The kids got it done at 5-on-5, and the elder statesmen took care of business on the power play. That’s the story of the Caps’ 6-3 Monday night win over the Ottawa Senators at Capital One Arena, in a one-sentence nutshell.
On a night in which he surpassed Calle Johansson for the most games played by a Washington defenseman, John Carlson scored a timely power-play goal to celebrate; the goal was timely because it came mere seconds after he received a prolonged standing ovation for playing in his 984th NHL game, one more than Johansson (983) played in a Caps’ sweater during his own illustrious career in the District.
“It’s a huge accomplishment,” notes Carlson, of passing Johansson, who coached him early in his days in the NHL. “It’s a lot of games in a really good League, and I’m glad to do it with one team. I think that’s a special thing for a player, being able to play with a couple of my really great friends for a long time. And the fans; it just feels different when you’re somewhere for so long.
“And then Calle obviously meant a lot to me early on in my career. He’s a great guy and was obviously a great player for the Caps for a really long time. It was cool to see him on the JumboTron.”
Carlson’s goal in the front half of the first ended a personal 19-game dry spell, and it came while the arena was still buzzing a bit from the tribute video and subsequent ovation.
“How about that timing?” marvels Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “Right after he’s giving the wave to everybody, he pots one in the back of the net.”
“You take them when you can get them right now,” says Carlson of the timing. “I’m not going to complain about any timing. But yeah, it was nice.”
Later in the opening frame, Max Pacioretty showed off his renowned shooting prowess, threading a shot from distance through the five-hole of beleaguered Sens’ goalie Anton Forsberg, whose night would be a short one. Pacioretty’s power-play goal broke a 17-game goal drought.
And on a night in which Washington was playing without a slew of its regular players, the Caps’ contingent of recent Calder Cup champs started and finished the night’s scoring. Aliaksei Protas scored the game’s first goal early in the first and added a pair of helpers later on to record his second three-point game of the season and his NHL career. And rookie pivot Hendrix Lapierre scored a pair of goals in the second period, closing out the night’s scoring. Beck Malenstyn also scored for the Caps, rounding out Washington’s six-pack of lamplighters in Monday’s game.
Returning home for the first time in just under a week, the Caps picked up right where they left off, almost literally. In their previous home game against New Jersey last Tuesday, the Caps scored four times in the third period in a 6-2 victory over the Devils. Hosting the Senators in their return to town on Monday, the Caps hung four goals on them in the first frame.
With notable help from both of his linemates, Protas started the scoring for the Caps, staking his team to a 1-0 lead at 6:30 of the first. Connor McMichael started the scoring play with a nifty defensive play at the Washington line, springing his mates to a 2-on-1 rush with Anthony Mantha carrying into Ottawa ice. Mantha patiently waited and put a wicked fake on the lone defender back before feeding Protas, who finished with a backhander to the shelf.
“Everybody’s on the same page, everybody’s working together,” says Protas. “We know our goal right now, and we know what we are fighting for. And we knew we needed a good start against that team; they’re on a roll right now.”
Precisely two minutes later, the Caps doubled their lead on their first power play opportunity of the evening. Dylan Strome pulled a right dot draw right into the pocket, and Carlson ripped it home from there, two seconds after the face-off. Carlson’s goal moved him one ahead of Sergei Gonchar (144) for second place on the team’s all-time list of goals by a defenseman.
Ottawa regained its footing quickly though, getting a Drake Batherson goal at 10:12 and a Shane Pinto tally at 12:41 to square the score.
Late in the first, Batherson was boxed for boarding Mike Sgarbossa, another member of Hershey’s Cup championship team from last season, and a guy who has done excellent work in Washington since his recall early this month. On the ensuing power play, Sgarbossa set up Pacioretty for another extra-man strike. When Pacioretty snapped a shot through Forsberg’s five-hole at 18:33, it gave Sgarbossa his first power-play point in the NHL in just over seven years, and it put the Caps back on top, 3-2.
Washington wasn’t finished, either. Fourteen seconds later, Malenstyn scored the Caps’ fourth goal of the first frame, burying a shot from the slot. The Pacioretty and Malenstyn goals are the Caps’ two fastest goals of the season to date, and they ensured that Forsberg would start the second period on the bench; he yielded the crease to Joonas Korpisalo to start the middle stanza.
Brady Tkachuk scored on the Sens’ first shot of the second period, pulling Ottawa to within a goal at 1:27. But again, the Caps were quick to respond.
Lapierre netted his first goal just 31 seconds after the Tkachuk goal, tapping a shot past Korpisalo at the left post to make it 5-3. Just after then midpoint of the middle period, Lapierre finished a sublime Mantha feed on another 2-on-1 rush to give Washington a three-goal lead at 10:55.
Carbery noted that Lapierre’s line – he skated with Malenstyn and Nicolas Aubé-Kubel – was probably Washington’s best on this night.
“I had a blast playing with these guys tonight,” says Lapierre. “And I’ll take the couple of bounces and the goals. It was great effort from everyone. It's fun to see guys up and down the lineup contributing.”
At that point of the game – with some 29 minutes remaining – the Caps and Sens appeared to be on track for a 1980s throwback game. But both teams settled down and settled in, and it was a low event contest the rest of the way, and a “no event” contest as far as lamplighters were concerned.
“It just seemed like it was a tough battle tonight,” says Sens’ interim coach Jacques Martin. “Whenever we got kind of close early, in the first, we gave up a couple more. And then in the second, we score one to make it 4-3 and then they get another one. It just seemed like we couldn’t get any traction, and we made some mistakes that were costly.”
Ottawa came into the District hot; they’d won seven of their previous 10 games (7-2-1) and were 10-3-3 in their previous 16.
“It was an odd start,” says Carbery. “We get up with those two goals, and they get two quick. I thought it was going to settle in at that point, because it gets back to level. But we answered right there with those two late in the first period, and we took control of that game.”
It was a great two-point night for the Caps, and memorable one on multiple counts for one of its all-time greats.
“He’s going to go down in history as one of the greats of all time in this organization,” says Carbery of Carlson, “and arguably a Hockey Hall of Famer with what he’s been able to do with his career, and what he continues to do, even at his age and where he’s at in his career.”
