Gamecenter — Natural Stat Trick
The Washington Capitals returned from their bye week and All-Star break for their first home game in nearly two weeks on Wednesday night. After the players basked in the Mexican/Miami/someplace better than you were sun and Carey Price’s weaknesses, Caps fans returned to Capital One Arena. Surprisingly, the hockey rink was not filled with cobwebs and scary characters from horror movies. Fans got a free scarf too, which will come in handy when the temperatures hit 60º next week.
The Capitals, facing off on national television against the Nashville Predators, looked ready to begin the unofficial second half of the season smoothly against a team that fired its coach just a few weeks ago. Watching a Predators broadcast is more terrifying than 1917, at least though the announcers’ point of view.
This game, too, was horrifyingly bad for at least two people: Capitals goalie Braden Holtby and Predators netminder Juuse Saros.
The goaltenders were more bowling pins than puck stoppers at times, but the Predators managed to pull off a comeback 5-4 victory.
Plus: Alex Ovechkin, with his first period tap-in goal, moved into sole possession of ninth place on the NHL all-time goal-scoring list with 693 goals, passing Steve Yzerman.
Minus: There were a lot of weak goals, including an own goal from below the redline by the Predators. That gave a struggling Richard Panik a two-goal game as Slovakian was the last Caps player to touch the puck after scoring on a weak shot to open to scoring. Holtby also allowed an inexcusable five-goal goal. There were other soft tallies, including Ovechkin’s aforementioned goal. I may be missing a few, but my brain can only handle so much.
This was a bad hockey game.
The Caps are back in action Friday night in Ottawa. The Sens are bad. So, Capitals, please win that one — and make it more of a hockey game than a hockey-adjacent sporting contest.