📸: @UnleashTheFury/X
The Washington Capitals made the trip west to St. Louis to kick off their three-game road trip on Tuesday night. Neither team currently sits in a playoff spot, with the Blues looking set for a top-five pick in the next draft.
No goals in the first period, bit of a snoozefest. Jimmy Snuggerud opened the scoring for the Blues with a one-timer from the left faceoff circle. Otto Stenberg doubled the Blues’ lead with just 5:08 remaining in the third period. Jordan Kyrou potted an empty-netter to seal the game.
Blues beat Capitals 3-0.
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- The Capitals looked like they were still asleep in the first period. Passes were not connecting, shifts were dying before they even began, and they couldn’t figure out how to prevent Joel Hofer from being a third defenseman for the Blues behind his net. Not a good start against a bad Blues team.
- Good to see Ivan Miroshnichenko finally get a jersey after sitting out healthy for eight straight games. He rang a shot off the post in the first period after taking a great feed from Hendrix Lapierre.
- If you ever wondered who the three forwards, two defensemen, and the goaltender are that Alex Ovechkin believes are the best Capitals players he has played with, well, you are in luck. He revealed those names in a recent interview with former NHLer Nikita Filatov and former Arsenal star Andrey Arshavin (COYG).
- More of the same in the second. The ice in St. Louis wasn’t helping, but the Capitals were just as bland as ever anyway. They recorded just six shots on goal at five-on-five through 40 minutes, and five of those shots belonged to defensemen. I get that the team wanted to go back to playing this way, the brand of hockey they played during the 2023-24 season, but it’s a terrible watch.
- Ryan Leonard got into his second career fight, dominating Otto Stenberg, who looked like he had no idea what he had gotten himself into once he dropped his gloves. Stenberg had caught Leonard up high with an uncalled headshot moments prior. The referees argued it was shoulder contact even though Spencer Carbery was watching the literal replay on the Capitals’ bench.
- On the Blues’ goal to open the scoring, it looked like Rasmus Sandin instinctively went to his normal left-sided spot in the Capitals’ zone. Unfortunately, he’s playing on the right these days, and that gave Jimmy Snuggerud enough time to rifle home a one-time blast. Sandin has been one of the club’s top players since the Olympics, just a momentary lapse.
- How many times have we seen players jump on Tom Wilson’s back during a scrum, and then not only will they complain about it, but Wilson also always ends up with the extra penalty? I would lose my mind if that kept happening to me, so Wilson’s response to those calls in the second period was much tamer than mine would have been.
- The referees made the third period a ref show, so it was tough to have any takeaways on what went down. The Capitals weren’t good after the penalties all cleared up, but all the jump had been sucked out of the game by then. Weirdly testy game between two teams that play max twice a year.
- Pierre-Luc Dubois got ejected for what is perhaps one of the softest/worst calls I have ever seen. I hope Robert Thomas is alright, but he literally creates the initial contact. In what world is PLD’s reaction enough for a major penalty and an ejection? The referees policed the result of the play and not the actual play. Simply horrible.
- The Capitals lost in regulation on the same night that the Boston Bruins, New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Philadelphia Flyers all also lost in regulation. Put a bow on this one, folks.
The Capitals will head further west to take on the Utah Mammoth for only the second time in Salt Lake City. During their first visit last year, Ovechkin broke his leg after scoring two goals.
