No Alex Ovechkin, no Evgeny Kuznetsov, no Dmitry Orlov, no Ilya Samsonov — and for half of the game, no Tom Wilson, either.
It didn’t matter.
Yes, if you were looking at the names on the absentee list for the Capitals in this game, you would think those poor shorthanded bastards are going to have a really rough time. Not just the sheer number of players who were unavailable to play, but the *quality* of the players they were (and are) missing was staggering.
(If you somehow missed that news: Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Orlov, and Samsonov are all in quarantine because of COVID-19 protocol after Samsonov tested positive for the virus. They will all miss at least four games for the Caps due to the mandatory quarantine period. Tom Wilson left Friday’s game against the Sabres with a lower-body injury and is listed as day-to-day.)
For most teams, losing your entire top line, and a top pairing defenseman, and your No. 1 goaltender would be too much to overcome. Not for our Caps, though. Their depth came up large in a 4-3 win that saw them get scoring from everywhere, and they remain undefeated in regulation this season — 3-0-2 with 8 of a possible 10 points in the standings. At the time of writing, they sit in 1st place in the East Division.
So let’s break it down.
SCORING:
- Saint Nicklas Backstrom scored off of a rebound with a backhand shot which – at second glance – was a lot trickier than the smooth Swede made it look. Tom Wilson got the primary assist with a nifty deflection of Brenden Dillon’s initial shot from the point, making it harder for Sabres goalie Linus Ullmark to control the rebound. It was Wilson’s 6th point in the Caps’ 5th game of the season. But as we mentioned, he would later leave this game with a lower-body injury.
- Fourth line God Nic Dowd would then score on a blazing one-timer from the slot, putting it top cheese after a beauty of a pass from Jakub Vrana. John Carlson – who should have won the Norris trophy last season and yes I plan to remain salty about it – with the secondary assist.
- Vrana – apparently not satisfied with *just* his beauty of a primary assist in this game – would then score a goal which – again – was a lot harder than he made it look. Zdeno Chara had blasted away from the point, Ullmark again could not control the rebound, and the bouncing puck came to V — where he used one swift motion to swat it out of mid-air as it attempted to bounce over his stick blade, and straight into the top corner. It marked Vrana’s 3rd goal in just 5 games that the Caps have played so far — he is kind of good at this hockey thing, and he is also kind of good at looking a hell of a lot like a young Ryan Gosling. So everything’s coming up aces for him. Also: The primary assist on this goal marked Chara’s 1st point as a Washington Capital. Congrats, Big Z!
- We were tied after regulation and overtime, so we would head to a shootout, where should-have-won-the-Norris John Carlson would eventually score the game-winner. He is also kind of good at this hockey thing, ‘though he looks nothing like Ryan Gosling. 1-out-of-2 ain’t bad, though.
Overall – like I alluded to earlier – the story of this game for the Caps was depth, depth, depth. Even with so many of their top players out of the lineup, the Caps were still not without star power, and that was evident in the goals by Backstrom and Vrana and the shootout winner by Carlson. Wilson contributed a primary assist before he exited the game with an injury, and TJ Oshie got on the score sheet with an assist as well. So the big names definitely came to play.
But I was perhaps even more impressed with the bottom of the lineup in this one. Lars Eller – forever the perfect third line center – always does an admirable job filling in when either of Kuznetsov/Backstrom are out of the lineup. Richard Panik has been playing some great hockey to start this season, picking up right where he left off last season. And I’ve loved what I’ve seen from Daniel Sprong so far.
But you guys — we need to talk about our fourth line.
To be perfectly clear — I would die for our fourth line. I’ve been saying it ever since we signed Nic Dowd and Garnet Hathaway. Both last season and this season, it hasn’t mattered at all who’s playing on their left wing, they’ve just gone about their business being one of the best – if not THE best – fourth lines in the entire league. They make whoever’s playing with them a better player, and they’re fully capable of matching up against the oppositions’ top lines and winning that battle. They take pride in it. They had the full trust of the previous head coach for the Caps, Todd Reirden — and now, it’s taken them only about two minutes to earn that same trust from new head coach Peter Laviolette. Laviolette – who had the last change during Friday’s game, seeing as it was the Caps’ home opener – chose to send them out all game long against the Sabres’ top trio of Taylor Hall, Jack Eichel, and Sam Reinhart. And guess what? They again won the battle, not only holding those three scoreless but also – as we mentioned – scoring a goal of their own, courtesy of that Dowd rocket in the 2nd period to put the Caps up 2-1. The Caps’ “fourth” line played nearly 20 minutes apiece in the game.
It’s a real luxury to be able to trust your fourth line to go head-to-head against – and actually outplay – the oppositions’ top lines. I hope Caps fans don’t take it for granted.
Anyways, the Caps’ depth was also apparent in who they were able to insert into the lineup even when missing four of their top players. For example, Conor Sheary – a two-time Stanley Cup winner with Pittsburgh in 2016 & 2017 – had been a healthy scratch and was available to be inserted. And on the back end, Jonas Siegenthaler – who played almost every game for the Capitals last season and was actually their top penalty killer – had been a healthy scratch thus far this season, but he was able to come right in and play 20+ minutes against the Sabres.
And there was perhaps no place the depth of the Caps was more apparent than when we got to the shootout, and we had a D-man scoring the winning goal with usual shooters Kuznetsov and Ovechkin both out of the lineup. Vitek Vanecek also stopped all four Sabres’ attempts in the shootout, and we need to talk about him for a minute here as well.
Vanecek – a talented youngster who had never played an NHL game before this season, thanks in large part to being in an organization which had a decade of Braden Holtby’s excellence – got his 2nd win already of this young season, and he got it by making several big saves. There was one on the penalty kill in particular that was an absolute show-stopper, sliding post-to-post to rob what should’ve been a sure-goal for the Sabres on the one-timer. He also stopped douchebag Jeff Skinner on a breakaway and – like we mentioned – stopped all four Sabres’ attempts in the shootout as well to secure the win for the Caps.
So overall… Depth up front? Big check. Depth on the back end? Big check. Depth in goal? Again, big check.
And that about wraps up everything that we wanted to cover with that latest Caps win, minus the fact that the Caps were – again – given but a single power play by the stripes in this game. That’s becoming a pattern, and it’s a bit suspect given that the Caps routinely have the puck for the majority of each game. Typically more puck possession = more power plays, at least most of the time. The Caps have had 9 power play opportunities so far, and they’ve played 5 games — which means that they are averaging less than 2 power plays per game, by far the lowest rate in the league so far. There are three teams – the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Florida Panthers, and the Dallas Stars – who have had fewer power play opportunities than the Caps — all three of those teams have had 8 power plays each. The problem from a Caps perspective, though? Those three teams have only played 3 games, 2 games, and 1 game so far, respectively… The Dallas Stars had a COVID outbreak and their games had been postponed, so they only *just* played their 1st game of the season the other day. So when you’ve had 8 power play opportunities but you’ve only played 1 game, that suddenly sounds a hell of a lot better than if you’re the Caps, with 9 opportunities in 5 games.
For comparison’s sake — the Vancouver Canucks lead the league in power play opportunities, with 26 of them already heading into tonight’s game against the Montreal Canadiens. Although it hasn’t helped the Canucks at all as they sit in last place.
Definitely something worth keeping an eye on as the season moves along, though.
The Caps play the Sabres again tomorrow, with an early start time of 3pm EST/12pm PST. See you there!
