Hat trick, fights and another loss: Wild beat Caps 5-3

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The Washington Capitals traveled to Minnesota to take on another NHL Central Division team in the Wild. The Caps were hoping for a better result than they did against the Blues at home on Friday.

Matt Boldy scored with less than a minute left in the game to open the scoring. Boldy struck again soon after to double Minnesota’s lead. Alex Ovechkin’s blast from his office past eternal enemy Marc-Andre Fleury cut the lead in half. Ryan Reaves regained the two-goal advantage with a deflection.

Brandon Duhaime finished fourth. Ovi pot another. Boldy completed his hat trick. Dylan Strome added one more.

The Wild beat the Caps 5-3.

  • Well, at least it wasn’t the first shot of the game this time? It only took the Wild three hits to take the lead in the first, which I think is an improvement over the last three games. Overall, I thought the Caps were completely Anonymous for the first 20 minutes. So not great.
  • A random stream of consciousness compacts the bullet. More teams need green in their uniforms. Or at least something other than red, white and blue. Kraken did it right.
  • Marcus Johansson scored a point every time the Capitals have traded him. Me boy, me boy. It was definitely the right move and it’s nice to see Mojo having fun. The Wild are a fun team to watch.
  • Outside of the constant march into the box from both teams, it certainly felt more like five-on-five. Caps was barely involved and just played passenger.
  • Alexi Ovechkin grabbed two power plays to give him 39 goals on the season. He has now burned Marc-Andre Fleury 27 times. That’s the most goals Ovi has scored against any individual netminder in his career.
  • Renting Ryan Reaves the goal should come with a score deduction in the standings.
  • Matt Irwin got into “battles” at the end of the second period. Mason Shaw immediately tossed him to the ice. Irwin is probably a great guy and Laviolette loves him, but it would be nice to see someone like Bobby Nardella, Lucas Johansen or Vincent Iorio give their ice time. That would require the Caps to accept that they are in the playoffs, and they don’t seem to want to do that.
  • Another game full of individual mistakes that lead directly to goals or dangerous situations for the Wild. Irwin and Dylan Strome’s most obvious mistakes to me.
  • Yevgeny Kuznetsov left the game after getting hit in open ice Matt Dumba. TJ Oshie tackled Dumba and received the game’s only additional penalty. I thought Dumba could have easily been called to charge.
  • Charlie Lindgren started with Darcy Kuemper’s injury. I thought he was decent. The team just doesn’t play any kind of defense at the moment, so it’s hard to evaluate the goalkeepers.

The Caps were headed to this very game and will return to DC to play the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. Blooj was recently mathematically eliminated from the playoffs this season.

Header photo: @Emily_Longtin/Twitter

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