Went to the Caps and Wild game last night and came away really impressed with the Wild,gonna be a very tough team to knock out come playoff time if they stay healthy.Suter was on the ice almost the entire game it seemed and the way they cut off the passing lanes and clogged up the neutral zone so the Caps couldn't enter with speed was really a fun chess game to watch between the two.
Wild deserved a better fate for sure and had it not been for Holtby playing great it would have been a pretty easy 2 points.Caps did get unlucky a few times hitting the post and the PP looked great again but overall I thought the Wild did what they wanted in the game and controlled the play as much as they could.
One thing did puzzle me though in why didn't they use Parise in the shootout?He has always been a Cap killer but never got on the ice?
Happy with the 2 points for sure and got to see a very good Wild team so it was a good night.
disappointing loss, Wild should have got 2 points last night. Holtby was outstanding, several big stops. Caps PP is really good but I hate the way Yeo approached it. Oates has had them working it to the goal line with a guy in the slot and Ovechkin on the backdoor ever since he got there. they always go to that and it's very successful. I think you have to be aggressive against that but Yeo went with an
extremely passive box that wasn't fully collapsing when they move it to the goal line and instead just tried to have the defenseman go down to clog up both lanes. they're lucky it only bit them once with the backdoor to Ovechkin because the slot man hit the pipe twice on it.
outside of that though the Caps were very mediocre 5 on 5 as they have been all season and Holtby had to make a lot of big stops. save on Fontaine on the doorstep was outstanding. never should have got to OT though IMO, pretty clear interference by Wilson on Brodin that allowed Johansson to walk out of the corner and bank one off Prosser into the net. regardless, Wild had alot of chances to pull away and had a PP with a min left into OT so I'm not complaining. Granlund again looked really good in all areas of the ice, kid is going to be a star.
Suter played a ton because Stoner went down in the first on the boarding call when he went hard into the end boards. played with 5 the rest of the night.
Parise blocked a shot with about a min left that hit him in the hand area. showed him getting ice on the bench. obviously a big loss for the shootout, sounds like he'll be fine though. thought they should have went Granlund over Coyle, maybe Coyle has been good in practice but Granlund is known for being a solid shootout guy (though he hasn't finished on several breakaways this year including last night).