[AP Recap – Game Summary – Event Summary]
The Caps came from behind twice in the third period and won the game on a Brian Pothier overtime 5-on-3 power play goal to kick off the preseason the right way. Having not seen the game, we’ll leave it to the professionals to recap (Corey’s period-by-period impressions can be found here), but a few things jump off the scoresheet and from Steve Kolbe‘s call of the game:
- A couple of primary helpers from Nicklas Backstrom should help him make the team.
- Tyler Sloan continues to make a strong case for starting the season in Washington, making Karl Alzner and John Carlson even longer shots than they were before.
- “Jeff Schultz, two minutes for cross checking.” Love it (also worth noting: Schultz led all skaters in ice time).
- The Caps won 62% of the game’s faceoffs, and only Anton Gustafsson (1-for-4) finished below 63%.
- Jay Beagle‘s goal, four shots and 70% faceoff percentage makes a statement.
- Joe Finley‘s fists did not.
- It sounds as if Mike Knuble‘s goal was exactly the kind he’s getting paid to score: ugly, which is beautiful.
- Semyon Varlamov, from the sounds of it (and the picture above), was quite sharp, for the most part.
And so it’s off to Chicago at 1-0. More importantly, with just two weeks until the regular season opens, the Caps are finally getting to play some real hockey… and we’re getting to enjoy it, even if we can’t see it.