It was late in a tightly checked game against the team that knocked you out of the playoffs last season. You were already missing the reigning Rocket Richard trophy winner, and your top line center, and your top line right winger, and a top pairing defenseman, and your No. 1 goaltender. Then – in this game – you lose your second and third line centers to injuries, too. It’s not ideal.
But the Caps – under new head coach Peter Laviolette – don’t appear to give a flying f*ck about what’s “ideal”. They give many f*cks about getting the ‘W’ every day, and every day, they are doing absolutely everything they can to get another one.
Yes, the Washington Capitals – still without Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, and Ilya Samsonov due to COVID protocol and without Tom Wilson due to a lower-body injury – began their latest game against the New York Islanders already extremely shorthanded, and they ended it even *more* shorthanded as they lost both Nicklas Backstrom and Lars Eller to injuries during the game. Backstrom appeared to take a puck off of the face/head in the 2nd period — he left briefly, then returned, and then left again. Eller was crunched by a nasty hit-from-behind courtesy of Leo Komarov, who I’m sure is spending his night tonight praying that Tom Wilson is not ready to play by Thursday’s contest. Neither Backstrom nor Eller were able to finish the game, and there was no update on either of them after the game.
Yet, with 26 seconds left in the 3rd period of this tied game, it was the undermanned Caps who would break the tie and ultimately – 26 seconds later – take the two points in regulation from a stunned Islanders squad.
It was new Cap (and ex-Penguin) Justin Schultz who was the hero on this night, sniping on Isles goalie Semyon Varlamov after taking a nifty pass from Garnet Hathaway. The Capitals’ bench erupted. You could tell that the circumstances of this game – all of the injuries and the absences – made it mean a lot more than just your typical Tuesday night victory.
And yet this type of resilient effort is becoming somewhat the norm for this Caps team under new head coach Peter Laviolette. They’re a deep team; one who believes in themselves. They have a “next man up” mentality, and they give it 110% on every shift, and in all three zones. They play with guts.
And so to them, this was just yet another gutsy performance in what they expect will be a long line of them this season. Already, they’ve racked up 5 of a possible 6 points in the standings since Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Orlov, and Samsonov were put on the NHL’s COVID list. They’re still winning despite $40 million of their salary cap being out of the lineup. They’re still scoring 3.43 goals per game despite missing 5 of their top-7 forwards (the only two who finished the game against the Isles on Tuesday were TJ Oshie and Jakub Vrana).
I implore you to find me another team that can win in the NHL while missing its top-3 centers. The only regular center who finished the game for the Caps on Tuesday was fourth line center Nic Dowd, who – to be clear – has been and is fantastic. But most teams would struggle mightily under these circumstances.
Not the Caps, though.
They were able to not only stay with the Islanders, but really to exert their will and to push them around for much of the game, even while being so shorthanded. And for me, if you’re able to push around a fully healthy Islanders team that made it all the way to the Conference Final last season while you’re missing $40 million from your lineup… then that is a very, very good sign.
Former Caps head coach Bruce Boudreau said on NBC Sports Washington after the game that this is the type of win that can galvanize a team, and springboard you forward for the entire season.
Former Caps head coach/current Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said after the game that he “warned” his Islanders group about this Caps team ahead of this matchup, saying that he was seeing signs in this group of Caps players – whom he knows very well – that they were galvanizing as a team around the guys who were out, and that even shorthanded they were going to be very tough to beat. Obviously, he was right.
SCORING NOTES:
- John Carlson with a shot from a spot that he is never going to miss from on the power play. Assists to Justin Schultz & Nicklas Backstrom.
- Daniel Sprong with an Ovechkin-esque bar-down snipe to tie the game for the Caps late in the 2nd period. Assists to Daniel Carr & Carlson. It was Sprong’s 1st goal as a Cap, and Carr’s 1st point as a Cap. There’s that depth again.
- Justin Schultz with the game-winner with 26 seconds left in regulation. Man were the Penguins smoking something awful to let this guy walk. Assists to Garnet Hathaway & Brenden Dillon.
The Islanders – as we mentioned – are fully healthy, yet the shorthanded Caps looked like the better team for much of the game. And they were certainly the better team when it mattered most, right at the end.
A couple of other notes just to wrap things up:
- The Islanders have been the best faceoff team in the league this season, and yet the Caps – even missing their top-3 centers – were able to hold their own, winning exactly 50% of the faceoffs for the game. Backstrom and Eller were both great before going out with injuries — Backstrom was at 58% and Eller was at 55%. Nic Dowd was also great at 54%, and TJ Oshie – who filled in at center after Backstrom/Eller had to exit the game – was sensational at 75%.
- Vitek Vanecek had yet another sensational start in goal for the Caps, stopping 32 of 34 Islanders’ shots for a .941 save percentage. The young netminder just keeps getting better and better with every game he plays.
- And RE: Vanecek — I said it during an earlier podcast episode (which you all can locate here —> https://www.spreaker.com/episode/43119837), but I do really believe that he is going to end up stealing the net from Ilya Samsonov this season. I think he’s going to end up getting more starts this season than Samsonov, and I think his play is going to warrant that. Certainly when you look at it right now — I mean, he has got to be the Capitals starting goaltender even once Samsonov gets back from the COVID list at this point, right? The way that Vanecek is playing — he’s not only earned more starts, he’s not only winning games and piling up points for us in the standings, but he’s also inspiring confidence in the team in front of him, because they know that this kid between the pipes has got their back. And what that does is it allows the team in front of him to be aggressive on offense, which we’re seeing a lot of right now and it’s a big reason why the Caps are still scoring so many goals and piling up so many points even when so many of their top offensive players are out of the lineup. The D-men, in particular, feel free to jump up and be a part of the attack when they have trust in their goalie, because they know that if something goes wrong, their goalie’s going to make the save and they’re not going to get a minus. And you can see the domino effect of all of this right now as guys like John Carlson and Justin Schultz have been such a huge part of the Capitals’ offense with the Ovechkins and the Kuznetsovs and the Wilsons and everyone else out of the lineup.
- Barry Trotz said on Vanecek getting his 1st NHL win, that he, former Capitals assistant coach Lane Lambert, and former Capitals goaltending coach Mitch Korn — “When Vitek was getting his 1st start and his 1st win, we were as happy for him getting it as anybody – as if we were still on the staff in Washington. He’s just one of those guys people rally around. He’s done a really good job. He’s playing really well.”
- ^ So yeah. That’s high praise from the Caps’ Stanley Cup-winning former coach, and Vitek is playing some amazing hockey right now. Especially for a rookie. But that’s the thing — is he’s not playing like a rookie. He’s playing like a vet. He’s calm, he’s cool, he’s confident in what he’s doing out there. He’s making the saves that he should make and he’s making a lot of saves that he shouldn’t make, too. Perfect example: With 7 seconds left in Tuesday’s game against the Islanders, he makes a dime of a save to preserve the regulation win. I love this kid. And I’ve been banging the drum for this everywhere but I’ll bang it here too because we’ve gotta get it out there: #VitekForCalder, baby. This should be becoming a thing at this point, with the way he’s playing and the way he’s taken over the Washington Capitals net — the net of a team that is in 1st place in the toughest division in hockey. He’s currently got better stats than names such as Carey Price, Tuukka Rask, Connor Hellebuyck, Jacob Markstrom, *Braden Holtby*, Jordan Binnington, Frederik Andersen, Robin Lehner, Sergei Bobrovsky, Carter Hart, Jonathan Quick, Devan Dubnyk, etc., etc., etc. … the list goes on and on and on, because he’s playing better than most goalies in the league right now. The point is, the kid is a gem… and with highly touted guys like Alexis Lafreniere doing absolutely nothing so far, there’s really no good reason why a dark horse candidate such as Vanecek can’t come out of nowhere to win the Calder trophy. So let’s make it a thing, babes. #VITEKFORCALDER
The Caps’ next game is against the New York Islanders again, Thursday at 7pm EST/4pm PST. See you all there!
