It is hard to believe it’s already been a year since that insane Game 2 of the 2018 Stanley Cup Final. The Washington Capitals defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 at T-Mobile Arena and won their first ever Stanley Cup Final game.
The Game
Center Lars Eller opened the Capitals scoring and tied the game 1-1 late in the first period. Defenseman Michal Kempny and forward Andre Burakovsky assisted.
Captain Alex Ovechkin scored his thirteenth playoff goal of the 2018 postseason, on the end of beautiful passes from center Nicklas Backstrom and Eller.
Brooks Orpik would seal the deal for Capitals. The defenseman scored his first goal since February 26, 2016. Eller and Burakovsky continued to stay hot as they assisted.
The Save
One of the most memorable moments of Game 2 was “The Save”. Goaltender Braden Holtby made the save of the year on a shot by Golden Knights’ forward Alex Tuch. I’ll just let the video do the talking.
Highlights
Happy AnniverSAVEry, Caps Nation!
By Della Young
Thanks for the memories Della Young!
The portrait above of Tom Wilson crunching a Vegas opponent leads us to today’s story: Oskar Sundqvist of the St. Louis Blues faces a hearing with “NHL Dept. of Player Safety” for his hit against Bruins defenseman Grizzly (Matt Grzelcyk). Here’s the link:
https://sports.yahoo.com/blues-oskar-sundqvist-nhl-hearing-142535694.html
It’s an interesting “full circle” on the 2018-19 season: It was Sundqvist whom Tom Wilson crunched in a preseason game, leading to the cynical and personal twenty-game prison sentence against Wilson by NHL Kommissar Comrade Gary Buttman. We all know what happened after that.
I think it’s interesting to compare the two incidents. Oskar delivers a basic check to Grzelcyk but with Grizzly turning and twisting during the play, he gets injured with a not particularly violent thrust into the boards. It will be interesting to see what sort of punishment is meted out by Gulag-meister Parros and the rest of the “Board.”
I still maintain that Wilson’s hit on Sundqvist, and Wilson’s hit on PIT player Aston-Reese, were both completely legal, not vicious. Perhaps Wilson might have “held up” on the hit on Sunqvist because it was a preseason game. The hit on Aston-Reese was completely appropriate as a playoff game situation with the Championship on the line.
What sets Wilson apart from other NHL players applying the same hit is that Wilson is SO much taller, heavier and faster. Most other NHL players in the exact same collision would have delivered far less impact to the other player, perhaps even “getting the worst” of the collision.
I hope that Grizzly is OK and that Oskar correctly receives no “discipline” from the NHL Department of Game Fixing and Bet Covering
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