Remix beat

Backstrom is back but the Capitals are still terrible in overtime: the Blackhawks beat the Capitals 5-4

By John D. Rushing

Nicklas Backstrom returned to the ice for the Washington Capitals and it was a magnificent sight. The only thing standing in the way of a perfect start to the season was the Chicago Blackhawks. Could they play the spoiler?

Alex Ovechkin scored on the power play to tie Dave Andreychuk for the most power play goals of all time. Alex Debrincat, Philipp Kurashev and MacKenzie Entwistle all struck seconds apart to turn the game around.

Daniel Sprong breathed some life into the Caps with an absolute rooftop snipe. Lars Eller drove the net and slipped a backhand past Marc-Andre Fleury to tie the game. Alex Debrincat with another power play goal.

Conor Sheary tied it with three seconds remaining and the goalkeeper fired. Caleb Jones winner of the OT.

The Blackhawks beat the Capitals 5-4.

  • The first period felt like it took a while for a Caps team that had a few days off to get up to speed. They took over towards the end but unfortunately couldn’t find a salary. I thought the referees and linesmen were both remarkably bad during the period. Both Capitals’ penalties were soft, which is fine if you call them all, but they swallowed whistles the other way. I noticed some horrible puck drops on face-offs and some weird offside/pumping decisions. Normally I don’t like to complain about refereeing, but these guys suck.
  • Marc-Andre Fleury has fucking puck magnets in his posts. This guy had a literal magical chance against the Caps this season.
  • The ice cream in Chicago looked horrible. I half expected to see Alex Caruso’s bald head fly. I feel like I haven’t watched a Caps game this season at a rink that had “good” ice. This apparently only exists in Edmonton. I wonder who can play there half the season.
  • Three goals conceded in 34 seconds. Yeah. The dumb part is that I feel like those 30 seconds were the only part of the second period where the Caps were “bad” and half of it was spent shorthanded. They still dominated five against five.
  • Alex Ovechkin marked at least. He tied Dave Andreychuk for the most power-play goals. Nicklas Backstrom grabbed his first point of the season on the strike. Nick is awesome.
  • Daniel Sprong looked like he was going to score the second the puck fell. He did the thing late in the second to breathe some life into his team after being shocked. What an absolute rocket on the roof. It was Alex Semin level dirt.
  • The power play automatically looked better to me with Backstrom at quarterback. Never leave us again, Nicky.
  • Without MAF, this game is like 10-4 Capitals. This guy will apparently be in our nightmares until he turns 45.
  • I’m sure he’s a good guy but Michel Sgarbossa literally does nothing. I’ve watched him for about 20 games as a Cap and he just skates in a straight line…that’s probably why Peter Laviolette likes him so much.
  • Too many penalties taken, but I also think the referees were absolute rubbish in a way. No matter. The penalty must be better. I imagine.
  • What an absolute struggle from Ovi to create that very, very, very late equalizer. I complained about Conor Sheary on Discord as 0.0001 seconds before scoring. Sheary is kind of the reason the Caps lost in OT then, but you just have to take that point.

The Caps will then travel to Winnipeg and leave some of their recent COVID protocol friends in the United States when they face the Jets.

Title image via @Lenkedup

John D. Rushing
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