Less than 24 hours after a 6-2 thrashing from the Winnipeg Jets, the Columbus Blue Jackets came into Washington looking to rebound against the Capitals. Would they?
First Period
Nope!
CAPITALS GOAL – Aliaksei Protas from Dylan Strome and Alexander Ovechkin – 0:56 1st Period
CAPITALS GOAL – Connor McMichael from Rasmus Sandin – 1:42 1st Period
CAPITALS GOAL – Andrew Mangiapane from Jakub Vrana and Hendrix Lapierre – 7:28 1st Period
CAPITALS GOAL – Alexander Ovechkin from Dylan Strome – 14:34 1st Period
CAPITALS GOAL – Nic Dowd from Trevor van Riemsdyk and Brandon Duhaime – 14:58 1st Period
Everything sucked that period. Five goals against. Four defensive collapses. Three Capitals goals before the Jackets’ first shot. Two instances of two goals in under a minute. And a partridge in a pear tree.
We had a powerplay. It was mid. Didn’t get anything going offensively. Didn’t do anything defensively. This game was relegated to quadbox status less than eight minutes in.
Goals for the rest: Come out fighting, win the next two periods, try not to bring back the ghosts of yesteryear.
Second Period
The good news: That was a lot better!
The Jackets opened the second period with a quick goal, as Damon Severson barely got one through Logan Thompson.
BLUE JACKETS GOAL – Damon Severson from Adam Fantilli – 0:56 2nd Period
Unfortunately, the Capitals would get one back, as Connor McMichael got his second of the night by banking a shot of David Jiricek following a 2-on-1 chance.
CAPITALS GOAL – Connor McMichael (2) from Tom Wilson and Pierre-Luc Dubois – 4:51 2nd Period
Weirdly enough, the Blue Jackets started to actually look good after this. Columbus got consistent zone time, seemed to be able to play the game they wanted to, and in general actually looked half-decent! They’d outshoot Washington 19-9 this period, and actually took leads in Corsi%, Fenwick%, and Expected Goals (63.86%, 58.82%, and 4.16-1.6 respectively), making the Capitals scramble. After a swap of penalties, that scramble would result in a goal, as Kevin Labanc would literally shove in his first as a Blue Jacket after a lengthy review.
BLUE JACKETS GOAL – Kevin Labanc from Zach Aston-Reese – 14:36 2nd Period
The Jackets would continue the pressure, and earn another powerplay with two minutes to go. Considering the scoreboard, this was about as good of a period as you could ask for from the CBJ. Won it 2-1!
Third Period
To be honest, it was kinda a nothing-burger of a third period. Neither team was really able to get any type of sustained pressure, more or less just letting the clock wind down. Only 15 shots on goal in the frame.
One of those went in though, as I was typing that. Ovechkin found Strome to add a cherry on top of their 7-2 sundae.
CAPITALS GOAL – Dylan Strome from Alexander Ovechkin and Taylor Raddysh – 18:34 3rd Period
The Jackets begin the West Coast stretch of the roadtrip Tuesday night in San Jose. That’s also voting day, so make sure you vote! And it’s the timechange tonight, so you set your clocks also. Eat your vegetables, God save the Queen.