Sonny Milano watched the Capitals 5-4 shootout loss on Thursday night from the press box, with head coach Spencer Carbery citing his recent offensive struggles as to why. The winger hadn’t recorded a point in seven straight games, as the Caps would record their third straight loss that night. With the Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers coming into town, led by an old friend (or foe, depending on who you talk to. Which would apparently be most of the people in the Caps locker room) in Peter Laviolette
It took 43 seconds for Milano to flip all of that on its head, putting the finishing touch on a beautiful passing play between John Carlson and Martin Fehervary to get Washington on the board on their first shift of the game. Charlie Lindgren would turn away a few great chances from Alexis Lafreniere to keep it a 1-0 game after twenty minutes. This would set the stage for a second period that saw the Caps send New York to the shadow realm, piercing Igor Shesterkin for three more goals as the Rangers struggled to find any answers offensively.
From that point, it became less of a hockey game and more of a public skating session. The Caps had drained virtually all life out of the Rangers and held on for their most dominant showing of the year thus far.
3 Takeaways
- Sitting Kuznetsov and Milano for a game seemed to help them get back on the scoresheet. Maybe it’d work for Ove—
- Here’s a look at my inner monologue while writing this post:
