Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek is marked as the losing goaltender in Tuesday night’s 1-0 loss to the New York Islanders. Sure, that’s accurate from a statistical perspective, but it overlooks what a wizard he was in that game.
That was one of the finest jobs an NHL goalie has done all season.
By Peter Hassett 2 weeks ago
The Washington Capitals have been in grind-it-out mode for about a week now. Tuesday’s night road game against the New York Islanders was no exception.
First period: No goals.
Second period: No goals.
Third period: No goals for thirteen minutes, then Brock Nelson got a quick look from the slot to beat Vanecek.
That’s it. Caps lose.
By Peter Hassett 2 weeks ago
The Washington Capitals have won their last seven games against the New Jersey Devils. Today they will play the Devils for an eighth and final time.
Can the Caps sweep the season series and put a solid row of 🌮s on our 🌮 chart? You will find out at 3 PM. Chris has recap duty, because I’m going to go hug my mom (who is vaccinated) for the first time in a a year.
By Peter Hassett 2 weeks ago
The NHL’s struggles with coronavirus aren’t over yet. After a month-long lull, COVID is now ravaging one team in particular: the Vancouver Canucks.
On Saturday, the NHL announced that fourteen Canucks players are on the “unavailable due to COVID protocol” list.
By Peter Hassett 2 weeks ago
Long-time Capitals fan-favorite, forward Liam O’Brien, made his debut appearance for the Colorado Avalanche on Friday night. The Avs defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-2.
The Avalanche signed O’Brien, 26, off their farm team, the AHL Colorado Eagles, earlier this week. The Big Tuna filled in for Logan O’Connor, who suffered a lower-body injury against the Coyotes on Wednesday.
By Ian Oland and Peter Hassett 2 weeks ago
One day after a brutal loss, the Washington Capitals regrouped to play a solid if unspectacular hour and change against the New Jersey Devils.
After a scoreless first period, John Carlson used some screens to beat Mackenzie Blackwood. Michael McLeod returned fire with a rush goal and a tasty rebound to beat Vitek Vanecek. The third period changed the score not at all, so we went to overtime.
Overtime was actually fun, capped off by a gorgeous finish by Dmitry Orlov.
Caps win!
By Peter Hassett 2 weeks ago
In his pregame media availability, Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette announced that forward Jakob Vrana will not play in Friday night’s game. For the first time this season, Vrana will be a healthy scratch.
Richard Panik will return to active play.
By Peter Hassett 2 weeks ago
The Washington Capitals. Woof. Pals, they got beat. They got beat something fierce, unto the edge of buckwilderness, by the New York Islanders. It was awful.
John Carlson scored one minute and one second into the cursed game. Jordan Eberle tied the game on a big rush goal that embarrassed Brenden Dillon and then Mathew Barzal took the lead on an even bigger rush goal that embarrassed Brenden Dillon even more.
Listen. There were three more goals in the first period. I’m not writing War and Peace here; just look at the stat sheet. One was Sprong’s.
Casey Cizikas scored against some bad Caps defense, and TJ Oshie scored a power-play goal deflecting in Ovi’s shot, and then Jordan Eberle scored against some bad Caps defense, and then John Carlson scored late in the second period to earn you nuggets or something.
Josh Bailey scored early in the third period, which meant we had no hope of watching a comeback, so it was just tedium from there until Barzal locked up his hat trick.
Caps lose by quite a lot.
By Peter Hassett 2 weeks ago
Update: Ilya Samsonov returned to the game with 3:04 remaining in the first period.
Original story: After taking a head hit from TJ Oshie, Caps goalie Ilya Samsonov left Thursday’s game on Long Island during the very first shift.
By Peter Hassett 2 weeks ago
Esteemed members of the board of directors, thank you for agreeing to meet via Microsoft Teams rather than in the high-top section of Golden Corral like usual. I have sent via courier to you all some of their delicious french-fry wedges, though they may be soggy by now.
Attached is an 80-slide powerpoint presentation summarizing the results from Q2’s Caps happiness survey exercise. We asked internet people how happy they were that each Washington Capitals player was on the team. They got to decide what “happy” means to them, much like when Agent Smith says, “There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept.” That’s how you feel about Dmitry Orlov, basically.
By Peter Hassett 2 weeks ago
