The Washington Capitals got back in a winning way on Monday night, downing the Carolina Hurricanes, who didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the hockey game they were in.
The goals came front loaded and off the stick of Alex Ovechkin. He scored both in the first period: one during even strength off a nice pass from Tom Wilson, and the second on the power play from his Ovi Spot. There were no more goals, and you know what that means:
Caps win! Ilya Samsonov’s first career shutout!
- Carolina looked terrible. Actually, worse than terrible; they looked boring. And bored. I’m not mad, I’m disappointed.
- Alex Ovechkin passed the great Teemu Selanne for 11th place all-time in goals, and then he scored again, clocking his seventh multi-goal game of the season. Ovi is still seven goals back of Pastrnak.
- One of Ovi’s goals came from a suddenly-not-totally-terrible power play. The Canes sure gave the Caps a lot of chances to keep screwing up, committing four penalties in the first period and making coach Rod mighty pissed on the visitors bench.
- Here’s some PP stats btw. Not great lately.
Caps go up to the PP again. Here, by the way, is how Washington's PP has been trending lately. pic.twitter.com/oykR9iDN23
— RMNB (@rmnb) January 14, 2020
- Richard Panik returned to action after getting a bunch of stitches inside his mouth from the hit he took against New Jersey. Poor dude has to wear a full face mask. I’d be totally miserable.
- Tom Wilson played in his 500th NHL game, becoming the youngest player ever to do so. He had a cracker of an assist on the first Ovi goal.
- Michal Kempny took a nasty spill into the corner at the end of the first period but returned to finish the game.
- Meet me below the Joe B suit, and let’s chat about Ilya Samsonov.
Brown checkers #JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsCanes pic.twitter.com/IyYrebaGDP
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) January 14, 2020
In his 17th game in the NHL, 22-year-old Ilya Samsonov has recorded his first career shutout. It’s hard to imagine a better start to a career. This wasn’t an extreme difficulty game for the young goalie, but he made a couple big saves when they were needed.
See ya Thursday. I wonder who will be in net.
