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In the first game of the brand new (but also kind of old) sweaters, the Caps came out flying and never took the foot off the gas, walking away with a 2-1 win.
Here’s Wednesday night’s Plus/Minus
Plus/Minus:
Ten more notes on the game:
- How about those sweaters? Last time the Caps wore that model red was the 1995 season, according to Ted Starkey.
- Michael Latta netted his third career goal tonight. That sets a career high for our feisty forward. He had an excellent overall game. He notched an assist and a goal. The assist came off of a beautiful poke check while he was laying on the ice. But seriously? Latta was only a fight away from a Gordie Howe hat trick and he didn’t drop the gloves? Anyways, you literally just saw number 46 record 13.33 percent of his career points tonight.
- According to the Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan, the Caps are now 12-0-1 when the third or fourth line generates a goal. Everyone knows secondary scoring is crucial in today’s NHL, so hopefully these bottom-six goals become a habit.
- Can Justin Williams do any wrong? He drew two penalties tonight, and right after the second one, he happened to find the streaking John Carlson for the second goal of the game. Best offseason signing ever?
- Speaking of Carlson, he certainly brought his shooting stick tonight. During the Caps first power play, Carlson was just teeing off from the point. Then he slammed in his sixth goal of the year, and followed that up with a shot that rang off the pipe just a few minutes later in the second period. Carlson’s __ shots led the Caps.
- Okay, one bad thing? The Caps seemed to occasionally have difficulty battling against Ottawa’s forecheck. Bobby Ryan picked off a pass early in the first, and Zack Smith snagged one away from Nate Schmidt in the second. None of the shots generated from the mistakes led to serious scoring chances, but it’s something the Caps may want to be a bit more careful about.
- Braden Holtby added another unbelievable outing to his unbelievable season tonight. Holtby has posted a save percentage under .900 just once in his last 10 games.
- I thought Taylor Chorney looked pretty solid tonight. Sure, he has sheltered minutes as a third-pairing defenseman, but while it has been kind of a bummer that Brooks Orpik has missed so much time, Chorney has done everything he’s absolutely had to do.
What did you think of Tom Wilson’s shoulder shrug hit against Curtis Lazar? Didn’t look that serious to me, but it was still a match penalty in someone’s eyes. How much longer are we going to be able to grasp onto the whole “reputation” narrative? - The Caps did a pretty excellent job of putting a stranglehold on that game, even with that late penalty. Sure, they gave up a goal on the penalty kill, but did you ever really feel like the Senators were in that one?
And now, this…
Game highlights:
Latta scores his 2nd on the season to put the #Caps up 1 #CapsSens pic.twitter.com/6O9JDHqHKQ
— CAPITALS HILL (@CapitalsHill) December 17, 2015