It’s been a long time coming for the Caps’ 25-year-old rookie netminder from the Czech Republic.
Vitek Vanecek – drafted by the Capitals in the 2nd Round (39th overall) in 2014 – has waited patiently for this opportunity, spending the past five seasons with the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League. Twice an AHL All-Star (2019, 2020), you might’ve thought this opportunity would’ve come a lot sooner for a player of Vanecek’s ilk. And in most other organizations, you probably would’ve been right.
But the Washington Capitals’ net – long guarded by Vezina trophy winner and Stanley Cup winner Braden Holtby – was already spoken for. Up until this past offseason, that is.
Yes, with the Capitals tight to the salary cap ceiling and with Holtby’s stats declining over the past three seasons, the Caps made the painful decision to let their longtime starter walk in free agency. Holtby would ultimately sign a two-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks (and if I’m right — will spend just one season in Vancouver before ultimately being snatched up by the Seattle Kraken in the upcoming expansion draft).
The timing was right for Holtby’s departure, even if it was sad to admit that. Like I mentioned, Holtby’s stats had been in decline for the past three seasons now and with a flat salary cap thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the Caps were better off spending that money elsewhere — such as on their shiny new blue line (hello Justin Schultz, Zdeno Chara, Trevor van Riemsdyk!).
Enter Vitek Vanecek. With a spot finally available in Washington’s crease, Vanecek had a strong training camp and beat out veteran Craig Anderson to have the first shot at being Ilya Samsonov’s backup. And tonight, a dream came true for the young Czech as he made his first NHL start against the Buffalo Sabres.
All told, he stopped 30 of 31 Sabres’ shots – including helping the Caps to kill off five-straight Buffalo power plays – to secure his 1st NHL win in his 1st NHL game.
A 1.00 GAA and a .968 save percentage. Not a bad start to your NHL career, kid.
On the offensive side of things for the Caps, it was the top-six forwards doing the damage once again. Jakub Vrana got the party started, taking a sick pass from Tom Wilson and breaking in to roof a wicked shot past Sabres’ goalie Linus Ullmark. There were two things that were particularly beautiful about this goal, aside from the obvious (the pass and the shot): #1 was the way that Wilson completely beat his man in a one-on-one battle to win control of the puck, and #2 was the way that Vrana was able to make such an incredible shot while fully in stride, in order to avoid having the Sabres’ defender simply knock the puck off of his stick. Caps’ colour commentator Craig Laughlin mentioned it just after the goal: There are only a few guys in the league who can make that shot like that. It’s not just Vrana’s legs that are speedy — his release is lightning quick as well.
And for Tom Wilson, with the primary assist on Vrana’s goal — his night wasn’t done there. In the 3rd period and with the game tied 1-1, Big Willy would win another one-on-one battle, this time sending the puck to Nicklas Backstrom inside of the Sabres’ zone. Nicky would then draw the defender to himself before dishing the puck back to Wilson, and Wilson would wire it home top shelf for the 2-1 lead and the eventual game-winning goal.
Tom Wilson does it all. He is the G.O.A.T. Suck it, Jim Rutherford.
Oh, and did I mention that the Caps had zero power plays in this game? The Sabres – as I mentioned – had five, so that seems fair.
With so much of the night spent on the penalty kill, captain Alex Ovechkin played just 14:51 total. So that is… not ideal.
The Caps were only given 2 power plays in the first game of the season as well (Oshie scored on one of them), which means that so far they are averaging just 1 power play opportunity per game. It’s a small sample size, but it’s definitely something worth keeping an eye on as the season moves along. However, they face Pittsburgh next (Sunday and Tuesday), so I wouldn’t count on any breaks from the refs coming in these next two games. We’ll probably have to wait until Friday Jan. 22nd for our next power play opportunity (I’m only half kidding).
The Penguins, by the way, got blown out again by the Flyers tonight, so they should be good and grouchy for Sunday’s matinee. You might want to make some popcorn to go with your Sunday afternoon latte. I’m setting the over/under on Evgeni Malkin retaliatory penalties at 3.
See you Sunday!
