You can’t look at the current Capitals troupe without crying. Especially on the defensive line. Not only that, a long time ago, their leader John Carlson was on sick leave, and Dmitry Orlov is breaking performance records in Boston. Before visiting the Sharks, Martín Fehervara ended up in the infirmary with Nick Jensen, with whom the Capitalinos extended his contract for four seasons for $10 million at the end of February.
As a result, three rear debutants came out against the Sharks at once: 20-year-old Canadian Vincent Iorio and a couple of Swedes: 22-year-old Rasmus Sandin and 26-year-old Gabriel Karlsson. Also, Iorio had never played in the NHL before, and Karlsson played the first game of the season. Sandin just moved from Toronto – this is a real strengthening of “Washington” for the future.
It is not surprising that with such an unbeaten defense, the leader of which in terms of ice time unexpectedly turned out to be former Yulaev player Alexander Alekseev – 23:07, at the 16th minute the guests seemed hopelessly on fire – 0:2.
I confess that after a busy working day with four battles in the Gagarin Cup, at three in the morning I broke down and went to bed. Imagine my surprise in the morning when I saw the final result! Along the way, Ovi shot another double, added a point for the transfer and with 1470 (815 + 655) points he rose to 16th place among all-time NHL scorers! Finnish goalkeeper “Saint Joseph” Kaapo Kyahkenen became Alexander’s 168th victim. Only Jaromir Jagr (178) and Patrick Marlo (177) have more goalkeeper hair.
What happened after the starting third, in which the “sharks” crushed the guests – 20 shots against five? Yes, 33-year-old American forward Craig Smith, who came from the Bruins in exchange for Orlov, suddenly woke up! He scored a double, and his second goal was counted only after watching the video, making sure that he scored not with a hand, but with a handle.
This episode excited the hosts’ coach, David Quinn, so much that the American insulted the judges many times. The referees had no choice but to send the imposing brawler into exile until the end of the game in the locker room. This incident occurred when the score was 2:4, after which the game was essentially over.
Ovechkin, who played in a trio with Kuznetsov and Wilson, uncorked his czar cannon after the second break. I mainly uploaded from the well-known office No. 8 – Oshi finished it. 5:2. Then, in a playful attack down the right flank, he handed it into the far corner. 6:3. He summed up from nickel, where the shell was delivered by those same newcomers Sandin and Iorio. 7:3.
Well ladies and gentlemen fans of the Big Eight, but the new revival of the Capitals did not disappoint us:
Craig Smith – 2 (2+0) points, plus 3 utility;
Rasmus Sandin – 3 (0 + 3), “plus 1”;
Gabriel Karlsson – 2 (0 + 2), “plus 3”;
Vincent Iorio – 1 (0 + 1), “plus 2”.
By the way, on the eve of this meeting, Washington extended the contract with Nicolas Aube-Kyubel for one year for $1.225 million; early in the season, he was taken out of Toronto’s waiver draft. The Canadian forward thanked the leadership of the “capitals” with a goal and a useful pass “plus 2”.
In short, the championship of “Washington” is far from over. There are only three points left for the playoff border in the East, and there are 18 more rounds to go. With a glorious Dynamo player on the roster, the Capitals won’t let the sticks down for sure. Alexander himself had only 15 accurate shots left to knock out a fifty dollar season record tenth.
