What a hockey game.
Caps’ youngster Vitek Vanecek and the Lightning’s former Vezina trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy put on a show in net as the League’s top-two offenses of the last several seasons went at it on Saturday night.
The Caps outshot the Lightning 33-24. Vanecek and Vasilevskiy duelled to a draw through 60 minutes, with each team only getting a single puck past their counterpart’s netminder. All told, Vanecek stopped 22 of 24, and Vasilevskiy stopped 32 of 33. This was despite several good chances generated by the top-end offensive talent on both sides.
Caps’ Captain Alex Ovechkin broke the ice with the 733rd goal of his illustrious NHL career, already his 3rd goal in just 2 games to start this season. He picked up the puck near the Lightning blue line, skated into the slot, and ripped a wrist shot past both Victor Hedman and Vasilevskiy. 1-0 Caps. Assists to Trevor van Riemsdyk & Tom Wilson.
Ovechkin appeared to have his 2nd goal of the game just 14 seconds later. After a give-and-go between Ovechkin & TJ Oshie, Ovi quickly ripped a shot that beat Vasilevskiy and rang off of the pipe, hitting the Lightning netminder in the back and skidding over the goal line. However – the Lightning would challenge the call – and it was eventually ruled that the puck had not completely crossed the goal line at the point that Vasilevskiy had put his trapper over it, covering the puck from the camera’s view.
This is one of those rules in today’s NHL that’s a bit ridiculous, as Vasilevskiy’s trapper was over the goal line, and the puck was underneath his trapper, therefore you can obviously use your common sense to say that the puck is also over the goal line. But that’s not the rule in the NHL right now. If you can’t see it, it didn’t happen. So… The 734th goal of Ovechkin’s career will have to wait (probably only until Tuesday though, so don’t sweat it).
Ovi honestly could have had about 4 goals in this game, easily. He was having some bad luck out there. Aside from his goal that was called back, he also had another one which hit the knob of Vasilevskiy’s stick and then the post; another one off of a one-timer that grazed the outside of the post and then the outside of the net; and another one where he flat-out broke Ryan McDonagh’s ankles, deking him inside-out and then blasting past him, before just missing on the backhand against Vasilevskiy.
All in all, Ovechkin had 8 shots on net for the game. He looks like he is 24 years old out there. It’s going to be a good year.
The Lightning would score their lone goal of regulation off of the stick of Mikhail Sergachev, a somewhat lucky one as he let a shot go from the point that somehow found its way through about 7,000 players in front of the net to beat a screened Vanecek. But, a goal is a goal is a goal, and we head to overtime.
Steven Stamkos would score for the Lightning with 15 seconds left in OT.
FINAL SCORE: 2-1 Lightning (OT).
Overall, everyone should be very pleased with the start to this season by the Caps. 3 of a possible 4 points against tough opponents, and – more importantly – the team really looks great. You can see the difference it’s made with them finally having an actual training camp to get fully used to head coach Peter Laviolette’s system. They’re playing fast, they’re playing disciplined, the veterans look like they still have 20-year-old legs, the rookies don’t look out of place in the League at all.
We should have high hopes for this season. I certainly do.
very impressive, I’m sure TSN would be honored to gave you as a future analyst.