But when the Sabres drew their swords, the Caps looked a lot like they were in a Keystone Kaps video instead of trying to play hockey. To make a long story short, the Caps finished their season series against the lowly Buffalo Sabres with a head-to-head record of 2-1. The final score in Thursday's embarrassing loss was Buffalo 4, Washington 1.
In other words, the Caps laid an egg and it was rotten.
C'est la vie.
The following night - that would be last night, 17-Jan-2016 - the Caps went up to Madison Square Garden to face off with their least-favorite annual playoff pals, the New York Rangers.
Enter Justin Williams.
A hat trick for Williams (bringing his goal total to 16 on the season), and goals for Alex Ovechkin (his 27th) and Marcus Johansson (his 12th) added up to more than enough to put the Rangers in their place with a 5-2 victory. The Rangers' only two goals came from the stick of Chris Kreider.
Sometimes, a team just has to lose a game every now and then to get back on track. It's unfortunate that the loss to the Sabres stole Braden Holtby's shot at the team record for the most games in a row without a regulation loss (currently held by Jose Theodore), and it is equally unfortunate that the HoltBEAST went down the tunnel during the second period of the Rangers game, and did not return to the game due to suffering from dehydration. Backup netminder Philip Grubauer finished out the game, stopping all eleven shots he faced.
That said, because Grubi was perfect, Holtby is the goaltender of record, taking his record to 29-5-2 on the season, according to NHL.com. In his last three games, Grubi has allowed only two goals on 57 shots. The future is bright!
Get well soon, HoltBEAST! Here's to your next big streak!
Meanwhile... Alex Ovechkin is now tied with Joe Mullen at 502 career goals, and he did it in 277 fewer games. Here's to the next 502 goals for the Great 8!
#OviWatch
33 - Brian Trottier - 524 in 1279 games
34 - Pat Verbeek - 522 in in 1424 games
35 - Dale Hawerchuk - 518 in 1188 games
36 - Pierre Turgeon - 515 in 1294 games
37 - Jeremy Roenick - 513 in 1363 games
38 - Gilbert Perreault - 512 in 1191 games
39 - Jean Beliveau - 507 in 1125 games
40 - Peter Bondra - 503 in 1081 games
41 - Alex Ovechkin - 502 in 804 games
42 - Joe Mullen - 502 in 1062 games
43 - Lanny McDonald - 500 in 1111 games
44 - Glenn Anderson - 498 in 1129 games
No comments:
Post a Comment