The Washington Capitals finally came home to Washington, DC for their home opener, hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins for one more chapter in the epic saga of head-to-head games between Vincent Desharnais and Kaeden Korczak.
Not half a minute had passed before Anthony Beauvillier scored against Crosby’s line. In retaliation, and not a minute after that, Brian Rust scored on his first shot in his first shift in his first game of the season. Later that period, Pierre-Luc Dubois brilliantly set up Tom Wilson for his first goal of the season. Have to wonder if Wilson said “I owe you one” after that.
A bit into the second period, Tom Wilson brilliantly set up Pierre-Luc Dubois by pressuring Pittsburgh goalie Arturs Silovs behind the net. Then Wilson enabled Alex Tuch on the rush for a goal. Jeez, relax Tom. Another Tommy, this time Novak, scored for Pittsburgh after one of the Protae (I think Ilya?) erred at center ice. Late in the period, Nick Robertson took a big hit in order to tip in an even bigger goal, bringing the Penguins within one goal.
Ryan Leonard converted a power-play goal to bring us into Bailamos territory for the first time this season, as adjudicated by me and only me, NUFD.
Caps win 5-3!
- The first two shots of the game were both goals. If you were watching on Sportsnet in Canada, the Beauvillier goal happened IRL before the puck dropped for you.
- Logan Thompson‘s first save of the night came ten minutes into the period. (Slapper from Erik Karlsson from 50 feet out.)
- A humble, three-point night for future captain™️ Tom Wilson (one guava, two apricots). His line was the best of the night. Midway into the third, Wilson laid out Blake Lizotte, who is 5’9″. Same differential as my Karlach / halfling romance in BG3 but with somewhat different interpersonal dynamics.
- This was my first time watching TNT through HBO Max. There were significant audio problems in the third period, apparently across all platforms. (p.s. I heard Sling got rid of their day pass. I’m gonna have to update the How to Watch guide.)
- Listen, and this is important. Plus-minus as a statistic is more noise than signal. It’s got special teams distortions, and it is driven strongly in small samples by external factors. We try very hard not to use it here on RMNB. People who use plus-minus are disreputable and untrustworthy.
- But also Sidney Crosby was a minus-4. His improbable linemate, ex-Cap Hendrix Lapierre was a minus-3. Yikes. I would of benched them if I was Dan Muse. Surely.
- At the other end of the ice, Jordan Kyrou, Ilya Protas, and Aliaksei Protas were a mess – on the ice for all three Penguins goals and apparently responsible for at least two of them. As well as the PLD line and the fourth line (who was also great tonight) are doing, the other two could use tweaks.
- Kyrou has been quiet – yeah, a little too quiet – so far, but he earned his first point as a Capitals on Ryan Leonard’s power-play goal. I’ll also note that was a second-unit PP goal.
- Trevor van Riemsdyk was fantastic for Washington a couple years ago, but it was the right decision to move on from him. His fondness for his ex-teammates was obvious in this game.
- Sure are a lot of defense industry sponsors and advertisers this season.
Can I get a hell yeah? That was a good game. If the goalies are unhappy, I’m happy. That’s the rule. Lots of room for improvement for the Caps, but lots of promise already in evidence.
Rangers on Friday.
