The Washington Capitals eased their way into a Friday night bout with the Detroit Red Wings, but once they finally got going they could not be stopped.
Dylan Larkin scored on the first shift, shooting from below the goal line and off Logan Thompson’s helmet, which – okay – rude. Moritz Seider made it 2-0 on the power play, getting a helpful deflection off Martin Fehervary’s stick. Late in the first period, Taylor Raddysh crashed the net to salvage a miserable period.
The Caps controlled the puck much better in the second period but had nothing to show for it.
The third period was glorious. Aliaksei Protas tied it up early in the third period, his second shorthanded goal of the season. Jakob Chychrun waited one full minute and then grabbed the lead with his signature shot. Protas struck again, recipient of a great stretch pass from Carlson and one-touch pass from McMichael. Then Protas was the expert passer himself, setting up Tom Wilson for another shorty.
Caps win 5-2!
I know we normally embed Bailamos in this situation, but let’s switch it up with KP and Envyi, which apparently I’m the only one on the internet who remembers this?
- I love the Rock The Red era Caps. I will always love Mike Green’s hand tattoos.
- Bad period, good period, great period. The Caps looked glacial in the first – out-shot 21 attempts to 16 – plus they didn’t get Logan Thompson’s best saves, but intermission settled them, and by the third period they were feeling good.
- Taylor Raddysh scored his first goal since February 1. That’s a long time to wait for a beautiful goal – beautiful to me at least. I can never get enough of a zero-skill/all-will kanooblian net-crash like this.
- I had circled this game on my calendar because I thought Ovechkin in particular would do well in it. Detroit has the lowest penalty-kill percentage in the league. But the Caps got no power plays until the 53rd minute. Every instinct I have ever had about any topic in my entire life has been wrong.
- I just need to remind everyone that Aliaksei Protas scored six goals last season. With two tonight – one shorthanded – he could hit 30 this year. He had a burst of three points in a seven-and-a-half-minute stretch. And yet Alan May still pronounces his name like he’s an archon in Starcraft.
- Joining Protoss in shorthanded glory was Tom Wilson, who got an assist from Pro on his goal. Katie reports that only 12 NHL games have featured multiple shorthanded goals by a team – and two of them were by Washington.
- The pride of Boca, Jakob Chychrun, did it again from that same spot. We don’t make enough of how special he is from there: 45 feet out, through traffic, hard as hell. That is not a location for consistent scoring, but it’s been crucial to him getting 18 goals on the season.
- Detroit, the villains, didn’t pull Cam Talbot late.
See you Sunday for the Kraken. Should be a loud one.
