@AndrewRMcP59213
The Washington Capitals ended their road win streak, falling to the Dallas Stars 3-1 on Monday night.
Dylan Strome converted first, redirected a shot from Jakob Chychrun with the shaft of his stick. In the second period, Roope Hintz scored on a power play that he himself draw, then Lian Bichsel got a lucky bounce of Sandin’s glove to give Dallas the lead with twenty minutes left to play. Hintz struck again in the third period, dashing Washington’s hopes of a comeback.
Caps lose.
For the most part, this was a fantastic hockey game. The whole sheet was contested, with Dallas suffocating on defense while the Caps were aggressive on the forecheck. It was a treat. We really don’t get to see the Dallas Stars enough.
Dylan Strome was Washington’s lone goal-scorer – and probably their best player. He has a four-game point streak cooking.
Stars defender Brendan Smith blindsided Tom Wilson (injured, delicate) to earn an interference call early in the second period. With Wilson (innocent, coquettish) unable to respond, Brandon Duhaime stepped in. Brandon and Brendan chopped it up a few times before tempers boiled over.
Unanimous decision for Brandon. Unlimited shame for Brendan. It’s kind of crazy in hindsight that the Walshes named their kids Brandon and Brenda before they moved to Beverly Hills.
The Stars committed a ton of penalties …and got called on some of them too! And yet their penalty kill was excellent, killing eight minutes with Washington a man up. That was the difference.
And yet it was a dominant second period for the Caps, controlling 23 attempts to Dallas’s 8 during five-on-five, so naturally the Caps scored no goals and allowed two.
The second of those two goals went, deadass, off Rasmus Sandin‘s glove. Unlucky.
Jakub Vrana played for the first time since November 21. Lapierre – Eller – Vrana felt like a very weak line to me, and Carbery seemed to agree, sending them over the boards as little as possible. But they were pretty good on a few shifts, moving the puck fast up the ice.
On the Stars jerseys. I feel like we talk about this every time, but I was able to get comments from multiple important people on the matter. “I’m in love,” Aileen O’Hearn, PhD, told RMNB from the couch. “I feel like I’m looking at a black light poster. It’s bright! It’s green! Intimidating.”
Reporting from Baltimore, disgraced hockey analyst Patrick Holden disagreed. “Caps [sic] roads [plus] whatever these [Stars] jerseys are has to be the worst possible jersey combo in hockey,” Holden told RMNB in a text message.
(I agree with Aileen.)
There was a moment in the second period, when Washington was really tilting the ice, that Monumental’s Craig Laughlin (seen in tasteful blue above) told the Caps, “Be careful what you wish for. You gotta settle things down a bit.” I hated him for saying this, as I was watching fun hockey and having a good time in a tied game. Then a moment later Bichsel got that freak deflection, and the Caps’ win streak ended. Craig was right. I was wrong. A lesson I learn pretty often.
But I liked this effort. The power play really struggled, but if McMichael hit net instead of post, or if Carlson kept a rush pass on target, or if Sandin’s glove wasn’t haunted, this would have been a different game. (Or, as Ian urges, if the officials had called it by the book.)
The Caps head now to Chicago. Everyone in #crashers is already sharing “trap” GIFs in preparation. Me – I think it’s time to start a new streak. See you at – what the dickens – 8:30 PM? Rude!