Washington Capitals: Alex Ovechkin Nets Two in Exhibition Game Win Versus Carolina

The Washington Capitals downed the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Washington Capitals won 3-2 over the Carolina Hurricanes in their first game in over 140 days. The two teams battled it out at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario in their one and only exhibition game before the Stanley Cup Qualifiers/round-robin tournament begin.

Ahh, hockey. It’s been awhile. Sure, it was just an exhibition game, but how nice was it to watch real hockey? How about real hockey and a Capitals win? Yeah, it was pretty great.

The Capitals, and the rest of the world came to a halt back in March when the NHL season was suspended due to COVID-19. Everyone was unsure of what would happen to the rest of the NHL season that was to be played. However, in this world, there are three guarantees: Death, taxes and Alex Ovechkin scoring a one-timer from the circle.

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That is how this exhibition game began for the Capitals, as Alex Ovechkin scored the exact goal you expected him to score: A one-timer from the circle. This goal came from a nice Dmitry Orlov deflection pass, and the whole sequence reminded us why we missed watching the Caps play.

The Capitals held onto the 1-0 lead for all of 30 seconds before noted Cap-killer, Vincent Trochek, put the puck past Braden Holtby after a pretty weird deflection and the net being lifted off its moorings. The call on the ice was no-goal, but after a review of the goal it was overturned.

Before the period would be over, the Capitals would strike again. This time the goal came off-the-stick of Evgeny Kuznetsov after two pretty passes from Alex Ovechkin and Dmitry Orlov, who both collected their respective second points of the evening. Nice to see a little bit of a Russian connection on this nasty tuck.

https://twitter.com/Capitals/status/1288574855953055744?s=20

The second period went scoreless until roughly seven-and-a-half minutes in when Alex Ovechkin his second of the game off of a sweet cross-ice feed from Tom Wilson. Wilson carried the puck along the wall from the Caps’ end to the Hurricanes’ end before shrugging off noted good-hockey-player, Jaccob Slavin. Then, he found a lane and put the puck right on Ovi’s tape which, of course, he had little trouble putting in the back of the net.

Braden Holtby sat out the third period while Vitek Vanecek took over for the final 20 minutes of the contest.

There would be no more goals scored until 2:58 into the 3rd period when Tuevo Teravainen scored off of an unreal Sebastian Aho feed on the 5-on-3 man advantage to make it a one-goal game. This would be the last goal scored as the Caps would hold on to secure the 3-2 victory in their lone exhibition matchup.

Goaltending

Braden Holtby stopped 12 of the 13 shots he faced and looked good in his first 40 minutes of action since March.

Vitek Vanecek made his “sort-of debut,” and made 13 saves on the 14 shots he faced as the Hurricanes pressed in the third period. Vanecek looked confident in goal, which is a good sign for Capitals fans and management.

Special Teams

Washington killed off four of their five penalties in their exhibition matchup. The penalty-kill unit looked strong, though they were forced into action a few too many times as the Capitals continue to take too many penalties.

On the other hand, the Capitals went one-for-six on the power play, only scoring on their first chance with three seconds remaining on the man advantage. The power play continues to look shaky and is in need of some tweaks to allow the Capitals to enter the zone with more control.

Noteworthy

John Carlson did not play the last half of the third period after he fell into the boards awkwardly. He skated off on his own power, but Todd Reirden pulled him out as a precaution which was a smart decision. Reirden says he will have more of an update tonight or tomorrow. Capitals fans are praying that Carlson will be fine, as he was arguably the Capitals’ most important player this season.

The Capitals are back in action on Monday, August 3rd, when they play their first game of the round-robin tournament against the Tampa Bay Lightning.