Well I don't know if anyone will read this post it's been a long while since I posted but I had a thoroughly enjoyable time this evening attending the Washington Capitals 2021-2022 NHL Season Opener at Capital One Center. What a great hockey game to watch if you were a Washington Capitals fan like I am.
If you had told me back when I saw Alex Ovechkin first play for the Washington Capitals at then Verizon Center in 2005-2006, I was going to see him score his 731st and 732nd NHL goals 16 years later and the he'd score a shorthanded goal to surpass Marcel Dionne for number 5 on the NHL All Time Scoring list, I really don't know what I'd have said. I mean from his first NHL season I think we knew we were watching a guy with special talent, possibly generational talent, but legendary talent? That wasn't yet something I suspected. I mean every time over the past two seasons when asked by sports journalists "What's it mean to pass <Insert Legend's Name Here>, Alex clearly indicates it's very special and somewhat humbling. But on the way home from the game tonight I thought about watching games that Marcel Dionne played and fantastic goals he scored in the late 1970's while he played for the Los Angeles Kings, he was just so, so good, you rarely thought of him as being only 5'8" tall but he is and he had such awesome hands and shot placement. How amazing and legendary was Marcel Dionne as an NHL Player - well in January 2004, Dionne was one of six NHL All-Stars immortalized in a series of Canadian postage stamps. That's pretty legendary to have your face on a national postage stamp, that's the company Alex Ovechkin is now among. Thank you Mr.Ovechkin for all the wonder and joy you've filled my and other hockey fans, especially us Washington Capitals fans for the past 17 seasons. It's been so cool to me to watch so many of your 732 goals live in person from my seat in Section 103 since you've entered the league.
In other hockey news this evening at 7th and F Streets in Washington DC, Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette won his 674th game as an NHL Coach, surpassing John Tortorella as the US Board NHL coach with the most career wins; as an aside he did so when our/his Washington Capitals beat the New York Rangers, the team Laviolette played for, 5-1. During the game Capitals First Round Draft pick, 19 year old Hendrix Lapierre played his first NHL game and scored his first NHL goal. Lapierre's first NHL goal was a beauty, a "goal scorer's goal" as the cliche' goes. Lapierre had a great camp this fall to earn his spot on the opening night roster, and looked excellent all night long. Capitals goaltender Vitek Vanecek played an excellent game as well, especially during the first period, where the Capitals had a slow start and were outplayed by every measure by the Rangers however, thanks to Vanecek, and a PPG by TJ Oshie, primary asset to Alex Ovechkin, the score at the end of the first period was Capitals 1 - Rangers 0.
Thankfully the Capitals came out for the second period "hitting on all cylinders" took control of the game and played the entire second period with control, discipline and speed. By the end of the second period Justin Schultz had a PPG; and just 24 seconds after that Lapierre scored his first NHL goal with both his parents and grandparents in attendance to see him play in his first NHL game; that was just very cool. The second period ended with the score Capitals 3 - Rangers 0.
The third period was well played, especially by the Capitals, but despite Rangers speedster, Chris Kreider scoring a PPG for the Rangers, to break Vanecek's bid for a shutout; it really was "The Alex Ovechkin Show." Just after the start of the third period, the Capitals went on the power play. The Caps PP was excellent all game long, during this one, Alex Ovechkin potted a rebound down low on the left side of the low slot to net his 731st career goal and tie legendary 5'8" scorer Marcel Dionne for number 5 on the All Time List; a goal that put the Capitals up 4-0 just 2;37 into the period. Then at 9:13 in the period Kreider scored his shutout breaking PPG making it 4-1. At the 10:05 mark of the third, TJ Oshie was called for tripping and sent to the sin bin; this set the stage for what ended up enabling all of us in the sellout opening night crowd, a rare event as regards Alex Ovechkin goals - the Great Eight scored career goal 732 while the Capitals were short handed, and took sole possession of spot Number 5 on the NHL All Time Goal Scoring list. Wow, just WOW.
Takeaways from the opening night game versus the Rangers:
1) In the second and third periods, the Capitals looked faster and more "in synch" that the Rangers. The new faces in the lineup all younger blood played well and seem to be blending in well with the veterans. To me thats just very, very encouraging.
2) Vanecek (SV% 0.958) had a much, much better game than Georgiev (SV% 0.815). Regardless of how everything else goes in an NHL game, it's a rare night a team looks good when their goaltender has a SV% < 0.880 - the Rangers need him to play much closer to his ability if they are to achieve their goals for this season. Of course it doesn't help matter when your team's ownership is stuck in the 80's wasting $1.75M of salary cap space and a roster spot on the 2021-2022 version of Nick Fotiu (aka Ryan Reaves.)
3) The Capitals woes in the Face-off Circle a carry over from last season continued through this Season's opener. The Rangers took 61% of the draws. That's just not good enough. They need to bring in a specialist to examine what they are doing wrong closely and work with their centerman to fix this issue, else it will be an arrow to their heart in some important games between now and hopefully next June.
Looking ahead to next game vs. Tampa Bay on Saturday evening, the Capitals have to come out faster in the first period, and be harder on the puck as well as much better in the face off circle. That said last night's game was a great start of the season, the Capitals passing game looked much better than the Rangers and the Capitals played with more structure and disciple than their opponents. Additionally, the Capitals' shot select was much better than the Rangers making their puck possessions much more productive particularly from the start of the second period and through the end of the third period.
#LetsGoCaps
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