Streak snapped: Stars beat Caps 3-1

On By Littum

@AndrewRMcP59213

The Washington Capitals ended their road winning streak, falling to the Dallas Stars 3-1 on Monday night.

Dylan Strome converted first, deflecting a shot from Jakob Chychrun with the shaft of his stick. In the second period, Roope Hintz scored on a power play he drew himself, then Lian Bichsel got a lucky bounce off Sandin’s glove to give Dallas the lead with twenty minutes left to play. Hintz struck again in the third period, ending Washington’s hopes of a comeback.

Caps lose.

  • For the most part, this was a great hockey game. The entire sheet was contested, with Dallas suffocating on defense while the Caps were aggressive up front. It was a treat. We really don’t get to see enough of the Dallas Stars.
  • Dylan Strome was Washington’s lone scorer – and probably their best player. He has a four-game point streak cooking.
  • Star defender Brendan Smith the blind side Tom Wilson (injured, delicate) for an interference call early in the second period. With Wilson (innocent, coquettish) unable to answer, Brandon Duhaime entered. Brandon and Brendan chopped it up a few times before tempers boiled over.
  • Unanimous decision for Brandon. Unlimited shame for Brendan. It’s kind of crazy in retrospect that the Walshes named their kids Brandon and Brenda before they moved to Beverly Hills.
  • The Stars committed a ton of penalties…and got called on some of them too! And yet their penalty kill was excellent, killing eight minutes with Washington a man up. That was the difference.
  • And yet it was a dominant second period for the Caps, who controlled 23 attempts to Dallas’ 8 during five-on-five, so The Caps, of course, scored no goals and allowed two.
  • The second of the two goals went completely wrong Rasmus Sandy‘s glove. Unfortunate.
  • Jakub Vrana played for the first time since November 21st. Lapierre – Eller – Vrana felt like a very weak line to me and Carbery seemed to agree, sending them over the boards as little as possible. But they were pretty good on a few shifts and moved the puck up the ice quickly.
  • On Stars’ jerseys. I feel like we talk about this every time, but I was able to get comments from several key people on the matter. “I’m in love,” Aileen O’Hearn, PhDtold RMNB from the sofa. “I feel like I’m looking at a black light poster. It’s bright! It’s green! Terrifying.”
  • Reporting from Baltimore, disgraced hockey analyst Patrick Holden disagreed. “Caps (sic) roads (plus), whatever these (Stars) jerseys are, has got to be the worst jersey combination imaginable in hockey,” Holden told RMNB in ​​a text message.
  • (I agree with Aileen.)

There was a moment in the second period when Washington really tipped the ice that Monumental’s Craig Laughlin (seen in tasteful blue above) told the Caps, “Be careful what you wish for. You’ve got to straighten things out a little bit.” I hated him for saying this and felt good about a tie game. Then Bichsel got that freaking streak ended. I was wrong learn quite often.

But I liked this effort. The power play was really tough, but if McMichael hit the net instead of the post, or if Carlson kept a rush pass on goal, or if Sandin’s glove wasn’t haunted, this would have been a different game. (Or, as Ian urges, if the officials had named it after the book.)

The Caps now head to Chicago. All in #crashers already sharing “trap” GIFs in preparation. Me – I think it’s time to start a new streak. See you at 20.30 – what the dickens? Rude!