Hockey has so many abstruse rules that you seemingly learn something new every day. This apparently goes for future Hall of Fame hockey players too.
Thursday night during the second period of the Capitals 3-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, Good Guy Alex Ovechkin gave his newly stick-less teammate, Tom Wilson, a new twig.
It was a heads up play by Ovechkin, except there was one tiny problem.
On Friday, the Caps beat their nemesis Pittsburgh Penguins in relatively convincing fashion. This victory led fans, myself included, to believe that things could be back on the right track for DC’s hockey team. We who believed such a thing were wrong. Instead of another satisfactory effort against the Edmonton Oilers, we got one of the worst efforts in the entire Alex Ovechkin era. And yet, the Caps still somehow escaped with a 2-1 victory.
The Capitals were out-attempted by the Oilers five-on-five 62 to 28. They were also out shot 30 to 19.
By Chris Cerullo 5 years ago
Capitals forward TJ Oshie is one of the deadliest scorers in the shootout and Sunday he showed why once again.
After the Caps and Oilers remained tied 1-1 through regulation and three-on-three overtime, the two teams settled the game in a shootout.
Oshie scored the game-winner.
The Edmonton Oilers were a bit drowsy after their loss on Saturday night loss to the New York Rangers. The Washington Capitals were rested, but they just aren’t a very good hockey team right now, which is a bummer, but not enough to keep them out of the win column.
Sunday’s game was scoreless through forty minutes, which maybe doesn’t illustrate how one-sided play was. Early in the third, Jujhar Khaira got a dirty goal from up close. Dmitry Orlov returned fire after an excellent pass from Tom Wilson, and we headed into overtime, which was buckwild but fruitless.
So here’s some shootout bullets!
Caps win 2-1 in the shootout! Somehow!
By Peter Hassett 5 years ago
One-minute and thirty-two seconds into the third period, Oilers forward Jujhar Khaira finally got a shot past Braden Holtby, giving the Oilers a 1-0 third period lead.
3:42 later, after Dmitry Orlov and Tom Wilson connected on a stunning give-and-go, the Caps tied.
Orlov was kind of excited.
After defeating Pittsburgh 4-1, Braden Holtby became the second quickest goaltender in NHL history to win 200 games. Sunday, Patrick Maroon got an opportunity to experience the Holtbeast’s greatness first hand.
In a span of 39 seconds, Holtby stopped Maroon five straight times.
On November 4, Tom Wilson scored two goals against the Boston Bruins, his first tallies of the season. That night seemed important – as if Wilson was taking another step towards finally realizing his offensive potential.
Since then, however, Wilson has not been able to repeat the production, so he’s been using his hands more for punching than for scoring, collecting three fighting majors in his last four games. And I’m sure if the moment would have been right on Friday, he would have also face-punched Ryan Reaves.
Wilson’s latest fight occurred Sunday night against Edmonton Oilers forward Patrick Maroon. It was a long fight that ended in a draw.
The Washington Capitals gave us a compelling win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night. Now, with key players starting to return from injury, they have the opportunity to actually be, ya know, good. Sunday’s date with the Edmonton Oilers, themselves a talented but underperforming team, is a good chance to start one of those things where you win multiple consecutive games, I forget what those are called, it’s been so long.
The game is at 7 PM, it airs on the National Broadcasting Company Sports Washington channel, and I have the honor of providing your recap.
By Peter Hassett 5 years ago
