The Washington Capitals traveled to Canada, which in itself is a dangerous situation right now, to take on the Winnipeg Jets in the new Canada Life Center. They did so without three of their usual centers.
Brett Leason opened the scoring, beating Connor Hellebuyck five holes from the slot. Daniel Sprong doubled the Caps lead with a nasty shot. Brenden Dillon scored one of his rare goals, peering blindly into the top corner above a thrown Vitek Vanecek.
Josh Morrissey took a shot on a power play to tie the score two. Conor Sheary broke the tie, blocking a loose puck in the crease. Michael Sgarbossa and Alex Ovechkin added empty rules.
The Capitals beat the Jets 5-2!
- The first half was weird. I barely felt like either team was playing defense, but at the same time, neither of the chances looked like A-grade opportunities. Ultimately with this lineup I didn’t don’t really care about the stats of this individual game. Just find a way to get at least one point (they did more than that but no spoilers).
- Alex Ovechkin was absolutely reprimanded Daniel Spring on the bench at the end of the first frame. It’s not something we’ve never seen before, as his screams against Ilya Samsonov received a lot of media coverage last season. Captain stuff. Maybe Daniel was trying to tell him Spider-Man spoilers.
- The power play sucks when the most talented offensive players are in it, so I expected them to do what they did tonight… which was nothing.
Yes. pic.twitter.com/1rql4ppN3B
– Washington Capitals (@Capitals) December 18, 2021
- The Caps scored two goals in the second, but then fully braked for some reason. I didn’t like the way they played after winning two points and a Jets goal seemed inevitable. Without a few exploits from Vitek Vanecek, this game is at least tied for forty minutes.
- Brett Lesson has one of hockey’s best nicknames as “Owner” and apparently the rent was owed to Winnipeg as he scored his third career NHL goal. More rookie goals are helping this season for the Caps. I’ll take some more.
- Remember when Ovi was yelling at Sprong at the end of the first one? Well, whatever that worked, as Sprong now has goals in back-to-back games. Ovi gave her a huge hug during the celebration.
- Brenden Dillon can apparently score goals. He of course clinched his first of the season against his former team.
IT’S HOCKEY O’CLOCK! #ALL IN CAPITALS #LETGOCAPS #FlashbackFriday for me at 10 weeks and the very 1st #SantaOvie picture!!! #CapsBulldog #CapitalsBulldog #NakedOvie pic.twitter.com/9Hb7wzX3Ik
– Ovie the Bulldog (@OvietheBulldog) December 18, 2021
- The third seemed like a great response from a shorthanded Caps team. Great stuff, fantastic, fantastic victory.
- I was very critical of Michel Sgarbossa in the last recap and he responded by looking a lot more active in this game and recorded two runs, one being the empty net to seal things off.
- Vitek Vanecek was phenomenal. Truly a superb VV performance with 40 saves on 42 shots.
it’s gonna be a weird night, but at least dudes look good i like the pink / red combo on @JoeBpXp
#joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/xZPEnf7aYq– good tweet pete 🌮 (@peterhassett) December 18, 2021
Then, for the Caps, they’ll… hopefully?… Go home and face the Los Angeles Kings. The Kings just played against the Florida Panthers, so that should be awesome.
Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington
Comments are closed.