Michael Latta Leaves Game After Check From Behind by Jared Boll (GIF)

Washington Capitals checking-line center Michael Latta is questionable to return after a check from behind by Columbus enforcer Jared Boll.
Read More
Washington Capitals checking-line center Michael Latta is questionable to return after a check from behind by Columbus enforcer Jared Boll.
Hockey fights happen in every game, but this do-si-do was weird.
Troy Brouwer and Cody Goloubef exchanged angry shoves in neutral, then they dropped the gloves.
Thirty-three seconds into Sunday’s game, Alex Ovechkin scored his 40th goal of the season and his 462nd career goal. It’s the seventh time Ovi’s done that in his ten NHL seasons.
Naturally, this was deserving of a celebration.
Braden Holtby was fantastic for the Washington Capitals on Saturday, making 32 stops in the team’s 3-2 shootout victory over the New York Islanders. Unfortunately, we can’t award him with the save of the game. That honor goes to Eric Fehr‘s stick.
No, not Eric Fehr, silly. Eric Fehr’s magical hockey stick.
In the third period, as John Tavares tried to bang home the game-tying goal with 1:04 left, he clanged the puck hard off the post. The puck ricocheted high into the air where a falling Fehr lost control of his hockey stick. Instead of falling to the ice like a normal hockey stick would, Fehr’s twig decided hey, lemme just make this save for Holtby while I’m up here.
What a day for Tom Wilson. In the first period, he executed a perfect double check with Jason Chimera. In the third during a fight with Matt Martin, the manchild nearly ripped the dude’s jersey in half.
That is an impressive feat of strength.
Nicklas Backstrom has been insanely good this year. Today has been no different. For the Caps’ first goal, he took the puck in the Caps defensive zone, skated around four different Islander players in the offensive zone, and put a perfect pass into Matt Niskanen‘s wheel house. Niskanen unleashed the Niscannon, going top shelf.
Even though he’s only two seasons into his NHL career, Tom Wilson has had a bunch of impressive highlight reel hits. Saturday against the Islanders, he authored another one. This time with his pal Jason Chimera.
As Travis Hamonic gathered in a puck behind the Isles net, Wilson and Chimera caught him with, what Craig Laughlin referred to as, a “double whammy.”
Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson has been really good this year, so this is the last thing you want to see. As Carly tried to block Bryan Little’s shot, the puck ramped up off Carlson’s stick and struck him in the side of the head.
It’s hard to imagine Alex Ovechkin won’t win his fourth MVP award this season. Tonight he scored another amazing goal.
With the puck bouncing on his stick, Ovechkin skated into the Jets’ zone on a two-on-one break. There was a problem however. Ovi couldn’t settle the puck enough for it to lay flat on the ice. No matter, Ovechkin managed to get a shot off– right through Mark Stuart’s legs.
Ondřej Pavelec had no chance.
In the first period, John Carlson scored on a point shot off a face-off. Or so we thought.
The puck took about a half-second to reach the net, but when the footage is slowed down, you can see two Caps forwards may have got their sticks on it.
As the puck passes Troy Brouwer, it definitely ramps up off his stick.
Russian Machine Never Breaks is not associated with the Washington Capitals; Monumental Sports, the NHL, or its properties. Not even a little bit.
All original content on russianmachineneverbreaks.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)– unless otherwise stated or superseded by another license. You are free to share, copy, and remix this content so long as it is attributed, done for noncommercial purposes, and done so under a license similar to this one.