The Washington Capitals maneuvered through the many marshes, mudflats, and meadows of Salt Lake City to hand a defeat to the Utah Hockey Club and their upstart Utahns.
Jack McBain out-dueled Trevor van Riemsdyk in front of the net to give the Club Kids an early lead. Dylan Strome returned us to even with an unassisted effort. Ten seconds later, Brandon Duhaime found Nic Dowd on the rush to give Washington their lead, extended by Alex Ovechkin with a slick shot from the slot through a slew of screens.
Come the second period, Alex Ovechkin scored again –now from the Ovi Spot during a brief five-on-three, but Nick Bjugstad brought the Salt Lickers back within two goals by crashing the net.
Alex Ovechkin suffered a leg injury in the third period.
Also, Brandon Duhaime made it 5-2 with a gorgeous goal to beat relief goalie Karel Vejmelka. Aliaksei Protas beat Vejmelka too, making 6-2 with ten minutes left in regulation.
Caps win. They sweep the road trip. But what about Ovi?
- Alex Ovechkin. That’s the bullet.
- But there’s a second bullet and it’s still about Alex Ovechkin. One day after a hat trick, he scored goals number 14 and 15 of his season and numbers 867 and 868 of his career.
- And just like last game, Ovechkin got involved defensively as well. When the Caps got busted for back-to-back too-many-men penalties, Ovechkin played a shorthanded shift. I never want to see that again. He tried to block a shot! We can’t afford him getting hurt. ⬅️ I can’t believe I wrote that, considering what came after.
- Anyway. with his first goal, Connor Ingram became the 178th goalie to surrender a goal to Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin ties Jaromir Jagr at that number.
- Ovechkin did not play the final 14 minutes of the game after tying up legs with Jack McBain. He was limping as he left the ice. After a short skate during a stoppage, he left for the dressing room and did not return. Full story here:
- McBain later fought Tom Wilson. I don’t think the fight was about blaming McBain for Ovechkin’s injury, more just one of those “we’re getting blown out here, can you punch me in the head, please?” Tom obliged.
- John Carlson, once again, had a goal called back. This time it was Connor McMichael‘s fault. According to the NHL, McMichael’s cologne was too strong. It wafted into the paint and bothered Connor Ingram, and that’s goaltender interference.
- I don’t understand the Law & Order dun dun sound after power plays. What am I missing? Can we get some semioticians in the comments to explain it to me? Is it just “that’s about punishment and so is this”?
- Aliaksei Protas is a point-per-game player. I know I’ve been saying this a lot about multiple players this season, but it’s worth repeating just to appreciate it: the leap in development by him and McMichael is profound. They are so poised out there, taking shots they wouldn’t have just six months ago.
- I have had worries about the fourth line over the last few games. I wasn’t sure Brandon Duhaime or Nic Dowd would even play tonight. They did, and their first goal was gorgeous. Something is still going on though.
- Lars Eller got his first point with the Caps (again) on the Duhaime goal.
Saddest blowout win of my hockey-writing career.
I wanted to write about how with every game the Capitals keep proving themselves to be an irrepressibly fun team. I was going to say they’re aggressive and creative, that they’ll beat you with speed or finesse, that they’ve got four lines who can score and a deep defense. And then I was going to end it by saying “And they’ve got Ovi.” Except he’s hurt, and we don’t know how bad, but it’s bad enough that he didn’t try to play through it to go for the hat trick.
So he and his friends will return home late tonight and will take a couple days off before hosting the Avs for their second match in a week. Let’s hope a few days off will do wonders. And then, when he returns, we’ll all Say The Thing. You know the phrase.
