The Caps welcomed the Islanders of New York Wednesday night.
The big story for me was the NHL debut of our 2022 19 year old Russian 1st round pick Ivan Miroshnichenko. I have had my eye on him since we drafted him. He looks and seems like the total package for that young resurgence this team desperately needs.
The Caps got on the board first from another one of our young guns Hendrix Lapierre who was called up with Miro. Hendrix took advantage of the open ice in-front and ripped a snapshot past the Isles goalie. This was his 2nd goal of the season and has a total of 5 points in his 18 career games. Expect to see him in the lineup more frequently.
The Isles were able to tie the game early into the 2nd period.
Then we got to see Joel Edmundson net his first goal as a Washington Capital from a rocket of a one-timer at the point to give the Caps the 2-1 lead.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before but late in the 3rd the Caps lost the lead. This time it was from a bad clearing attempt by John Carlson who tried to backhand the puck in a weak fashion out of the zone, but instead right to Anders Lee who added some back hand sauce roof job to tie the game.
Overtime we go (again), after an Islanders penalty the Caps go on the powerplay. The boys controlled the puck the majority of the power play until a little back and forth passing from Ovi to Strome, Stromer rifled a wrist shot to give the Caps the 3-2 OT victory.
This adds to Strome’s team leading 13th goal and his 2nd career overtime goal. 8 of his 13 goals have come in the 3rd period or overtime.
With that assist from Ovi he is now tied with Evgeni Malkin for second most overtime points (39) in NHL history only behind Sidney Crosby who has 43.
Great team win overall especially with facing adversity in the 3rd period again.
Miro looked great in his debut almost had a goal, but was a presence on the ice.
Ovechkin is still goal-less now in 14 games, but he isn’t shying away from action he had 8 shots in regulation. The slump continues but it only takes one and that could come sooner rather than later with the boys traveling to Ohio to play a terrible defensive team that is Columbus.
Would have liked them to finish the game in regulation but defensive woes leaving Keumper out to dry prevented that even after dominating New York for two periods. He played great by the way in my opinion minus the first soft goal he let in. Kuemper has been 3-0 in his last three starts making 30 saves last night and having a 1.61 goals against average during that period.
The Caps best line last night was the combo of Mantha, Protas, and replacing McMichael who was out due to illness was Lapierre. It was nice to see him fill that line easy and looked like they didn’t skip a beat.
I think as we stand today, this team is exceeding expectations I know it’s early but I thought we’d be in a much worse spot overall. Now do I think they could be a serious Cup contender? No, but do I think they could squeak into the playoffs? Yes! So time will tell.
The Capitals are back in action tonight in a quick turn around from last nights game against the Blue Jackets so expect Lindgren in net tonight.
The Morning Skate 