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On a night when the Great Eight was honored for his offensive achievements, the Washington Capitals followed suit, dropping five goals on the LA Kings in a good old-fashioned DC riot.
Here’s Sunday afternoon’s Plus/Minus:
Plus: The third line is paranormal, Ovechkin is immortal, and Grubauer is no portal.
Minus: Tom Wilson was the victim of a dangerous and uncalled Boarding penalty in the second period. We’ll see if Jake Muzzin gets a call from DoPS.
And now, this..
@WesJohnsonVoice announces Ovechkin’s 1000th point “against the Pittsburgh Penguins,” crowd goes nuts.
— Jason Rogers (@HeyJayJRogers) February 5, 2017
VERY nice statement by Alzner on the Ovi video: “We’ll all be able to tell our kids we played with you. Keep going.”
— Jason Rogers (@HeyJayJRogers) February 5, 2017
Ten more notes on the game:
1. The afternoon began with a very special ceremony to honor a very special goofball. Our very own Alex Ovechkin received a silver stick and a Tiffany crystal apparatus of some kind in recognition of his 1000th NHL career point. Ovi’s whole family, including his mother, father, and wife joined him on the ice, and nearly every player on the Caps got to congratulate him personally via a video on the jumbotron. Justin Williams, in characteristic fashion, deadpanned, “Congrats, Ovi. One thousand…….pretty good.” Karl Alzner, for his part, said something resonant and sincere: “We’ll all be able to tell our kids we played with you. Keep going.” Hear hear, Karl. Congrats, Ovi. You’re truly one of the all-time hockey greats.
2. The Connolly, Eller, and Burakovsky line got the start, and the Best Third Line in Hockey™ got right to kicking backsides like a miscalibrated chorus line. Brett Connolly nutmegged Jeff Carter through his skates so hard he’s now sterile, and found Lars Eller on the doorstep. Eller made a nifty move to get around Peter Budaj’s goalie stick, because Lars Eller Works Harder™, and it was 1-0 Caps. The Caps have now scored first in 15 of their last 17 games, which is good for the whole “winning” thing, and empirically detrimental to “losing.”
Eller goal pic.twitter.com/ebA31Utrti
— nope (@myregularface) February 5, 2017
3. With 100 seconds left in the first period, Sweet Swede Marcus “MoJo Workin” Johansson got his Scandinavian groove on, ripping a shot past Budaj to make it 2-0 Washington at the first intermission.
Johansson goal pic.twitter.com/M7X37Zm44g
— nope (@myregularface) February 5, 2017
4. If the first period was dominant like the Triassic, the thunder lizards really came out to play in the Jurassic second period. Brett Connolly, the guy win the offseason who made you go, “Who?” took a gorgeous feed from soft-handed Tom Wilson (!) and honored its intentions (namaste) with an equally sexy finish. Connolly now has 10 goals in 39 games this season; he had 9 in 71 last year for Boston. #Upgrade, baby. It was 3-0 Capitals.
Connolly goal pic.twitter.com/rEguLAQASC
— nope (@myregularface) February 5, 2017
5. Then, with three and a half minutes left in the middle frame, TJ Oshie extracted his blood debt from Budaj’s water bottle, who owed Oshie money from two botched political coups in eastern Europe and Central America. In front of nearly 20,000 horrified onlookers, TJ tied up the grisly loose ends. Rooftop, rain drop, and it was 4-0 Caps after two. Oshie is now the second Capitals skater to score 20 goals this season.
RIP water bottle… pic.twitter.com/UvEIVeCy3R
— Becca (@BeccaH_JR) February 5, 2017
6. In the intermission, Peter Budaj spent the whole time screaming “Cut me, Mick!” to Kings coach Darryl Sutter, who obliged him in the third. Budaj got a merciful seat on a bench like a tired elderly park patron, and backup goalie Jeff Zatkoff took to the pipes. RIP, the dignity and egos of opposing goaltenders who play the Caps. We hardly knew ye.
7. Things looked pretty alright for That Koff Zatkoff, until Justin “Just Will” Williams executed forehand-backhand protocol Alpha, beating Zatkoff naked to give the Caps a 5-0 victory.
8. Speaking of that third line, when Lars Eller scores his next goal, every single skater will have 10+ goals. You wanted depth? MacLellan got you the Marianas Trench, folks.
9. Philipp Grubauer, perhaps one of the best backup goalies in the league, was utterly phenomenal tonight, stopping 38 shots en route to his third shutout this season, good for seventh in the NHL. Somewhere, George McPhee is licking the strip club buffalo wing sauce from his eager lips.
10. The Capitals are now 23-4-3 in their last 30 games. They are more combine thresher than hockey team right now. Bring on your wheat; they’ll show you that it’s chaff. Who dat said dey gon beat dem Caps?
This cluster puck rolls on. Next up is the Hurricanes on Tuesday at Verizon. Pack your waders, folks.
Game highlights: