From the outset, this game between the Washington Capitals and Columbus Blue Jackets was billed as the battle of two Vezina Trophy-winning goalies. Braden Holtby and Sergei Bobrovsky, along with their buddy in Montreal, are the cream of the crop when it comes to dudes who stop rubber discs in the NHL. Who would come out the victor in this one? As we all know, goalie wins are the key indicator of best goalie, so analytics that if you want.
Once a nacho boy now a goal scorer, Brett Connolly got the good guys off to a fast start, then Alex Chiasson made that start even better with a goal of his own. 2-0 Caps after 20 minutes.
In the second, Artemi Panarin finished off a dominating Columbus shift to narrow the Caps lead and Matt Calvert scored shorthanded to tie the game up. Alex Ovechkin did the thing that he does on the power play to restore the lead.
In the third, Evgeny Kuznetsov stayed hot and boosted the Caps lead back to two. Werenski tightened things with a late goal.
Caps beat Blue Jackets 4-3!
- The bottom six got off to a fast start, tallying the first two markers of the game. That’s news because the Caps bottom six hasn’t done nearly enough scoring things this season. Good on ya, Brett Connolly and Alex Chiasson.
- Two goals on three shots aside, the Caps’ vaunted top six didn’t generate any offense of any kind until 10 minutes into the game. It’s good to have balanced scoring throughout your lineup, but your big boys cannot fall asleep for an entire half of a period.
- The Caps started the second period by getting shelled for four straight minutes, leading to an inevitable Artemi Panarin goal. The Blue Jackets then took a turn and spent the next eight minutes of the second doing absolutely nothing, leading to a… shorthanded goal for Matt Calvert. That’s a good response from the Caps, but one sloppy power play turnover tied the game up.
- Outside of that first four minutes of the second period, the Caps dominated the period. The Blue Jackets, who were plus-80 in shots in second periods coming into this one, got a little taste of their own medicine. The Caps at five-on-five had 28 shot attempts in the second period alone to the Blue Jackets’ 15.
- How did that matchup with Panarin and Columbus’ vaunted first line go? A little like this all night (bad):
Bob: How’s the Panarin matchup going?
Pete Campbell: NOT GREAT BOB
(via https://t.co/re4jYbbyLm) pic.twitter.com/S1MRrGQ8nV— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) December 3, 2017
- You want a butt slash? TJ Oshie is your man. He was giving them out like Oprah gave out blenders. She probably gave people blenders at some stage, right?
- Nicklas Backstrom has now not scored a goal in his last twenty games. He is scoreless on his last 36 shots. For context, no forward with at least 30 shots this season is scoreless. For comparison, Alexander Semin went scoreless on 44 shots in the 2010 playoffs (credit to Peter for these numbers). That’s about as bad/unlucky as it can get for a forward. He’s due.
- Alex Ovechkin is a legend and he did that power play thing that he does all the time, breaking some more records to boot:
With his 218th career power play goal, Alex Ovechkin has passed Mike Gartner and Jaromir Jagr for 10th place on the NHL’s all-time power play goals list. Additionally, Ovechkin has tied Mark Recchi (577) for 20th place on the all-time goals list.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 3, 2017
- Dmitry Orlov and Sergei Bobrovsky are best buds, but on Saturday night they got a little tangled up post-whistle after a Bob save. Orlov clipped Bob’s skates with his own and Bob had to do a little jig to stay on his feet. I wonder if Dima will still get that Christmas invite?
- John Carlson tallied another two assists giving him 18 on the season. He is also still within the top five defensemen in the league when it comes to overall time-on-ice. He’s gonna be a tired boy come April.
- Evgeny Kuznetsov now has three goals in his last two games, four in his last five, and six in his last eight. He also could probably moonlight at your local rodeo with his goal celebrations.
- Thank goodness for Braden Holtby.
- Last but not least, Chandler Stephenson sustained some type of upper-body injury and was unable to return for the third period. Should just call up Nathan Walker…. oh.
Already up 2-0 before I had a chance to grab the #JoeBSuitOfTheNight let’s go Caps! pic.twitter.com/mZ7KrjmD33
— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) December 3, 2017
Joe B suit of the night
California knows how to party and part of that state is coming to DC on Monday when the Sharks make a visit to Capital One Arena. That’s your next opportunity to take in some Caps puck.
Full Coverage of Caps vs Blue Jackets
Headline photo: Rob Carr
