Washington, DC is not exactly known for entertainment, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they weren’t going to hold a candle to Las Vegas, the “Entertainment Capital of the World,” when it came to their pre-game show. It was surprising that they didn't even try.
Vegas brought out medieval knights with swords battling at centre ice; drummers with light up snares and LED sunglasses; archers fired flaming arrows; a freaking trebuchet. When it came time to announce the starting lineups, Vegas brought out legendary boxing announcer Michael Buffer, who electrified the crowd with his signature “Let’s get ready to rumble!”
Washington brought out Pat Sajak with a microphone.
That’s nothing against the longtime Wheel of Fortune host, who has been a Capitals season ticket holder for 13 years and sits along the glass near the corner boards. I know this, because the entire pre-game show consisted of Sajak talking about his season tickets before implicitly encouraging the Washington crowd to boo the Golden Knights.
Then he read the starting lineups from a piece of paper, while battling feedback from his mic. And still somehow managed to mess up Brayden McNabb’s name. And, somehow, the whole thing took just as long as the Vegas pre-game show.
As more than one person pointed out, the Washington pre-game show was essentially an old white guy filibustering. The two pre-game shows perfectly reflected their cities.
Fortunately, Washington was significantly less underwhelming after the puck was dropped. While I watched the pre-game show, I had a lot more fun when I watched this game.
- I shouldn’t completely discount Washington’s efforts. They did have Sting and Shaggy perform an outdoor concert before puck drop. From a music perspective, that’s pretty much a wash with Imagine Dragons. They’re about equally bad.
- It momentarily looked like the Capitals opened the scoring five minutes into the first period, but it was immediately waved off. On the replay, it was blatant: Devante Smith-Pelly jumped in front of the net and hip-checked Marc-Andre Fleury in the head. It was so obvious that no one could possibly have disagreed with the call...
Skates by, not in the paint, no intention to contact. No goal. The NHL hates goals sometimes. And why isn't Fleury in protocol right now?
— Ken Campbell (@THNKenCampbell) June 3, 2018
- ...never mind.
- It was questionable whether Evgeny Kuznetsov would be available to play in this game after injuring his left wrist on a hit by McNabb. But he played, and his line with Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson was dominant. When Kuznetsov was on the ice at 5-on-5, shots on goal were 10-to-2 for the Capitals. It was a stunning performance that highlighted just how crucial Kuznetsov has been for the Capitals.
- Early in the second period, the Capitals opened the scoring for real thanks to some dominant play by their top line. Like my breakfast this morning, it was a scrambled mess. Marc-Andre Fleury made multiple saves, sliding all over the ice, but his teammates couldn’t find the puck to clear it. Alex Ovechkin is evidently much better at finding things and sent the puck home with a diving backhand. He also finds Waldo right away too. Complete pain, because he always reads over your shoulder and points him out.
- Don Cherry: just retire, already. His first intermission Coach’s Corner was a mess for multiple reasons, but the most aggravating was seeing him praise McNabb for two questionable hits on Kuznetsov, suggesting that it was payback for Kuznetsov’s “eagle” goal celebration. First of all, that’s nonsense — the main reason to target Kuznetsov is because he’s the leading scorer in the playoffs — but second of all, who cares how Kuznetsov celebrates a goal? I mean, other than out-of-touch xenophobic old white men like Cherry. It’s like he forgets that hockey is a game and games are meant to be fun.
- Let me reinterpret Cherry: “Don’t be like Kuznetsov and have fun playing hockey or you might one day win a Conn Smythe Trophy for leading your team to the Stanley Cup.”
- I mean, players that battle through an injury to put in a clutch performance in the playoffs are normally Cherry’s favourite type of player. What could possibly set Kuznetsov apart? Is it possibly because his name is “Evgeny” instead of “Doug”? Surely Cherry wouldn’t judge a player based on his nationality, right? Couldn’t be.
- It was almost poetic that Kuznetsov scored the 2-0 goal in the second period and immediately busted out the “eagle” celebration. It came on the tail end of a long shift, but he found the energy to skate up the right wing and place the puck perfectly: just over Fleury’s right pad, just under the blocker, and just inside the post. The only way it could have been more just is if it had commuted the sentence of a nonviolent drug offender.
- The Capitals blocked a ton of shots in this game, swarming the shooting lanes and sacrificing the body. They blocked 26 shots, allowing only 22 to reach Braden Holtby. Vegas blocked just 9. Some of that is hometown stat-counting, but the Capitals did more blocking than Kevin Bieksa’s Twitter account.
- Right from the start of the game, it was clear that the Capitals were trying to get to Marc-Andre Fleury, including the goaltender interference call on Smith-Pelly. Honestly, it didn’t work. Fleury played great, making numerous stunning saves, including a superb glove save on Ovechkin just a minute into the game.
- Holtby had a lot less to do than Fleury, but also played pretty well, except for one disastrous moment. On a routine dump-in, the two Capitals defencemen went to the corners, anticipating the pass. For some reason, Holtby tried to pass it through two Knights. It was picked off and Tomas Nosek put it in the net to make it 2-1. Really, you shouldn’t try to go through two knights unless there are six of you and you have Howland Reed watching your back.
- The referees haven’t looked good in this series, from the missed cross-check that led to a goal in Game 1, to the multiple questionable calls in Game 2. Game 3 had some controversy as well, as Deryk Engelland got called for tripping when Nicklas Backstrom tripped over his own teammate’s stick. Referees are human, so you can expect some missed calls, but you hope that the Stanley Cup Final will show the best the game has to offer.
- Smith-Pelly got into some penalty trouble, but he made up for it with a big insurance goal. Jay Beagle got in hard on the forecheck, stealing the puck from Shea Theodore after he bobbled it. Beagle set up Smith-Pelly, who casually went upstairs like Lulu Diamonds.
- Shea Theodore had a rough game. On the 2-0 goal, his stick broke and he gambled instead of backing into the neutral zone, giving Kuznetsov room on the rush. Later, on a Vegas power play, he was too casual skating back into the defensive zone, not realizing that Matt Niskanen, a defenceman, was in pursuit. Fleury had to come out to play the puck and ended up taking a tripping penalty. And then he had the giveaway to Beagle on the 3-1 goal. More like Shea Theo-d’oh!
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Sorry.
