Around 9:35 on Saturday evening Vancouver time, the strains of John Denver’s “Take Me Home Country Roads” began wafting through the walls of the Washington locker room, testament to the immeasurable contributions of Caps’ winger T.J. Oshie, who played the 1,000th game of his NHL career in Washington’s 2-1 Saturday night victory over the Canucks at Rogers Place.
It was the second locker room tribute to Oshie on his big day. Almost exactly 11 hours earlier, just ahead of the pre-scout meeting in the Caps’ locker room, assistant coach Brett Leonhardt teed up a tribute video montage that encapsulated Oshie’s career from his high school days to the present moment, to musical accompaniment – Luke Combs’ “Doin’ This” – in just over four minutes.
All that Saturday morning love for Oshie was tempered with worry though, when the veteran winger departed the morning skate with an upper body injury. Oshie dressed and returned to the hotel for treatment, his status for Saturday’s game hanging in the balance.
“We were in the coach’s room before the game, trying to figure out different line combinations, and what we would do,” recounts Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “We had our fingers crossed that he was going to be able to play tonight, and he was. And what a night. To win like that, it’s in true T.J. Oshie fashion, to win like that and play so hard. Guys were blocking shots, they were grinding to get a puck across our blueline – and get it out – late in the game.
“I’m really, really happy and proud that now he can look back on something, and for all of us, we’ll remember this night for the rest of our lives. And it comes with a win, and one that we had to fight for, against a real good hockey team on the road. It’s a real memorable night.”
Washington fell into an early hole when Vancouver captain and Norris Trophy favorite Quinn Hughes engineered the game’s first goal at 1:11 of the first frame.
From center point, Hughes turned on the jets and drove wide on the left side, carving around the left circle and firing a shot toward the net, where Brock Boeser tipped it past Caps’ goalie Charlie Lindgren to give the home squad an early advantage.
The Canucks had the better of possession and momentum early, and they won 12 of the 16 draws in the game’s first frame. Lindgren made one key save on Vancouver’s J.T. Miller in the front half of the first, and the Caps gradually found their legs, their game and some of their connectivity as the period wore on.
In the middle stanza, the Caps took control. They were assertive and were constantly able to string together passes and to gain the Vancouver zone with speed, and they were able to cobble together some shifts in the Canucks’ end.
One such shift resulted in a Vancouver icing. The Canucks won that ensuing face-off as well, but John Carlson pinched down the wall to pick off Vancouver defenseman Ian Cole’s exit attempt. Carlson put it to the net front for Ivan Miroshnichenko, who quickly dished to Tom Wilson for a back door tap in on the weak side at 6:01, squaring the score at 1-1.
“It’s been fun to play with him,” says Wilson of Miroshnichenko. “He’s got a ton of potential; he made an amazing play. You can tell he’s a smart player. As he gets more comfortable, he’s making more good plays and good reads.
“I showed him something on the iPad in Seattle, and he made sure that he passed to the back door tonight, so we were having some fun out there. He’s definitely coming out of his shell a little bit.”
Less than two minutes later, the Caps jumped in front for good. Another Vancouver icing led to a draw in Canucks’ ice, and this time Connor McMichael won it, giving the Caps an offensive zone possession shift. Oshie won a board battle along the right half wall, then fed Alex Alexeyev in the slot. Alexeyev started a tic-tac-toe triangle play, dishing to McMichael near the right post. The pivot could have potted it himself, but he deferred to Caps’ captain Alex Ovechkin, setting up a tap in at the opposite post for a 2-1 Washington lead at 7:54.
Oshie had been on the ice for the early Vancouver goal, and he was determined to erase that minus from his ledger.
“I wanted to be out there to at least even up the score with my line, so it was nice” he says. “Great job by Al – who hasn’t played a ton of games this year – and he stepped into a hole that’s a very ‘hockey sense play,’ and from there, he set it up.
“It kind of made me nervous; it would have been nice if Mike just threw it in the net. But it’s always good when Big Eight gets a goal when you’re out there.”
The Caps kept the heat on for several more minutes, and they had a power play opportunity that produced a good deal of zone time, but no increase to their lead. Washington did hold the Canucks without a shot on net for 11 minutes and 48 seconds of the middle frame, and then the Caps defended diligently in their own end in the last few minutes of the middle frame when the Canucks suddenly began to swarm them in their own end.
There were a couple more Vancouver swarms to be dealt with in the third; the Canucks put half of their game total of 22 shots on Lindgren in what was a fast-paced final frame, with few whistles. Hendrix Lapierre made an excellent defensive play to thwart what looked like a sure Vancouver goal late in the third, and Washington laid out to block 11 Vancouver shot tries in the third, helping Lindgren to his 17th victory of the season, and ensuring Oshie’s big night would end with a pair of much needed standings points.
“It's incredible to watch young players grow,” says Carbery. “Miro – in English – is yelling things to players on the ice. And you see it as a coach, and you're just smiling because you can feel the investment, and how bad they want to win, how they want to do the right things. Lappy is a prime example of that; that back check – I pointed it out after the game – was a huge play. Marty Fehervary with the block on that one timer from [Elias] Pettersson late in the game.”
Like Thursday night’s victory by the same score in Seattle, Saturday’s victory was a total team effort, made all the more special by the fact that it reflected one of the prominent elements of Oshie’s excellent NHL career.
It was a grind.
“I don’t really even know where to start on Osh,” says Wilson, when asked about the inspiration Oshie supplied his team with on this night, and for so many nights over the last eight-plus years. “I could be here all night talking about him, the character, the type of person he is. I think he makes everybody in this room a better person, a better player. He’s a true warrior; he hasn’t taken a shift off in his entire career.
“I’ve been so lucky personally to have him as an older brother/mentor type of guy, and just a guy who comes to the rink and loves life. Huge congrats to him, his family, and his entire support system. Obviously, his dad would be very, very proud of him. He’s a true warrior, and he’s done whatever it takes to get here, and he had a great game again tonight. I think he’s got some runway left; he helps this hockey club a lot.”
