The B team is unbeaten: Caps beat Isles 6-3

The B team is unbeaten: Caps beat Isles 6-3

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Puppy. Without virtually all of their star players, the Washington Capitals quickly fall into a three-goal kick for Barry Trotz’s New York Islanders. But then some magic happened.

The first period was the pits. Oliver Wahlstrom scored his first NHL goal, and Casey Cizikas passed on a magical departure on the next inning. Before the period was over, Anders Lee received a fee while Tom Wilson served a very soft penalty.

But get it: the Capitals scored five unanswered goals in the second period. The first two belonged to Conor Sheary – his first and second in a Caps uniform. Garnet Hathway leveled the game with a rushing goal, and then John Carlson’s one-time power play put the Caps ahead again, extending Zdeno Chara with a monster shot from the blue line.

In the third, the Caps stopped pushing. They resisted a power play in the late game, and then Tom Wilson sank an empty goal kick to secure a huge victory.

CAPS WEN!

Six goals ?! Our first Bailamos game of the year! Nothing is forbidden anymore.

  • Just a quick explanation: I call this team the Caps, but this is only technically true. There was no Ovi, Orlov, Samsonov, Kuznetsov or Eller. Wilson was clearly not 100 percent, and poor Nicky Backstrom had a boo-boo. I’m going to keep calling this team that the Caps because I love them, and Caps is a name I sometimes use for things I like.
  • Our caps was not necessarily played out in the first period, but was certainly surpassed. They handed Wahlstrom his first big league goal, and no, I do not stop at how many times this has happened recently. Cizikas’ goal was surprising, and otherwise the mistake of a PK bad read – which is to say that the goalkeeper Vitek Vanecek did not make big mistakes. He just did not make big savings.
  • Unrelated interruption: a new jam from our friends in a few hours:
  • I thought for a moment – and again wrong – that Laviolette might have rested Chara tonight after the last game of some ambiguity. I appreciated less how important experience would be for a random setup as we saw tonight. I’m very glad Chara played: he dominated five-to-five play, he helped with Sheary’s second goal, and he scored his first point as a hood to a hard celebration of his baby teammates to receive.
  • I was clumsy (I think that’s the right word; I do not play the stonks) Conor Sheary since way back. He has an excellent chance, which the Caps have needed for more than a year now. With two goals to kick off the return, Sheary delivered.
  • Early in the third, Caps defender Justin “Jeff” Schultz take a puck in the face. I suspect it was on his nose because there was a ton of blood on the ice. Schultz storms down the tunnel and does not return.

I did not see it coming. I was sure Washington’s score tonight would end with three goals early and almost all of their elite talent. I was wrong. I love being wrong.

I do not know how this team will feel when The Four return, but the guys who are here now and playing now – I like them a whole lot. Sheary and Schultz and Siegs and Sprong and big Z? They’re been my guys as long as fate allows, and I’m happy with that.

ps. Ian owes someone an apology. Three chubby, fuzzy someone.

RMNB coverage of caps against islands

NBC Sports Washington licensed screenshots

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