NHL Gamecenter – Corsica – Natural Stat Trick
The Montreal Canadiens came into Thursday night’s contest having lost 5 in a row, while the Capitals came in rocking back-to-back losses. SOMEONE MUST WIN, BUT WHO WOULD IT BE??
Here’s Thursday night’s Plus/Minus:
Plus: Alex Ovechkin inches ever closer to the astonishing milestone that is 700 goals.
Minus: The Capitals get a loser point out of this one, but that marks three straight losses for the good guys.
And now, this…
Ten more notes on the game:
1. After losing back-to-back games out West to the Coyotes and the Golden Knights, the Capitals would look to get back to their winning ways within the friendly home confines of Capital One Arena. Could they do it?
2. If they could, it would be with the newly-acquired services of former San Jose Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon, who arrived in DC in a trade earlier this week. The 6’4, 220-lb defenseman would look to make an impact in his very first game, paired with Captain America John Carlson on the top defensive tandem.
3. One person eager for a moving of the ol’ needle is captain Alex Ovechkin, who had remained stuck on career goal #698 for several games now. Could he inch closer to the septagonal milestone that eluded him so far?
4. Wellllll, it’s funny you ask……..because just five minutes into this contest, The Gr8 Eight would strike on a little wrister from the circle, slinging home a goal that marked Ovi’s 699th in his career, and gave Washington a 1-0 lead early.
5. But, with 2 minutes remaining in the first stanza, Montreal captain Shea Weber would do what he does best (check the All-Star Game festivities if ye doubt the claim), smashing a massive clapper from the blue line that rang the right post and angled in, knotting this contest at 1-1 at the end of the first period.
6. The second frame would see a lot of futile back and forth, like lumberjacks working a dull saw. That is, until the dying minutes of the frame, when Lars “The Lartian” Eller would extract another pound of flesh from his former club that spurned him, curling around the back of the net and then knocking his own shot out of the air with a baseball swing to give Washington a 2-1 lead late in the second.
7. But, in the absolute dying seconds of the second frame, Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher knocked home a loose-puck put-back to knot this one AGAIN at 2-2 heading into the third and final period.
8. And again, just 30 seconds into the final stanza, Ben Chiarot walked into the zone with ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD, beating Braden Holtby with a wrister that gave Montreal a 3-2 lead.
9. BUT WITH HOLTBY ON THE BENCH AND THE EXTRA ATTACKER ON THE ICE, Tom Wilson punched home a rebound in the crease with just 20 seconds left to TIE THE GAME AT 3-3 AND SECOND THIS CONTEST TO OVERTIME!
10. Buuuuuut, just mere ticks into overtime, Ben Chiarot (again) ripped a blast that beat Holtby’s pads, and sent the Canadiens home winners 4-3.
The Capitals have now lost three in a row. That’s bad. But Brenden Dillon looked good. That’s….good?
Next up is the New Jersey Devils in Newark on Saturday.