The Washington Capitals had never faced the Columbus Blue Jackets before Thursday night, but if you were worried that you might see some unfamiliar or uncharacteristic playoff hockey from the Caps, you can rest assured. Same old playoff Caps, losing multiple leads and then collapsing in overtime.
In the first period, the Caps turned a five-minute major penalty into two goals, each off the smoking stick of Evgeny Kuznetsov. Alex Wennberg caught a sharp pass from Boone Jenner to score in the second, and Tomas Vanek converted a power play early in the third to tie the game. Jakub Vrana set up Devante Smith-Pelly for a gorgeous goal to restore the Caps lead only to lose it with five minutes remaining when Seth Jones scored on a late power play. Tied at three goals, the Caps once more entered the hellish diarrheal hellzone known as playoff overtime.
Artemi Panarin won it.
Blue Jackets beat Capitals 4-3 in overtime. Columbus leads the series 1-0.
- Columbus third-line forward Josh Anderson put a bad hit on Michal Kempny in the first period. It was late (the puck was gone) and in the numbers (Kempny’s face hit the glass). It was a well-earned five-minute major, and the rulebook is not ambiguous about what happens when this kind of hit results in an injury:
41.5 Game Misconduct Penalty – When a major penalty is imposed under this rule for a foul resulting in an injury to the face or head of an opponent, a game misconduct shall be imposed.
- Kempny did not return. We do not know his status yet. His absence put some additional stress on the blue line, and suddenly Brian MacLellan is glad he shored up before the trade deadline.
- On the resulting power play, Evgeny Kuznetsov punished the Jackets twice – first with the help of a perfect net-crash by TJ Oshie, the second a solo Rambo effort that should haunt David Savard when he goes to bed tonight. It’s Kuzy’s second ever multi-goal playoff game.
- Kuzy got on the scoreboard, but I wanna call out excellent efforts by Jakub Vrana and Andre Burakovsky. Each of these good young boys kicked their game up a notch for the loffs. Vrana drew penalties and danced around D to set up DSP, and Burakovsky brought a shoot-first attitude to his frequent zone entries before committing an awful offensive-zone penalty late.
- Brooks Orpik saw his role grow in Kempny’s absence, but his supposed main job was unchanged: clear the crease. Instead, Orpik got shoved out while Tom Wilson was in the penalty box, and Thomas Vanek scored easily after that. Remember that play next time you hear pundits sing Orpik’s praises for his physicality and net-front presence. They’re just credulously parroting the team’s desperate rationalization for having signed a big deal to a player who is, at this point in his career, actually unplayable.
When someone says Brooks Orpik is good at clearing the crease, show them this GIF. pic.twitter.com/MTaQzfHSUv
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) April 13, 2018
- Hey, it’s the playoffs: I up the intensity too.
- The Wennberg goal was a fluke. Well, Boone Jenner‘s pass was a marvel of skill, and Dmitry Orlov misread the play (i.e. stopped, um, moving altogether), but it was the dropped stick of Thomas Vanek that somehow set the play loose in the Caps zone. Dumb luck, tough break.
- Alex Wennberg was apparently injured in a sandwich hit between Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson, who earned a charging penalty. Wilson, in my view, gets away with charging more often than not, but I think he pulled up here, and Wennberg’s injury seemed to be from the cascading hit with Ovechkin and the fall.
- Nick Foligno took a puck to the face early in the third period. Blood was everywhere. They had to squeegee basically a pint or two off the ice. Foligno was on the bench like three minutes later (please like my sport), just in time to watch DSP score up close.
- The Capitals got sloppy in the third period. They had trouble – and tell me if you’ve heard this one before – organizing exits from their zone. A turnover from Tom Wilson and an offensive-zone penalty from Andre Burakovsky gave the Jackets all they needed to contest a game that should have been settled. Disorganized play flatlined the Capitals offense for nearly ten minutes and squandered a secure win.
#JoeBSuitOfTheNight Playoff edition! #CapsJackets pic.twitter.com/1otMYZVSD3
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) April 12, 2018
That was about as brutal as a Game One gets. Three players didn’t finish the game (Wennberg and Kempny, each with upper-body injuries, plus the ejected Anderson). We won’t know until tomorrow at the earliest if any of three will return for Game Two, so for now, let’s take stock in what we’ve got.
If success depended on big performances from Caps forwards, you got it. Burakovsky, Vrana, Oshie, Backstrom, and Smith-Pelly all had big nights. Evgeny Kuznetsov had a coronation.
And yet, the Capitals did not have the toolset to close this game out competently. That’s not new. We’ve seen that all season; we just held out hopes that they wouldn’t be so careless in the postseason. Silly us for dreaming, right?
So now we enter into a three-day lull, to be filled for sure with pumped tires and posturing for Game Two. Maybe we’ll see John Tortorella, the stoic gentleman. Maybe we’ll see John Tortorella, who is mightily pissed at you for not giving him his steak well done like he freaking ordered it. And maybe we’ll see John Tortorella, the absolutely genuine axe murderer. I for one cannot wait.
Full Coverage of Caps vs Blue Jackets
Headline photo: Patrick McDermott
