Peter Hassett

About Peter Hassett (@peterhassett)

What has gotten into Tom Wilson?

As of the morning of January 9, here are the NHL’s top five forwards by goals per hour during even strength:

Player	Team	Goals/60	TOI
John Tavares	TOR	1.9	634
Ondrej Kase	ANA	1.9	321
Jeff Skinner	BUF	1.8	619
Tom Wilson	WSH	1.8	302
Alex Ovechkin	WSH	1.7	642

Yeah. After seasons of toiling as a grinder or pretending among the top-sixers, it seems like Tom Wilson has finally arrived. And while, sure, yeah, a lot of his success is driven by 22.5-percent shooting and, sure, yeah, Wilson is not going to be a 40-goal scorer, he’s still made significant progress this season and deserves to be recognized for it.

This is a Tom Wilson 2018-19 appreciation post.

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Jakub Vrana’s big night: Caps beat Flyers 5-3

The Washington Capitals finally met the Philadelphia Flyers for the first time this season, which is good because I was worried they’d get better before it happened. That turns out not to be the case, so here’s the story of how the Caps got two points off the Flyera.

Tom Wilson put the Caps on the scoreboard by tipping in Jakub Vrana’s pass from the goal mouth. Jakub Voracek replied with a fine goal after an unfortunate turnover by Michal Kempny.

In the second period, TJ Oshie slayed his mini-slump by deflecting a point shot from Lars Eller to restore the Caps lead. Vrana doubled that lead with a solo rush goal created from a turnover he forced, then he added a power-play goal just for fun.

The Flyers pushed hard late in the third, paying off in a greasy goal for Wayne Simmonds. In a chaotic final couple minutes Claude Giroux one-timed a goal to make it close, but Oshie sunk an empty-netter right afterwards.

Caps win 5-3!
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By Peter Hassett 1 month ago

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Washington’s power play is fine, except…

December 27, 2018. In the second period of the game against the Hurricanes, TJ Oshie scored a power-play goal assisted by John Carlson and Alex Ovechkin. Since then the once-vaunted Caps power play has gone silent. In their last 31 power-play opportunities, Washington has just one power-play goal. After several seasons of domination while a man up, it looks like the Caps are now just sorta okay at it.

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By Peter Hassett 1 month ago

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Caps at Red Wings pregame: Slump ends now

After a dominant December, the Washington Capitals have lost three games in a row. That stinks, but it’s not all doom and gloom. This afternoon the Caps will meet the Detroit Red Wings, third from last in the eastern conference. If the Caps can right the ship, it’ll happen today.

Puck drop is at 5 PM. The game’s on NBCSWA, but enterprising folks can stream the action using cutting-edge, space-age technology. Recap services will be furnished by our own brilliant Julia. Let’s get a W.

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By Peter Hassett 1 month ago

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Forty games in: Defensemen

The Washington Capitals are two and a half years removed from being one of the best defensive teams in the NHL. A lot has changed between then and now, including, ya know, a Stanley Cup Championship. To win their Cup Washington had to overcome a bunch of defensive problems, which now appear resurgent. If they wish to truly go back-to-back, the Caps will have to solve those problems all over again.

But whether defensive problems are actually the same thing as problems with defensemen is another matter altogether.

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By Peter Hassett 1 month ago

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RMNB New Years Wishes for 2019

New year, same old RMNB. Here are some wishes for the Washington Capitals.

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By Peter Hassett 2 months ago

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Finally, an algorithm reveals the celebrity twins for the Washington Capitals #twinning

The technology company PopSugar has released a new ~~honeypot~~ feature that identifies your celebrity twin. You feed it a photo, and then it shows you a picture of the famous person you supposedly look like. As part of our ongoing scientific research here at RMNB, we have forced the poor bot to look at the ugly mugs of the 2018-19 Capitals, and here’s how it replied. 👯

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By Peter Hassett 2 months ago

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Madison Bowey scores first NHL goal!

In a night of firsts and with the 73rd shot of his NHL career, Caps defenseman Madison Bowey is finally on the board. Taking a big north-south pass from Tom Wilson, Bowey sunk his shot and ended the slump that has plagued him since his debut.

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By Peter Hassett 2 months ago

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Tyler Lewington scores first career NHL goal!

Just minutes after recording his first NHL assist on Tom Wilson’s goal, Tyler Lewington has scored his first career NHL goal.

It was hand-delivered by guy-behind-the-guy Nicklas Backstrom.

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By Peter Hassett 2 months ago

5 Comments

Tom Wilson scores on a layup, is inexplicably in second place in goals despite having missed a billion games

Caps forward Tom Wilson missed 16 games due to suspension to start the season, but since he returned on November 13 he’s been unbelievably hot, and yes, I regret typing that but it’s too late now.

On Saturday, with a lovely layup goal facilitated by Evgeny Kuznetsov, Wilson climbed into a three-way tie for second place in goals among the Caps — even though he’s played many fewer games than his competition.

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By Peter Hassett 2 months ago

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About Peter Hassett (@peterhassett)