It’s been a very long time – almost a calendar year – since the Washington Capitals spent a day visiting their best companions, the Pittsburgh penguins. Both teams are still a bit rusty, as can be seen on Sunday morning.
The Penguins climbed onto the scoreboard first as Evan Rodrigues deflected a blocked pass from Brian Domulin. The Caps responded with some grease in fourth streak and then took the lead thanks to Alex Ovechkin’s first goal of the season.
That advance was erased in the second half when Ilya Samsonov played a poor game behind his net. This foul was temporarily postponed from a clean sequence of Kuznetsov-to-Backstrom on Hard Play, but Marcus Peterson’s goal restored the equalizer, making it 3-3 in the third half.
The third caused us heartburn, but without goals, so we tried and failed to resolve the match in extra time. Instead, I’ll get you shotgun comeback.
- Letang never put biscuits in the basket.
- O’Shea didn’t put biscuits in the basket.
- Crosby didn’t put the biscuits in the basket.
- Backstrom didn’t put biscuits in the basket.
- The biscuits owners did not put in the basket.
- Kuznetsov did not put biscuits in the basket.
- Guentzel put biscuits into the basket.
- Ovechkin never put biscuits in the basket.
Lose caps.
- Peter LaViolet He’s talked about increasing Washington’s attack production this season. This has not happened yet. The hats put three (3) shots on target in the second half. Nothing in the last nine minutes.
- Hats off paid for this inaction. Both Chara and Dillon had large lumps of bruises, which they may have been feeding from for a while.
- He may have got bad information from his team-mates, but the goalkeeper Ilya Samsonov He grossly missed playing the disc behind his net in the second half. Instead of chopping ice, he allowed Colton Seaview Layup. (This step required several minutes of video review, but it was a good goal.) On top of that, I wasn’t too worried about Samsonov’s performance. It had a problem with the scanned shots and rounding aberrations, but it’s the same with everyone.
- In spite of Coach Todd Redden exitsNow it seems sure the hats are still working with a file Slingshot pass – At least sometimes – the power play.
- The hats’ penalty problem is not over. They took five in that match, many of them in attack, most of them when the score was even.
- But as I have said many times, I haven’t drawn any hard conclusions yet. We’ve only seen three games, two of them against Sabers, without a precedent for the season, and without a lot of training camp either. There will be trials, ratings, and adjustments (hopefully) as the season progresses.
- And for now, Alex Ovechkin Finally outside the schnayd, He scored his first goal this season by capturing a loose puck in the hatch after some clever work by teammates Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson.They both had strong games. Kuznetsov’s pass past Backstrom was some surgical object. Then again, Kuznetsov and Wilson were both in constant punch woes.
- Ovi should From He had two goals. Double ping here:
Pain pic.twitter.com/GP9Od7YtBn
Washington Capitals January 17, 2021
- Daniel LeibThe Caps’ debut was disappointing. By the third period, Laviolet had seen enough. he is He didn’t skate In the third group. (I thought it was okay).
- That was an odd extra time between three and three. The teams seemed to be caressing each other, feeling each other, but hesitating to attack. Cumbersome as previous OTs hats were delightful.
Not Joe B today, so you have to do it:
– Here’s the Replay ⬇️ (HeresYourReplay) January 17, 2021
Not a ton to love from Washington here. After the first period, the marital power game somewhat collapsed. They committed so many punishments and generated little offense. But their goalkeeper made one big mistake, and they did clever enough plays to get a point in the standings. And they were close to winning despite their mistakes.
In any case, we’ll see the rematch on Tuesday evening. see you later.
RMNB’s coverage of hats in penguins
Screen capture from NBC Sports
