- Here is the Caps’ strategy for the series: hit everything that moves. Alex Ovechkin and Anthony Beauvillier were doing just that on the first shift. In the second period, 24-year-old Cole Caufield got hit by the elder Ovechkin into oblivion. Don’t scroll past this hit.
Alex Ovechkin scores Capitals’ first goal of postseason, moves into 14th on the NHL’s all-time playoffs goals list
- Ovechkin added a primary assist on Anthony Beauvillier‘s goal. I was very surprised Spencer Carbery chose to go with the Ovechkin-Strome-Beauvillier line once Aliaksei Protas was confirmed out. I could have sworn Beauvillier was a placeholder, but maybe head coach Spencer Carbery sees something else. There was evident chemistry, and Beauvillier was just as dedicated to violence as Ovechkin, plus Beauvillier has a reputation as a playoff-scorer, plus one time he shot his shot with Anna Kendrick. I like him.
- Chris will give the full numbers breakdown tomorrow morning. but for now: the Caps had the puck on a string until those final ten minutes. The Habs either cut the string or took the string or did something else metaphorically to the string, but the effect was clear: they stole the game back.
- Defender Alex Alexeyev played just three rego-season games in this calendar year, but now here he is – getting a sweater while Fehervary remains out. Alex^2 established himself early by crosschecking Brendan Gallagher in the mouth. No call.
- I think the officials made good on that no-call when they let Josh Anderson get away with a dirty trip on John Carlson. Carlson was irate about it, and I would have been too – he could have been badly hurt. Same is true, I suppose, for Gallagher getting carbon fiber impacted into his mandible by Alexeyev.
- It’s weird. The early bit of the first round of the playoffs is kind of notorious for having lots of penalties – before the refs put the whistles away as the postseason wears on. But the officials let a lot go in Game 1 – often in Montreal’s favor. I’m not even sure what to make of Alexeyev getting hit in the mouth with 150 seconds left. It certainly wasn’t a penalty, so the no-call was the right call, but was it also cosmic justice? If yes, then Josh Anderson should check his steering rods and brake lines later.
- Logan Thompson returned to active play just in time. It was his first start since April 2, and he was great until the whole team collapsed. Cole Caufield’s power-play goal cracked his shutout bid, but it required a scandalously soft call on Pierre-Luc Dubois and a blessed bounce off Matt Roy to happen. Then Thompson got force-shoved out of the crease so that Nick Suzuki could tie it.
- That Suzuki goal could have been prevented a dozen times in a dozen ways, but the Caps couldn’t get a clean stick on the puck, and then McMichael hit-and-rolled Thompson out of the play. The Habs were terrific on that shift.
I fucking called it.
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