Photo: @Capitals
The Washington Capitals beat the Columbus Blue Jackets by a score of 4-3 in overtime at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday night in both teams’ final game before the NHL All-Star Break and their respective bye weeks.
Washington, who beat Columbus for the third time in less than four games, enters the break three points up on the Pittsburgh Penguins and four on the Buffalo Sabres (who both have four games in hand on them) for the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. They also trail the New York Rangers (four) by two points for third place in the Metropolitan Division. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 31 saves in the win.
Capitals’ Lines at Columbus
Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Conor Sheary
Marcus Johansson — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie
Sonny Milano — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Anthony Mantha
Nicolas Aube-Kubel — Lars Eller — Garnet Hathaway
Erik Gustafsson — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Dmitry Orlov — Nick Jensen
Matt Irwin — Martin Fehervary
Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper
Scratched: D Alexander Alexeyev, C Aliaksei Protas
Injured: D John Carlson (face, missed 17th straight game, out indefinitely); RW Connor Brown (ACL, 49th, indefinite); LW Carl Hagelin (hip, 53rd, indefinite); C Nic Dowd (lower-body, seventh, indefinite); RW Tom Wilson (lower-body, third, day-to-day)
After their 5-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday, Washington promoted Sheary, bumped Oshie down one line, and moved Johansson to the left wing. Milano was also demoted one line and Mantha shifted to the right side.
Columbus’ Lines
Johnny Gaudreau — Boone Jenner — Patrik Laine
Kirill Marchenko — Cole Sillinger — Kent Johnson
Liam Foudy — Jack Roslovic — Emil Bemstrom
Eric Robinson — Sean Kuraly — Mathieu Olivier
Vladislav Gavrikov — Andrew Peeke
Tim Berni – Erik Gudbranson
Gavin Bayreuther – Marcus Bjork
Joonas Korpisalo
Elvis Merzlikins
Scratched: C Lane Pederson
Injured: D Nick Blankenburg (upper-body, third, day-to-day), D Adam Boqvist (upper-body, second, day-to-day), RW Gustav Nyquist (upper-body, third, indefinite); RW Yegor Chinakhov (high ankle sprain, 20th, week-to-week); RW Carson Meyer (oblique, 11th, month-to-month); D Jake Bean (shoulder, 36th, month-to-month); RW Jakub Voracek (upper-body, 40th, indefinite); D Zach Werenski (shoulder, 39th, season); RW Justin Danforth (shoulder, 45th, season)
First Period
Scoring
5:06, 1-0 Washington: After Hathaway laid a huge hit behind Columbus’ net to force a turnover and Orlov handed the puck off to Eller at the right circle, Eller whipped a shot that went off of Hathaway’s chest to the high glove under the crossbar. With the secondary helper, Jensen hit the 20-assist mark for the first time in his NHL career. Washington, whose defensemen have combined for 28 goals this season (tied for the fourth-highest in the NHL), has scored the first goal in three straight games.
#ALLCAPS 1-0. HATHAWAY TIP pic.twitter.com/xJhaTwrhks
— Capitals Replays (@capsreplays) February 1, 2023
14:26, 2-0: Aube-Kubel backhanded a soft feed to Van Riemsdyk at the point before he bombed one to the blocker-side of Korpisalo with a sea of bodies in front. The 30-year-old tied his single-season career high with his fifth goal of the season (2016-17) in five fewer games. Aube-Kubel has recorded four points (two goals) in four career games against Columbus.
#ALLCAPS 2-0. TVR SCORES. Columbus scores right after this. pic.twitter.com/8S4bqeiU4L
— Capitals Replays (@capsreplays) February 1, 2023
14:40, 2-1: Peeke wristed a shot from the point that hit traffic and got past the blocker of Lindgren following getting a pass off of the boards by Laine down the half-wall.
OH MY GOD PEEKER 🤩 pic.twitter.com/R3Pau0iO8H
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) February 1, 2023
Shots: 11-9 Washington
Other Notable Stats: Washington led 6-4 in blocked shots and had just two giveaways while Columbus was credited with three. Columbus led 3-1 in blocked shots and 12-6 in hits.
Second Period
Scoring
8:26, 3-1: Van Riemsdyk buried a backhand pass by Kuznetsov down low for his second of the game after Kuznetsov circled around the offensive zone and net. Tuesday marked Van Riemsdyk’s first career multi-point game.
#ALLCAPS 3-1. TVR X2. GREAT PASS FROM KUZY pic.twitter.com/D6526J5aOT
— Capitals Replays (@capsreplays) February 1, 2023
11:03, 3-2: After driving the net, Robinson tapped in a cross-ice feed from Olivier, who burst down the ice as soon as he picked up the puck, to finish a two-on-one rush.
Olivier ➡️ Robby ➡️ GOAL 💥 pic.twitter.com/5iU2rtYmLm
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) February 1, 2023
Shots: 21-20 Columbus (including 12-9 in the second)
Other Notable Stats: Columbus led 28-13 in hits, 11-10 in blocked shots, and 8-4 in takeaways. Each team earned five giveaways.
Third Period
Scoring
12:44, 3-3: Gaudreau picked the top left corner down the wing after getting a stretch pass from the defensive zone by Bayreuther at the blueline and skating to the right dot.
OH JOHNNY BOY pic.twitter.com/9wQK9XTnNs
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) February 1, 2023
Shots: 34-32 Columbus (including 13-12 in the third)
Other Notable Stats: Washington led 22-18 in blocked shots and had six giveaways while Columbus finished with eight. Columbus led 12-5 in takeaways and 37-15 in hits. Neither team scored their lone power-play opportunity.
Overtime
Scoring
0:26, 4-3: Kuznetsov ripped a shot to the top corner from the right dot after Johansson dropped it for him near the offensive zone. Kuznetsov scores his eighth career overtime goal to give the Washington a win. Since his rookie season in 2013-14, Kuznetsov’s eight overtime goals rank second on Washington (Ovechkin: 13).
#ALLCAPS 4-3 OT WIN. KUZNETSOV CALLS GAME! pic.twitter.com/xTNck6deaN
— Capitals Replays (@capsreplays) February 1, 2023
Shots: 34-33 Columbus (1-0 Washington in overtime)
Next game: Saturday 2/11 at Boston Bruins (3:30 PM ET, ABC, ESPN+)
By Harrison Brown
Last 2 games not good… sit someone other than Mantha!
Yep, both games were poor efforts by the Caps. Lucky to pull down 2 points.
That was way too close. We should not be going down to the wire against Columbus. Just glad we go into the All-Star break with the dub. Time to rest and reset. We’re walking into the hornet’s nest coming out.
“just win, baby” – A. Davis
I’m glad they won but being an even matchup with Columbus is NOT a good sign on where the team is at. And blowing a two goal lead was not good.
Hopefully, WIlson and Dowd get healthier with the break. And then it appears Ovi (and Oshie, for that matter) are being bothered by something.
They don’t ask how, just how many. I’ll care about quality of play against Boston, Carolina, etc.
In general, I agree with you. Hockey is not football (best teams blow out worst teams). In the NHL teams are close even when you are playing the ones at the bottom of the standings. Jackets also have some good, young, hard to play against players. The style the coach has them play will usually require the other team to give max effort to win. Caps coaching staff, like every year, needs to make sure the team is playing real good in April. That’s the important time.
Watching the replays, absolute filth on the Kuzy assist to TVR and great timing by Johansson to draw defenders with him so Kuzy had a lot of space for his snipe.
From watching the Columbus feed I can say unequivocally that former Caps’ announcer Jeff Rimer is one of the worst PxP in North American hockey. And that includes the AHL. It seems he hasn’t really learned much in the 30 years since he was fired by the Caps, and what was called Home Team Sports back then, in favor of Beninati. He’s as bad as he’s always been.