The Washington Capitals won their fourth game in a row with a thrilling roadie against the Winnipeg Jets. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, but this was a good game.
The grinders were tremendous in the first period, with Trevor van Riemsdyk cashing in off Nic Dowd’s pass. On the power play, Evgeny Kuznetsov was left unattended in the slot, so he punished the Jets with a backhander. Marcus Johansson (!) got a penalty shot (!!) and then actually scored on it (!!!). Lars Eller nabbed Anthony Mantha’s rebound, and all of a sudden it was 4-0.
Less than a minute into the third period, Cracker frontman David Lowery ended the shutout bid with a rebound goal from the slot. Pierre-Luc Dubois converted a 3-on-1 rush and all of a sudden the game was interesting again. Alex Ovechkin got the empty-netter.
Caps win!
- That was a fun game. Washington’s fourth line started off the first period strongly, and the energy just sorta spread up the lineup. Winnipeg aren’t a particularly strong possession team – 49.1 percent in shot attempts and expected goals – but they definitely had the edge in this one, especially in danger-close shots. What Washington did well was a) generate creative chances in the second period, and b) have Charlie Lindgren.
- The Capitals have scored a power-play goal in nine of their last ten games.
— good tweet pete 🌮 (@peterhassett) December 12, 2022
- I just want to shout out Nic Dowd. Aside from one penalty, he had a sterling game. A bunch of heavy shifts in the offensive zone despite starting at the other end of the ice, a beauty of an assist on TVR’s goal, typical work on the penalty kill. A really underrated player who is putting together another great season.
- Speaking of under-appreciated players, Marcus Johansson‘s penalty-shot goal was Washington’s first since 2013, back when Mikhail Grabovski was a Cap. I think even the public-data analytical models miss what makes Marcus work – it’s all the non-shot microevents that he does along the blue lines.
Name something that gets you more riled up than a well-taken penalty shot. (It’s nothing) pic.twitter.com/RjWZ0N6sab
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) December 12, 2022
- Johansson got his penalty shot only because Evgeny Kuznetsov set him loose with a brilliant poke pass. Great hustle from 92.
- Lars Eller drew blood with a high stick in the second period. The Caps killed that penalty, got a Johansson’s goal within it, and then Eller scored a few minutes later. Anthony Mantha deserves a lot of credit for putting the initial shot on net before Eller’s cleanup. Mantha himself came a fraction of an inch score before the second period was up, stymied by the pipe.
- A distinguished donkey in those first forty minutes was Nate Schmidt, who made some suspect defensive plays. Schmidt hasn’t been a star in half a decade now, but this was still a disappointing night for him.
- Dmitry Orlov returned to action for the first time in more than a month. I didn’t even notice that he was on the ice and liable for the two Jets goals early in the third period. Meanwhile, Alex Ovechkin‘s line got creamed by Neal Pionk, on close assignment. No matter: Ovechkin got the empty-netter later, his fourth such in three games.
Okay, here's the conspiracy theory. Ovechkin deliberately let the Jets score against him on his first two shifts of the period so that they would pull the goalie later on.
— RMNB (@rmnb) December 12, 2022
- I don’t think Tim Burton actually directed much of Wednesday. It looks like any CW show for teenagers with fractionally more style. Reminds of when Henry Selick got done dirty on Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Professor Plum i #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/l1KHQooJhW
— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) December 12, 2022
The Capitals have won four in a row. They’ve got star power returning to the lineup and more on their way. They’re in the wild-card race.
Headling photo: @Capitals
