The Caps hosted the St. Louis Blues for the opening salvo of a home-and-home series on Thursday night, which just so happened to be Country Music Night at Capital One Arena.
TJ Oshie, almost as if scripted, got the scoring started against his former team with a great individual effort on the power play being rewarded with a serenade of “Country Roads” from those in attendance. After a four-minute penalty kill, it’d be the Blues’ turn to have someone score against their original squad, as our old friend Nathan Walker was able to tip in a shot that also bounced off of Ethan Bear to even things up heading into the break.
Early on in the second, Nick Aube-Kubel banked a cross-ice pass perfectly on Blues defenseman Justin Faulk’s skate and past goalie Jordan Binnington, a move that I’m sure NAK would tell you he meant to do. This preceded a slew of penalties in the second period, with 5 being doled out. The Caps, who had killed a four minute double-minor in the first, found themselves down a man on three separate occasions in the second, and came out unscathed each time. On the flipside, Oshie was able to pierce Binnington again with his second power play tally of the night midway through the period.
The refs would give their whistles the rest of the night off in the third, which saw Dylan Strome put away a rebound from an Alex Ovechkin one-timer less than a minute in. There wasn’t much fear of an “It Was 4-1” situation here, as the Blues really had no answers for the Caps on offense throughout the night. Nathan Walker was again able to tip a shot through Lindgren again to cut the 4-1 deficit in half, but the Caps were really able to go on cruise control through the rest of the night, as a TJ Oshie empty-netter would give him his 6th career hat trick, and sent Washington home with their second straight win, as they get ready to suit up against the same squad in a different barn this Saturday.
Three Takeaways
St. Louis entered the night as one of the weaker offensive teams in the league, and the Caps took advantage of that. Despite having 5 power plays (including a double minor), the Blues barely hit 20 on the shot counter, amounting to 0.99 expected goals in 5 on 5 play. Washington didn’t concede much in their own zone, and whatever shots the Blues did get through, they didn’t challenge Charlie Lindgren much for the most part. Back-to-back strong defensive outings for DC.
The Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson line was reunited again, to…their usual results. The drop-off in their effectiveness compared to when Dylan Strome is centering those two wingers is staggering.
Since his pit stop in Minnesota, TJ Oshie has injected a lot of the scoring touch that’s been missing in the Caps lineup throughout this year.
They Said It: