The Washington Capitals were already battered and bruised when they entered Saturday’s date with the Chicago Blackhawks. They ended the night even more so.
Ryan Donato scored a gimme goal just 70 seconds in. Dylan Strome restored the tie with a brisk rebound on Ethen Frank’s shot.
The Hawks pulled ahead again in the second period, with Teuvo Teravainen beating Thompson at the end of a long shift during a lonely power play.
Ryan Leonard worked his ass off to tie the game with nine minute left in the third period.
Overtime gave us nothing but dyspepsia.
Shootout bullets!
- Leonard did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Lardis put the biscuit in the basket. Never heard of him.
- Strome put the biscuit in the basket. Beautiful lift.
- Donato got nada with regards to biscuits, baskets, the putting of one into the other.
- Beauvillier did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Moore did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- McMichael did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Crevier did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Milano put the biscuit in the basket.
- Burakovsky put the biscuit in the basket.
- Chychrun did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Foligno put the biscuit in the basket.
Caps lose.
- What a stinker. We should have known it would be so early on, when Ryan Donato was up close and personal with Logan Thompson to score the opening goal. A pattern was established there of poor defensive coverage. The Caps allowed six high-danger chances in the first period. They got better defensively as the game wore on, but they still struggled to finish chances on attack.
- But before we wallow in that muck, let’s delight in the tepid pool of Dylan Strome scoring again. With his goal tonight, he’s been above a point per game since December 20, or eight games ago. His return to form is badly needed, especially since:
- Aliaksei Protas missed the game due to the lower-body injury, presumably the one he suffered when he crashed into the boards feet-first earlier this weekend. That’s fine. That’s okay. No big deal. We can manage as long as we’ve got
- Tom Wilson, the team’s top scorer and future Olympian, suffered a lower-body injury after running into Connor Murphy below the goal line in the first period.
Tom Wilson is supposed to play for Team Canada next month.
— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett.net) 2026-01-04T00:47:59.067Z
- Wilson was labeled “questionable to return,” but he did not. Sam Bennett just sat up in his chair.
- Alex Ovechkin got hurt four minutes into the third period, but it was just a high stick from Louis Crevier that didn’t get called. Should have been a director’s cut power play. He might have lost a tooth. Instead, Ovechkin baited his way into a make-up call a few minutes later.
- Andre Burakovsky is still a nephew. Don’t listen to Ian. (He’s having a good season. His ice time is up like 2.5 minutes per game.)
- With Pro and Wilson out, the Caps needed someone from their core to step up. The core was unavailable, so Ryan Leonard did it. His days of sub-15 minutes on ice need to be over for good. One standings point belongs to him, and I loved him leading the shootout.
- If you want some deep nerdery, popular expected goals models have been overweighting certain kinds of shots, making every goalie look better than they were. That community is cool; they talked it out and worked it out.
- B-Hawks is what the Monumental site called them. I know that’s not an unprecedented nickname, but I hate it. I hate the bad precedent. History will vindicate me on this.
Two points or we riot #joebsuitofthenight
I’ll keep it brief, because it’s not fun to read this routine. The Caps don’t just look bad; they look smug in their badness. Indifferent in their own zone, inert in the other one. Carlson looked rough out there. McMichael too. Lapierre had a chance to make some noise with slightly increased ice time; he did not.
I feel like Carbery could be animated in the post-game.
But Ryan Leonard cares, and he’s got the points to back it up. Ethen Frank cares, and he had wheels tonight. PLD is skating again. There’s some bright side.
Ducks on Monday. Enjoy your Sunday scaries.
