The Washington Capitals handily defeated their hated adversaries, the Pittsburgh Penguins, on home ice on Saturday night. Probably would’ve felt nicer if the Pens weren’t on pace to get like 80 standings points. They suck.
Jakob Chychrun scored from approximately the same place he always scores from. In the second period, Connor McMichael stole the puck and served it to Aliaksei Protas to make it 2-0 after forty minutes.
With eight and a half minutes remaining, Bryan Rust curl-and-dragged to end Logan Thompson’s shutout. Pierre-Luc Dubois filed an insurance claim and stuffed it just below the crossbar. Brandon Duhaime got an empty netter.
Caps win!
- Screagle. The Screamin‘ Eagle. You leave off the last G for goals, I guess. The Caps look good in black, but personally I prefer the red, white, and blue Reverse Retro Screagles.
- I think all but two of Jakob Chychrun‘s 13 goals this season have come from above the faceoff dots. Tonight’s was different only insofar as it was a slapshot instead of his reliable wrister. We’ll have to see where the dust settles after the game, but Chychrun is very close to the top of the league in shooting percentage among defenders, somewhere just behind Seattle’s Vince Dunn.
- Anthony Beauvillier kinda/sorta did a slewfoot on Matt Roy. I don’t think he really did it though. The definition of a slewfoot is specific, and the league is pretty conservative in calling it. You’ve got to have your arm up in front of the guy and your leg behind the guy, and you gotta either pull them backwards with your arm or kick them forward with your leg. I don’t see that here.
- In any case, Marty Fehervary hulked out on Michael Bunting after it. I only wish he mixed it up with his arch-nemesis, Sidney Crosby. Those guys hate each other.
- I’m trying to cut the cable cord, looking at getting fiber optic, as long as I can be sure I can still get high-quality game feeds. The Monumental App on my TV is great when it works, but it defaults in low resolution and it’s not always easy to get it switch to 1080p. I’m committed to making this work though; I’m so over the cable company. I will keep you posted.
- Connor McMichael hadn’t had a point in four games until he went megamind to intercept a reverse pass behind the Pens goal line. One beautiful pass to Protas later, and he’s back in business. He got another on Dubois’ goal.
- This was Tom Wilson‘s 800th game. It’s incredible to think of how far he came from that first season, which sucked. Now he’s – screw it, I’m saying it – elite. Team Canada must be seething. No points for him, but he almost had a shorthanded goal until the puck rolled on him. (Update: Wilson got an assist on the empty-netter by Duhaime.)
- Logan Thompson made 17 saves in this game before allowing one, a very tough shot, thereby ending his shutout streak 77 saves. Not bad.
- I know there was a big football game tonight, but the only Commies coverage you’ll get from me is the completely undetectable injection of revolutionary politics into otherwise anodyne Caps coverage.
- So are the Pens gonna blow it up or not? I’d give anything to see Malkin make a playoff run in another uniform.
So now we’re looking at a ten-game point streak, dating back to the end of last year. The Caps are winners of four straight. Some people insist on complaining about this team, but those people are silly and should be mocked. We are living in high times. No dissent is permitted.
But dark days are ahead. A shadow falls over the District. A familiar curse has returned to Washington. You know what I’m talking about.
That’s right, you guessed it: late-night road games. Edmonton, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary – four roadies in the next week, all starting at 9 PM or later. It is, straight-up, the worst part of the entire season. But maybe if the Caps are good – and they are! – you will stay up late with us.
