The Washington Capitals won their third straight game on
Wednesday night and tenth in their last 12 contests when they held on to defeat
the Ottawa Senators, 2-1, at Verizon Center.
It was game that for almost 55 minutes threatened to cure
insomnia among those in attendance and those watching on television or their
mobile devices. But we will get to that.
The Caps were the only team to score in those first 54
minutes and change, scoring in the first period on a goal by Michael
Latta. It was an odd play all around,
not just in who was the finisher. The
Caps were going for a line change in the 15th minute of the first
period, and there was some indecision about it.
While the Caps were sorting out who was going on and who was coming off,
Dmitry Orlov found himself being fed the puck at the players’ bench by Taylor
Chorney. Orlov turned and just lobbed
the puck into the Senators’ end. The
Senators were having issues of their own in coverage, and Latta took advantage
to dart down the middle through open ice to collect the puck. He skated in and flipped a forehand over
goalie Andrew Hammond’s glove to make it 1-0 at the 14:06 mark.
John Carlson doubled the Caps’ lead in the second period on
what was a great play by Justin Williams.
He broke out of a pack of players in the neutral zone and chased down a
loose puck sliding toward the Ottawa blue line.
Once in control of the puck, he skated in with Curtis Lazar on his hip
and hooking him. Having drawn the
delayed penalty, Williams curled off in the right wing faceoff circle and
looked as if he was reading progressions for a pass the way a quarterback would
in the NFL.
Williams looked for Latta in the middle, but he was
covered. He did not have a shooting
lane, nor a passing lane to Brooks Laich setting up in front. He spied John Carlson entering the zone and
hit him in stride with a pass that Carlson one-timed past Hammond to make it
2-0, a lead that would hold up for the rest of the period and much of the third
period.
The Caps were nursing that 2-0 lead when this happened…
Let’s look at the tale of the tape on this, okay? Tom Wilson is officially 6’4”/215. Curtis Lazar is 6’0”/209. Giving away four inches and looking in the
opposite direction while skating hunched over, if you skate into the path of the
larger opponent, your head might be at the level of the bigger player’s
shoulder. But even that was not the
case. Wilson’s shoulder hit Lazar’s
shoulder, and the whiplash of the unsuspecting player flipped his helmet almost
off, which made the play look worse.
Wilson received a match penalty (intent to injure).
Chris Neil getting up in Wilson’s face got him a roughing
minor that reduced the ensuing power play to three minutes, but it was
sufficient for the Senators to halve the lead on a goal by Bobby Ryan, who had
a deflected shot from Kyle Turris bounce off his leg and past goalie Braden
Holtby with 4:14 left in regulation.
That would be all the scoring, though. Holtby turned away the last five shots on
goal from Ottawa, and the Caps extended their lead in the Eastern Conference to
three points over the idle Montreal Canadiens.
Other stuff…
-- Players around the league talk to one another informally,
and one suspects that there is an officials’ “grapevine,” too. Maybe they asked one another if they read
this from Elliotte Friedman:
“The NHL’s Player Safety Department met with several repeat offenders in an attempt to reign them in. One was Zac Rinaldo, who escaped suspension a week earlier for hitting Sean Couturier, much to the department’s chagrin. While in Arizona during camp, Chris Pronger spoke with Steve Downie and John Scott. New Jersey’s Jordin Tootoo was offered the opportunity after being fined for a dangerous trip. Now on the radar? Washington’s Tom Wilson. Several teams have complained about his hits. As of yet, no meeting. But it’s been requested.”
And if this is true, it is bad news for Tom Wilson, who
seems to be getting special attention from the striped shirts. It is hard, looking at a replay of his hit on
Curtis Lazar, to understand how it qualified as a penalty, let alone a major,
and certainly not a match penalty with intent to injure. If I’m walking down the hall, looking to my
left, and walk into a wall on my right, chances are it is going to stun
me. Ramp that up to hockey speed, and it
was hardly surprising that Lazar would have found himself stunned by skating
into the larger player who had momentum of his own.
-- That is the third
straight game in which Braden Holtby allowed just one goal, that following five
straight games allowing two goals. Over
those eight games he is 7-0-1, 1.59, .952.
-- The Caps out-attempted the Senators, 22-15, at 5-on-5 in
the first period. That sort of dominance
did not carry into the second period (13-9, Ottawa) or the third period (9-8,
Caps). At least they were not dominated
as they had been in some recent games.
-- Alex Ovechkin had a nice poker hand in this game…four
threes. Three shots on goal, three
missed shots, three shots blocked, and three hits. No points, though. That makes three straight games without a
point, his longest such streak since a season-high four-game streak back in
mid-November.
-- T.J. Oshie and Dmitry Orlov were the only Caps not to
record a shot on goal.
-- Michael Latta added an assist on the John Carlson goal,
giving him a two-point game, the second multi-goal game of his career. His last one was in a 5-4 Caps win over
Columbus on December 18, 2014.
-- John Carlson’s goal gave him six on the season and 24
points, good enough for fourth place by himself in total scoring among
defensemen.
-- The Caps had only nine shots on goal in the last 34:17 of
the game.
-- John Carlson leading the Caps defensemen in shot attempts
is not surprising (he did, with seven), but Taylor Chorney was next with four
(two shots on goal, two attempts blocked).
-- Matt Niskanen had the sampler meal in this one – one shot,
one missed shot, one hit, one giveaway, one takeaway, one blocked shot, one
penalty.
In the end…
The Caps continue to bank points without the benefit of 60
minutes of their “A” game. That is a
good thing, standings-wise, but it is a situation that still could use some
improvement, even if the Caps did finish north of 50 percent in Corsi at 5-on-5
(52.6 percent). They get contributions from a variety of sources, tonight’s
being Michael Latta with a pair of points.
That is another good thing. But
the best thing of all continues to be Braden Holtby, who is putting together
what could be one of the most special seasons in franchise history.
Getting sturdier contributions from other places will be of
some importance as the Caps move into their “rematch” phase of the
schedule. They face the Tampa Bay
Lightning on Friday in what will be their second meeting in eight days and
third in less than a month. Then it will
be the New York Rangers, who laid a 5-2 thumping on the Caps in the first game
of November in the last meeting of the clubs.
It’s all part of the adventure.
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