It started late in the second period when T.J. Oshie was
finishing a check on Logan Couture. In
doing so, he appeared to lose his balance and Joe Thornton, following in on the
play, clipped Oshie’s head with his hip and jamming it into the boards. Oshie stayed down on the ice for several
moments before being helped up and off the ice, not to return. No penalty was called on the play.
Justice was meted out early in the third period when Tom
Wilson challenged Thornton to face the music.
Thornton got a couple of early blows in, but Wilson finished him with a
straight right that dropped him to the ice.
Sharks head coach Pete DeBoer took exception to Wilson challenging Thornton, but Thornton shrugged it off.
Losing Oshie for any length of time would be a high price to
pay, indeed, for a win such as this, even one against a club the Caps rarely
beat.
Other stuff…
-- Rarely? Absolutely. This was the first Capitals win over San Jose
in regulation since they beat the Sharks by the same 4-1 margin on October 15,
2009. It was just their second win in
regulation against San Jose in more than 18 years, dating back to February
1999. After last night’s win, the Caps are
4-19-3 against the Sharks in their last 26 games.
-- The scoring started late in the first period when Jay
Beagle fought off Justin Braun below the Sharks’ goal line to get control of
the puck. He exchanged passes with Alex
Chissson before getting the puck out to John Carlson at the right point. Carlson’s first attempt at a shot was
flubbed, but he took another swing, guiding the puck to the San Jose net where
Devante Smith-Pelly redirected it past goalie Martin Jones at the 16:49 mark.
-- The Caps took a two-goal lead in the eighth minute when
Alex Ovechkin interrupted a pass to Brent Burns for a one-timer, Ovechkin
kicking the puck to the blue line where he hunted it down and took off on a
breakaway. Brendon Dillon chased
furiously to try to at least take away Ovechkin getting position to pull the
puck to his forehand for a shot, and he managed to do so. But Ovechkin angled his body to protect the
puck and lifted a backhand over Jones’ blocker to make it 2-0, 7:11 into the
period.
-- Timo Meier got the Sharks within a goal four minutes
later when the puck caromed strangely off the end boards right onto his stick
in the low slot. However, the Caps got a
late second period goal for the second straight game, courtesy of Brett
Connolly, but not without a little controversy.
The play started on a Caps power play when Evgeny Kuznetsov took a hit
to make a play, knocked to the ice by Dylan Demelo at the Sharks’ blue line,
but still managing to chip the puck to Ovechkin on his left. Ovechkin found Connolly going to the net, and
Connolly roofed a backhand that at first glance seemed to hit the crossbar and
carom out. Play continued for a few more
seconds, during which Ovechkin rang another shot off the crossbar, before the
referee stopped play. Video review
clearly showed that Connolly’s shot hit the white framing bar under the net
past the crossbar, thus making it a good goal, and the Caps had a 3-1 lead with
just 52 seconds left in the period.
-- Jakub Vrana ended the scoring on another power play
mid-way through the third period, a goal illustrating the virtues of
patience. As several Caps and Sharks
fought for possession of the puck in close to Jones’ right, Vrana waited
patiently, stick on the ice, at the top of the crease. Eventually, the puck squirted out to him, and
all he had to do was snap it into the back of the net before Jones could
reposition himself.
-- Travis Boyd made his NHL debut in this game and recorded
one shot on goal in 9:10. He became the
first player in franchise history to wear the jersey number “72” in a regular
season game.
-- Ovechkin’s goal was his 20th of the season,
making him the 11th player in NHL history to score 20 or more goals
in each of his first 13 seasons. He
added an assist for his 302nd career multi-point game, extending his
franchise record (Peter Bondra: 208).
Since the 2005-2006 season, he is second in that number only to Sidney
Crosby (314).
-- The Caps, as they did against Columbus on Saturday,
spread things around, nine players sharing the ten points recorded. Four different players had the goals.
-- Washington had two fights for the first time since October
13th against the New Jersey Devils and the first time this season on
home ice. In addition to the
Wilson-Thornton fight, Alex Chiasson and Barclay Goodrow went at it in the
third period after Goodrow high-sticked John Carlson. San Jose would be hit with a third major
penalty late when Brendan Dillon slashed Madison Bowey with just seconds left
in the game. He also received a game
misconduct.
-- Lost in the noise of the scoring, the fighting, and the
concern over Oshie might have been a 24-save effort by goalie Philipp Grubauer.
In the end…
On one level, it was nice to see the Caps perform well and
stand firm against a team as difficult historically as the Sharks. But if it means that T.J. Oshie misses any
significant time, compounded by the continued absence of Andre Burakovsky (who
might return next week), it is a high, perhaps too high a price to pay for the
good feeling such a win provides.
That said, this was a game that could be significant on
several levels. The obvious element is
winning. One regulation win in 18 years
is quite a hurdle to overcome. But there
were other elements, in combination, that might signal something. Ovechkin got his goal, his 20th in
Game 28 (he did not get his 20th goal until Game 41 last season, and
in his last 50-goal season two years ago did not hit that mark until Game 35). But there was Devante Smith-Pelly getting his
second goal in four games, as did Jakub Vrana.
Brett Connolly had a goal in his second straight game. The team spread their contributions
around. They stood up for one
another.
Maybe, just maybe, they are forging an identity here. Stay tuned.
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