20131210

Home on the Rangers

I alluded, in my last post, to this being a good game, and it was.

The lines were the same as against the Preds, although the D swapped Oleksy back in for Wey (though Wey was scratched, rather than being sent down.  Perhaps a sign of satisfaction at his play against Nashville?).  There was also a little bit of rest for Holtby.  Since Neuvy is still hurt (I didn't mention it earlier, but he hurt himself stepping onto the ice in the last game against Montreal), Grubauer got his first career start.

One surprise (for me) came early, when they gave Lundqvist's career stats against Washington (regular season edition).  His save percentage was only .907; not bad, of course, but less than his career numbers.  I wonder if his postseason numbers are better?

Anyway, things got off to a slow start.  Actually, it was slow for both teams, with neither able to sustain any pressure and very few good chances.  The first period ended scoreless, with seven shots on each side.  Both teams had long stretches with no shots attempted, and the Caps managed to go the first half of the period without an unblocked shot.

But it ended without any damage, and without Gru needing to look like superman, and with the Caps holding a slight edge in Fenwick.

The second period, though, as it has much of the season, treated the Caps very well.  Chimmer opened the scoring two and a half minutes in by beating the Rangers defenders to a loose puck in the crease and sliding it into the goal.  The fourth line followed that up with a long-range goal from Oleksy (good call, giving him a sweater) only twenty-five seconds later, and the team basically cruised from there.

Grabo scored on a penalty shot just before the end of the period, rifling a very short-range slapshot into the roof of the net that had Richter upset about his own performance.  Worth noting, too, that the breakaway that led to the penalty call was a nice sendaway by Brouwer, when he intercepted a pass near the top of the defensive zone.  Also worth noting that this was a rare instance of a penalty shot on a delayed penalty, as the Caps kept possession after the call for half a minute or so.  Nice, all the way around.

I can't really tell much about the third period; with a three-goal lead, I wasn't paying a lot of attention.  Schmidt scored again, and Pouliot scored a minute later, with both goals close to the end of the game.

Overall, it was a very well-played game, with the Caps playing with the edge in Fenwick for most of the game, and soundly winning.  It was a very surprising result, playing on the road in the second of back-to-back games (though, to be fair, it was the second of a back-to-back for NY as well).

Penalties were even on the game, with no power play goals from either team (although there was some significant luck there, for the Caps, as they allowed eight shots on the two power plays).  Special teams did factor in a little bit, though, as Grabo's breakaway came on 4-on-4 play.

All in all, the only negative were those PK shots; that's definitely too many, although I suppose they did get one really good scoring chance of their own, during one of those penalties.

Next game is tonight against the Stamkos-less Lightning; a good chance to get a little more breathing room in second place.  Go Caps!

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