Alex Ovechkin scores two as Caps beat Rangers 5-1

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Hi. Welcome back. Hope you’re doing alright. Wild times, eh? Yeah, I’m good, hanging in there. Okay, that was a good talk. Now let’s get into it.

The Washington Capitals kicked off the 2021-22 season by soundly downing the New York Rangers. The Caps chalked up four goals before Chris Kreider cracked Vitek Vanecek’s shutout off a soft penalty in the third period. Ovi added one more, and that was not bad for one of 82.

Caps win!

Five-goal game to kick off the season? Here’s my new Bailamos video:

  • How fitting that TJ Oshie, sporting an A while Backstrom is out, kicked off scoring for the team by crashing the net during a power play. He’s the heart and soul of this team, and he played a major role in our next bullet…
  • Hendrix Lapierre, all of 19 years old, took a pretty backhand pass from Oshie and turned it into his first NHL goal. Hugging ensued, only slightly marred by Wayne Gretzky mumbling over the play call. So happy for this kid, who was such a stud in camp. I can’t think of a better way to kick off a new season of hockey, oh wait yeah I can…
  • Alex Ovechkin scored goals number 731 and 732, taking one great pass from Anthony Mantha and another great pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov. Those goals put Ovechkin at four points on the night and put him past the great Marcel Dione for sole ownership of fifth place all time.
  • Ryan Reaves was there. He hardly played hockey. This bullet is just to commemorate all the stuff he didn’t do despite all that ridiculous bluster. I bet the Rangers are glad they dumped Buchnevich and solved their Tom Wilson problem though.
  • TNT was fine. I liked the score bug (above) and the power-play clock. Kenny Albert is always a good play-by-play caller when Joe B isn’t around. Liam McHugh actually got to be a recognizable human rather than the automaton he had to be on NBC. But Wayne talking over Schultz’s and Lapierre’s goals because no one wanted to interrupt the legend for whom so much was invested as part of this rights deal– no thanks.
  • A softy penalty against Dmitry Orlov put the Caps on the penalty kill and allowed Chris Kreider to score the Rangers’ only goal of the night. Bummer.

 

Not bad for game one. I wish VV got a shutout though.

It’s way too early in the season for my full-blown unbearable righteous indignation, so I’ll just use this space to say that Capital One Arena can do a better job with masks. It’s weird enough for them to have no vaccine requirement — as many other teams and arenas do — but then they must have meaningful enforcement of the mask requirement. Instead we saw widespread noncompliance. As fans we expect more of you, Ted Leonsis and Monumental Sports, than this. Do better.

Okay, that’s over. See you next time.

Headline photo: @KuzyBeCacklin



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