Nineteenth century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche thought of human will as a primordial, irrational drive to assert ourselves on the world around us. That assertion can take any form, and one of those forms could be the immiserating forecheck of the Carolina Hurricanes, who eliminated the Washington Capitals with a 3-1 win on Thursday night.
Jordan Staal was our first scorer, ripping a shot to the far top corner. Anthony Beauvillier tied it up later that period, collecting a loose puck along the goal line and getting it past Frederik Andersen.
In the third period, with just under two minutes remaining, Andrei Svechnikov scored the game-winning goal. Seth Jarvis added an empty-netter.
Caps lose. Carolina wins the series in five games. Washington’s season is over.
- Matt Roy scored a heroic goal in the second period, a slapper from outside. But because Connor McMichael was a half-step early crossing the blue line 19 seconds before that, the goal didn’t count. That’s the right call by the letter of the law, but I think we can all agree the era in which we live sees the end of the rule of law. It is the time for anarchy in the NHL. Who is with me?
- Seth Jarvis rang the crossbar at the end of the second period. Jakub Chychryn rang the post in the first period. I don’t have anything to say about that directly, except just to say it at all.
- Spencer Carbery chose to sit Lars Eller tonight. I will argue that Eller’s been a positive-impact player all season with completely disastrous finishing stats. But in this particular series, where Eller looked overwhelmed in his own zone quite a lot, I think it was the right move.
- Alex Ovechkin had a real bad shift in the second period. He was too casual with the puck along the attacking blue line and lost control to a poke. He chased after the loose puck, but Logan Stankoven was much faster. That led to some dangerous zone time for the Canes – and forced Thompson to make some more big saves.
- Speaking of big saves, they don’t get bigger – and also narrower – than this one:
- Logan Thompson was brilliant. Every period had a highlight-reel save or two. But then Svechnikov beat him on a near-zero angle.
- Alexander Nikishin made his NHL debut for the Canes on the big stage. He had been a very buzzed about prospect, and though he had a couple rough shifts early – losing a stick, tripping Dubois – he looks like he’ll be an asset for Carolina for a while. Great. They needed it, I guess.
- And the Caps power play Nikishin made possible? Futile. The Caps went 0-for-3 on power plays, narrowly out-chancing the team with less players on the ice.
- That’s disappointing, but the Capitals who took the ice for even-strength play in the third period were ferocious, knowing somehow that this was their final frame.
Nineteenth century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche thought of human existence as part of an eternal return, a time loop, where the same events unfold exactly the same, in a cycle forever. Tediously.
Unable to exert their force-of-will, the Washington Capitals were bested by a better team, as they have been for time immemorial. (Except that one time.) The Carolina Hurricanes were the toughest opponent to draw for all the reasons we saw manifest these last couple weeks. All this has happened before, and it will all happen again.
But what happens between now and the next time loffs loop? Mangiapane, Eller, and Beauvillier’s contracts are up. Ovechkin has one year left. There are some crackerjack prospects hiding at the bottom of the crackerjack box. Carbery is about to win the Jack Adams.
Here at RMNB, we have so much planned. You’re going to love it, I promise. Projects we’ve been working on for years will come to fruition.Once we recover from the bruising we suffered in this series.
Thank you for hanging out. We’ll see you soon – as in like probably 30 minutes from now, when we’ll have some more hockey stories to tell. Love ya.
