Proving that a Cap may look at a King...!
Philipp Grubauer got the start in net last night to give Braden Holtby a night off to rest, and Grubi kept the team in the game early on while they got their feet and sticks under them.
There were no big feel-good stories last night; neither Justin Williams nor Mike Richards scored goals against their former teams. But Grubi's 39 saves on 40 shots were enough, when coupled with Andre Burakovsky's 12th goal of the season, Evgeny Kuznetsov's 16th goal, and Jason Chimera's 16th goal (an empty netter, but they still count!) The only time the Kings were able to dent Grubauer was a short-handed goal by Anze Kopitar, his 17th goal of the season.
It's in the faceoff dot that the Caps really desperately need to get Jay Beagle back from his hand/wrist injury. The Caps won only 43% of their faceoffs, and did nothing with five power play chances against the Kings. Although the Caps have recently gotten a pair of power play goals, their snakebitten nature returned against the Kings... in spades, as Kopitar scored shorthanded. Ugh.
Dmitry Orlov's pass to Andre Burakovsky's tape, however, was aboslutely a thing of beauty, and put the Caps on the board late in the 2nd frame.
Kuzya's sneaky goal late in the third period to break the deadlock, catching Jonathan Quick pinned to the far post with a King in between him and the gaping maw of empty net that Kuznetsov was easily able to slip the puck into, off a nifty little feed from Justin Williams behind the Kings' net, and the Ice Cheetah was easily able to speed into the zone and throw the puck into the empty net from the half-wall with less than 10 seconds remaining to finish the game. Brooks Orpik's return also brought an assist, and it looks like the ex-Penguin is back with a bit of a vengeance, and a spring in his step.
Welcome back, Brooks Orpik! We've missed you!
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