The Washington Capitals took an early lead to begin their back-to-back with the Philadelphia Flyers, and they didn’t let go of it.
Weird goals incoming. First it was Nic Dowd on a solo tour, forcing a turnover to score shorthanded. Then it was Andrew Mangiapane, again shorthanded, but this time assisted by Connor McMichael.
Travis Sanheim got the Flyers involved during four-on-four play early in the third, roofing it with expert precision. No worries though, Dylan Strome John Carlson stuffed them back in a two-goal hole with a shot-pass that got deflected in the slot. Jakub Chychrun loosed a pretty shot to make it 4-1, which was also our final score.
Caps win! Four in a row!
- Before we talk about the game, let’s talk about the Frozen Frenzy. Every NHL team is playing tonight, a brilliant by strategy by the league to capture the eyeballs of sportsfa – oh, what’s this? The NBA is starting their season tonight too – and with a banner raising? Brilliant gambit, Gary.
- Two shorthanded goals in one period! That’s wild. Dowd’s reminded me of what a great player Nic Dowd is. Mangiapane’s showed me how good Connor McMichael‘s passing will be for years to come. Both goals reminded me how much I love watching the Flyers squirm. They allowed four shorties all last season. They got halfway to passing that mark in 1/246th of this season.
- But overall, the Flyers are much better than I expected (kind of ignorantly, I admit). They can’t score – that’s clear – but they dictated the pace of this game, quite tortorellianly. That might not have been a wise strategy; they had only three shots on goal in the second period, but they kept Ovi quiet at least.
- You don’t see fights like this anymore.
- Tom Wilson did not score a goal. He now has only five goals in five games. Everyone is saying he’s washed. Wow, I’m surprised at you all, saying he’s washed, as you are saying right now. I don’t know if I agree with you and your negative opinion. And even if he’s not scoring, he’s still doing stuff like this.
- Four orange jerseys on top of him there.
- Check out Jakub Vrana‘s work before the Chychrun goal. To think this guy almost didn’t get a contract this season.
- The Caps power play is awful. Oh-for-five tonight, and thoroughly boring throughout. I’m sure we’ll talk about that more in days to come.
A fine enough start to this home-and-home series – plus Washington’s fourth win in a row. Vrana looked great, McMichael looked great. Tom Wilson, I’m told, always looks great. Dowd, Charlie, Strome – this was a full team effort.
Okay, you’ve done it. You’ve watched hockey tonight. Now you can turn the TV off and – Stop Right There! There are like 47 more games going on right now and until maybe 1:30 AM. Some of them will even be good, and I promise none of them will have this ESPN announcing crew.
