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The Capitals took it to the Ottawa Senators early and often, scoring thrice in the first period en route to a 4-2 drubbing in the clash of North American capital cities.
Here’s Tuesday night’s Plus/Minus:
And now, this…
J-Dub dances to Cotton Eyed Joe pic.twitter.com/Mo6DG58EOO
— CAPITALS HILL (@CapitalsHill) March 22, 2016
Ten more notes on the game:
- Would you believe it? Did you you buy a lottery ticket? The Capitals actually SCORED FIRST, when Tom Wilson forechecked Ottawa into oblivion and fed Mike Richards aka Kramer aka Mike Dicks on the door step for the first goal of the game.
- Then, on the powerplay, the World’s Greatest Hockey Player Alex Ovechkin put home a textbook give-and-go play for his 43rd goal of the season. The score increased his league lead over Prep School Guy With No Boundaries.
- Then, THEN, still in the first period, Quick Stick Nicklas Backstrom flipped home a cheeky marker on the backhand to give the Capitals a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period. Whoever had a 3-0 lead after the first in their office pool: congratulations, you’re a millionaire.
- The second period was largely a war of attrition until more than halfway through, when Ottawa’s Chris Wideman beat Braden Holtby over the shoulder to make it 3-1 Senators.
- The Senators, in the type of desperation known only by sailors on sinking ships or hay bales on fire, pulled their goaltender and managed to get one back with the extra skater in the final 90 seconds to make it 3-2 Capitals.
- If you play with fire, you gonna get burned, sucka. With the goalie still pulled, T.J. Oshie outran the backcheck and recorded a well-earned empty net goal to seal the 4-2 deal.
- Braden Holtby had the kind of bounce-back game that warms your cold heart and nukes your cold TV dinners. Das Holtbeast went 28-for-30 for a .933 save percentage and was by no means a Holtkitten.
- The Capitals managed to kill off a 5-on-3 penalty kill, and their stellar shorthanded unit continued to stunt and go 4-for-4. Wowza.
- With the win, the Capitals officially clinched their ownership of the Metropolitan Division and the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. I bathe in the tears of our enemies tonight.
- This means playoff home games, y’all.
A look at the turnover created by Wilson to then lead to the Richards tally#CapsSens pic.twitter.com/F20mhOttdT
— CAPITALS HILL (@CapitalsHill) March 22, 2016
What can you say about a team that’s wrapped up the Eastern Conference? I don’t know, but if the last 10 games look like this one, things look good. Go Caps.
Game highlights: