you’re dialed in; it’s going to be a fun time.
