anders Nilsson

Touchdown, Washington: All 7 goals the Capitals scored against the lowly Senators

The Washington Capitals had an embarrassing start against the NHL’s very worst team. The Ottawa Senators, who traded Mark Stone (Vegas), Matt Duchene (Columbus) and Ryan Dzingel (Columbus) ahead of Monday’s trade deadline, scored twice in the first 7:16 of the game, not allowing the Caps a shot on goal for nearly the first 10 minutes of the game (9:53, Andre Burakovsky). Yiiiiikes.

The Capitals responded by scoring seven unanswered goals, including four joker tallies in the second period.

What turned the game around? “Well, we decided as a group we’re going to get engaged in the game,” Capitals assistant coach Scott Arniel said, failing to hide his sarcasm. “We were spectators there for the first ten, fifteen minutes. You know what? In this league, if you don’t put the work in, those things are going to happen. But you saw what happened here. We got a little ticked off and got some goals.”

Yes, yes they did. And now I will recap them all for you.

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By Ian Oland 5 years ago

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Holtby Overtime: Caps Top Isles 3-2 (OT)

Ballgame. (Photo credit: Bruce Bennett)

Like the Bond marathon on SyFy over the last few days, the Washington Capitals are a fickle thing. Lately, the Caps have mixed the sublime elegance of the Sean Connery era with the confusing stupor of the Timothy Dalton movies. More often than not, it’s been the latter.

Plainly, they didn’t deserve to win yesterday’s game. Only the godlike brilliance of Eric Fehr kept the Caps from a fifth straight loss. They did win, however, and got their tired asses on a plane to ~~hell~~ Long Island this morning. With Braden Holtby making his second start in as many days, the setup for this one didn’t look good.

Washington’s start, however, was better than we’ve come to expect. Though New York handily outshot them early, the Caps controlled possession. The teams traded chances, with no one converting. Hey, that’s better than being 3-0 after 20!

As usual, the Caps got it going in the second. The period was filling with odd-man breaks and open looks for Washington, with the fourth line converting midway through the frame. Martin Erat — yes, that one — made a nice play behind the net before setting up the puck for Tom Wilson, who fired it on net. Aaron Volpatti did the net crashing thing to put the Caps on the board.

In the third, though, the Isles got the goal back — and they did on a Caps power play. Four minutes into the period, local pariah Mike Green missed a pinch and Cal Clutterbuck took the puck the other way on a breakaway. Yeah, it was awful. Then, Thomas Vanek gave the Isles the lead with some whacking in front, to Braden’s dismay. With less than two minutes left, this one looked over. HOWEVER… Nicklas Backstrom was stone cold clutch, converting in front with the Caps down a man. In overtime, the big Russian — that would be Alex Ovechkin — did his thing. Boom. Crazy times. Caps top Isles 3-2 (OT).

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By Chris Gordon 10 years ago

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