For the first time in over 400 days, the Washington Capitals played a home game in front of fans and from the moment the puck dropped to the final horn, they put on a show in front of fans in a 1-0 win over the New York Islanders.
1:29 into the game, Daniel Sprong brought the house down with a snipe in for his 10th goal of the season. It made the 2,100 fans in attendance sound like 20,000. Dmitry Orlov and Tom Wilson had the helpers.
The Caps were coming off two wins in Long Island in two very different games. The Caps didn’t skip a beat and rode the energy of the fans as they were able to complete the sweep. It took 419 days but it was worth the wait indeed.
Wilson talked about the fans impact via Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic:
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"“It felt like your first NHL game all over again. There’s no words to describe what it feels like to have the fans back in the rink. They’re our support system.”"
Vitek Vanecek was a stud in goal with 18 saves in his second shutout. It’s going to spark serious debate in Washington on whether him or Ilya Samsonov should start in the playoffs. The Caps penalty kill was a perfect three for three including two big kills in the third period in the final 10 minutes.
In the second period, fireworks ensued. Matt Martin of the Islanders hit Michael Raffl from behind. Raffl was okay but enter Zdeno Chara. He dropped the mitts with Martin.
It was a 1-0 game but the Caps gave the fans a show nonetheless. All that action and the fans played a critical part in the win. The victory improves the Caps record to 32-13-4 for 68 points moving into first place in the MassMutual East Divison.
The Caps are in the middle of a big test in the final 10 games with seven remaining. They’ve so far aced it with a three game sweep of the Islanders. Things don’t get any easier, however. The Pittsburgh Penguins are just a point behind and come to town on Thursday and Saturday.
Caps head coach Peter Laviolette got to experience Caps fans on the right side for the first time after coming in for many years as a visitor. He said that they truly made the difference.
“It was awesome, just the life in the building. We appreciate the cutout human beings, for 40 plus games, but to actually have some live ones in there that move around and yell and they are fired up and they get up and give an ovation if things are going well, that’s kind of what I was talking about with the juice in the building. Those cardboard people just don’t do that. We were waiting for 49 games and they haven’t moved,” said Laviolette.