Game Summary – Event Summary – Shot Summary – Face-off Summary – Play By Play – Home TOI – Visitor TOI – HockeyViz – Money Puck – Natural Stat Trick
Washington entered tonight’s contest, the second of two in a row against the New York Rangers winners of seven straight, and having claimed points in thirteen of their last fourteen outings. After a strong comeback led by two third-period goals from Alex Ovechkin an evening ago, Washington fell by a score of 3-1 after allowing a late goal in the third to bring the winning streak to an end.
Here’s Saturday night’s Plus/Minus:
Plus: Mazel tov Evgeny!
Minus: Washington is now 0-for-16 on the power play in five games vs. the Rangers this season.
and now this…:
Ten more notes on the game:
6. Through the first two periods, Washington had out-shot New York 17-15 and continued to display more physicality with 21 blocked shots to the Rangers’ six, not to mention the Caps’ 12 blocked shots as opposed to just six for the visitors.
7. Not even remotely related to this game, BUT there’s something I’m excited to talk about (and have some time to put digital ink to paper in the intermission.) The Capitals organization made a move this week that I feel obligated to mention, and that was the decision to re-assign Aliaksei Protas on Thursday to Hersey. Depending on how much attention you pay to these kinds of things, you may or may not know about Protas, but I would highly encourage you, dear reader, to take some time to check this dude out. He’s still likely a few years away from being in the conversation of making it at the NHL level, but he’s definitely worth watching. Built like a defenseman, the 20-year-old Belarusian is 6’6’’, 205 pounds. I had the chance to see him in a pre-season game last year and immediately became hooked on his progress. That’s the eye test, baby! He’s been a standout in his pro hockey career everywhere he’s suited up: after being drafted in the third round of the 2019 draft, he recorded 80 points (31g, 49a) in 58 games for the Prince Albert Raiders in 2019-20, ranking ninth in the WHL in points. This year he’s made a splash in the KHL, racking up 10 goals and 18 points in 58 games for Dinamo Minsk, despite only receiving 12:52 per game of ice time. Anyway, as a Lover of Big Guys™, I highly recommend checking out some of his tape and getting unreasonably excited at the prospect of him suiting up in the red, white, and blue. Anyway, back to the recap…
8. With 2:32 left to go in the third, Mika Zebanajad separated Brendan Dillion from the puck in the defensive zone and deposited it high glove side behind Ilya Samsonov. A furious effort on the 6-on-5 was thwarted as Brett Howden picked up the ENG to bring the Caps’ winning streak to an end.
9. The top storyline of the night was Tom Wilson, who returned to the ice for the first time following his seven-game suspension, in which he saw his team go 7-0-0. Wilson finished picked up an assist, a blocked shot, and tallied just one hit in 16:33 of ice time over 23 shifts. He also picked up the aforementioned slashing penalty early in the contest.
10. Ilya Samsonov offered up a remarkable performance in the loss. He finished the night stopping 22-of-24 shots for a .916% save percentage. He made a number of heroic saves to bail out Washington’s defense on more than a handful of chances.
Hockey giveth and hockey taketh away. Last night the one-goal contest belonged to Washington, tonight it was their turn to be on the wrong side of the scoreline in a close game. The loss also ended their seven-game winning streak which had elevated them to the top of a very competitive life insurance-sponsored East division. Up next: a well-deserved four-day break after eight games in the last fourteen days.