Tonight was chaos.
Plus: This was a wild one, but good on the Caps to seemingly feed off the wildness to claw back from being down 3-1, tying it up thanks to a sudden burst of offense – and led by Alex Ovechkin, who was crucial to the comeback and capped it off with a hat trick in the dying seconds. Pretty? No. Fun and a little weird? Totally. Welcome to Utah.
Minus: There were a few instances tonight where we could watch both sides of the “what if that had been Tom Wilson/had been anyone but Tom Wilson” hypothetical play out, as the officiating seemed to lean toward…let’s say inconsistent (although it was consistent in punishing #43 more than others). Puzzling to see a more dangerous hit on Matt Roy get just a two, the retribution get a four, and 10-minute misconducts handed out like candy while doing nothing to cool down tempers in this one.
Caps Player of the Game: Ivan Miroshnichenko hadn’t scored a goal in the NHL since November 2024…but he made up for lost time with two tonight. Related, tonight’s entry in “hey, so you wanna feel old?” comes courtesy of Tom Gulitti: