Washington Capitals: Remembering Banner Night
Remembering one epic Washington Capitals night in team history.
When the Washington Capitals won their first ever Stanley Cup they were assured of one thing the next season, on the year’s first night of the season, they would get to celebrate with the fans one final time before closing a book on a historic 2017-18 season and turning the page of looking to win a second one.
The ceremony was good and was emotional for every Caps fan who was lucky enough to have tickets to this game. It opened with a montage with the background music of Mumford and Sons “I will wait”, a song that was appropriate for the occassion since it was indeed worth the wait.
Once the montage was up and radio voice John Walton fired up the crowd, it was time to introduce the players. Last but simply not least was Alex Ovechkin who came out skating with the Stanley Cup. Then it was time for the banner reveal and boy she was beautiful.
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With the crowd all charged up from the ceremony the Caps wasted no time when the puck was dropped as they cruised to a 7-0 win.
The Caps scored first 24 seconds into the contest with a goal from T.J. Oshie from the left face-off circle, a quick one-timer. Nicklas Backstrom and Matt Niskanen had the helpers.
The Caps went to the power play at 1:45 when Sean Kuraly was called for tripping. Two seconds into the attack there was a bouncing puck in front of Tuukka Rask that he was unable to corral. Evgeny Kuznetsov had the rebound and scored quickly to make it 2-0 which would be the score after 20.
At 3:01 in the second Brad Marchand was called for tripping, putting the Caps back on the power play. At 4:17 Ovechkin scored from outside the left face-off area for his first goal of the season. Backstrom and Oshie had the assists.
At 6:13 Nic Dowd scored his first goal in a Caps sweater with a nice spin-o-rama backhanded goal that totally faked out Rask. Nathan Walker and Devante Smith-Pelly had the helpers.
At 7:28 Kuznetsov scored his second power play goal of the night asisted by John Carlson and Braden Holtby, that looked like a save Rask could’ve made but instead ended his night welcoming good old Jaroslav Halk into the contest.
At 15:45 Carlson made it 6-0 with a power play goal of his own assisted by Ovechkin and Backstrom. That would be the score after two periods. In the third Lars Eller added one for good measure, much to the displeasure of Brad Marchand who fought Eller a few minutes later. Chandler Stephenson and Brooks Orpik had the assists.
When Alex Ovechkin hit Evgeni Malkin's agent in the face. light. Hot
Overall it was a fun night where we got to see a beautiful banner go up before the Caps kicked some Bruins butt in a big way. Here’s hoping we get another night like this and a second banner going up someday.