Photo: Patrick Smith
The Capitals got back to their winning ways Friday night, beating the Blue Jackets 2-1 at the Verizon Center. Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and TJ Oshie combined to score the game-winning goal on a perfectly executed three-on-one. New Caps acquisition Justin Williams also scored his second goal of the season.
By Hana Imiolczyk 7 years ago
“My bad.”
Every now and then, we’re reminded hockey’s a dangerous sport. Like in the second period of Friday’s Caps-Jackets matchup when a puck hit the Verizon Center jumbotron and part of the screen fell off. Then later in the game, TJ Oshie accidentally wrangled down Andre Burakovsky by the neck with his stick.
That was scary, but Oshie and Burakovsky joked about it later.
“He’s fine, he’s fine,” Oshie told RMNB’s Chris Gordon of Burakovsky. “He was laughing about it after the period.”
Photo: Patrick McDermott
The Capitals have so many skill players, they’re bound to score at least one pretty goal a game. It happened again Friday against the Blue Jackets.
As Braden Holtby chucked a dump in around the boards, the puck turned to flubber and took a fortunate bounce right onto Alex Ovechkin’s stick. The first line then held a passing clinic in the Columbus Blue Jackets offensive zone.
Photo: Patrick Smith
Coming off just their second loss of the season, the Capitals, who are good, looked ripe to get back on track against the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are very bad. And it kinda worked!
The first period got started with Verizon Center about half full, which is fine, because nothing happened.
Things started to open up in the second. The Capitals cut through the Columbus defense twice, but TJ Oshie and Dmitry Orlov missed layups to keep the game scoreless. Justin Williams finally beat Sergei Bobrovsky as Nick Backstrom did his best Marcus Johansson to screen the Russian netminder.
In the third, the Capitals decided to show that have better hockey players than the Blue Jackets. Alex Ovechkin came down the left circle, went cross ice to Backstrom, who then put the puck on a tee for TJ Oshie. Good players playin’ good. Jackets added a goal, but they cheated, so screw that. Caps top Blue Jackets, 2-1!
By Chris Gordon 7 years ago
See the black speck at the bottom right. Also: Hi, Erin! (Photo: Chris Gordon)
Mid-way through the second period, Columbus Blue Jackets center Alexander Wennberg did some unintentional remodeling at Verizon Center, chucking a clearing attempt off the jumbotron.
Photo: Caps Outsider
It’s not even the end of October, but the Blue Jackets have already fired their coach and brought in John Tortorella. So, yeah. things have been bad for ol’ CBJ. They’ve won their last two, albeit against really weak teams (Colorado and New Jersey), and Sergei Bobrovsky won’t be the worst goalie on the planet for the entire season. So, don’t expect a cakewalk tonight.
As for your Caps, they are looking to bounce back after Wednesday’s loss to the Pens in which they played pretty well.
Welcome back, Joe B and Locker. We’re back on CSN and the action starts at 7 PM.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 6-2-0 | 54.7% | 101.4 | 28% | 85.2% |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 2-8-0 | 50.7% | 94.7 | 20.5% | 69.7% |
By Patrick Holden 7 years ago
