It’s hard to imagine but hockey is back! Like the players, you’ll have to give me a break because I have a lot of recap rust to knock off.
In the Washington Capitals first somewhat meaningful game back they dropped a shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Overall, it was a strong game by the Capitals, but it was easy to see they had a lot of rust they needed to shake off.
The Good: The first line that led the Capitals to their Stanley Cup victory two years ago looked really good today. Specifically, Evgeny Kuznetsov who has flying all over the ice even playing quite physical. This teams failure or success goes which ever way Kuznetsov goes, so hopefully that game was just the beginning for the Russian.
The Bad: The second line looked completely out of whack through out the game. Their passes were off, they couldn’t’ receive any passes when they were good, they were bobbling pucks, etc. They had some bright spots but mostly got out played. Good news is that line is made up of the three hardest workers so I wouldn’t fret over one bad round robin game.
Some notes:
Overall, it was a good game by the Capitals. They can always get better but considering there was no Carlson (the Lightning had no Steven Stamkos), they were the away team, and were playing a very strong, hungry team, it should be considered a win. Next up if the Philadelphia Flyers who were a pest to the Capitals all season. They’ll need to be even better to beat them.