The Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning came into Wednesday night’s action both in need of a win to right their wobbling ships. Only one team could leave with the full two points though.
Martin Fehervary jumped up into the play to open the evening’s scoring. John Carlson blasted home another on a power play. Nikita Kucherov responded with an uncontested wrister from the slot. Alex Ovechkin put his boys back up two right before Nick Paul responded yet again to cut that back in half.
John Carlson beat Andrei Vasilevskiy again for his second goal of the night and fourth point. Ross Colton one-timed the Lightning back into the game late in the third.
Capitals beat Lightning 4-3!
- Pretty even, very wide-open game in the first frame. Somehow five goals was probably on the lighter side. That’s not really the game I’d choose to play against the Lightning but hey, a lead is a lead.
- That first goal against was like the epitome of the Caps for long stretches this season. They have to avoid those. Just sheer lack of effort and a bunch of dudes not moving their feet looking like they were just plopped down on the ice in the middle of an NHL game for the first time in their lives.
- Ilya Samsonov can be tough to watch sometimes, man. That Nick Paul goal is one he just needs to have. Right after the Caps go back up two goals so it was extra killer. The third goal he just completely loses the puck and is nineteen miles from the right position he needs to be in. Just unfortunately typical for him this season.
Hedman headmanned it to the ahead man, Mann.
Is a sentence that would make sense if the Lightning had a player with the last name “Mann”.
— RMNB (@rmnb) April 7, 2022
- The Caps came out for the second and honestly…had a really awesome period. That was nice to see. They had five high danger chances at five-on-five to Tampa’s zero. The defense felt incredibly active to me in this game and that aggressiveness was paying off more times than not through forty minutes.
- Alex Ovechkin struck for his 773rd goal of his career and the strike was also his 1,400th all-time point. His wife Nastya was in attendance for the first time since January after returning from Russia.
- John Carlson with a four-point night and if not for a toenail being offside would have had a hat trick and five points. When he steps up like this, it really makes the team and especially the power play tough to play against.
- There’s a middle ground between the NBC intermission panel and the TNT intermission panel. Maybe one day a network will find it but for now, we’re apparently stuck with erectile dysfunction joke number 459.
THE BIG GREEN pic.twitter.com/ELE1ze0jkL
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) April 6, 2022
- Fantastic defensive third. Lightning had nothing.
- Shoutout to Trevor van Riemsdyk for his work on the penalty kill. Probably the most unsung hero on this Caps team. Great hockey player.
- Nikita Kucherov with the big ole embellishment near the end there. Typical for him. Got his team a goal with it too.
The Caps will have another couple of days off before they’ll meet with the Penguins on Saturday for an afternoon Metro Division lovefest.
Headline photo courtesy of Hannah Greene
