Travel woes for the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets delayed the start of Friday’s preseason tilt at Capital One Arena by more than 90 minutes, but by night’s end, they were glad they were able to make the trip. Adam Fantilli notched a hat trick and Mathieu Olivier scored twice as the Jackets doubled up the Caps, 8-4.
The Caps made some mistakes of execution, they weren’t as connected as they were in their previous outing in New Jersey, and they didn’t take good care of the puck at the offensive line, which cost them dearly on a couple of occasions. The delayed start wasn’t ideal for either team, but sitting on a tarmac for three hours waiting to take off didn’t appear to adversely affect the Jackets very much.
“I liked some things we did at various points in the game,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “Early on, I liked our game. They score on a couple of breakdowns and a couple of misreads, but I still thought at 5-on-5 with the way the game was going, I liked the way we were playing.
“The second [period] got away from us. We got real sloppy and our play just got really, really loose. And it started to open up, and we were just exposing ourselves way too much.”
The Caps had a good start, and for the first time in the preseason, they got on the board first. Seconds after the first television timeout in the opening frame, Andrew Mangiapane picked the pocket of Columbus center Dylan Gambrell in the right wing corner. Mangiapane fired a quick feed to Alex Ovechkin near the bottom of the right circle, and the Caps’ captain spun and fired a shot past Jackets’ goalie Daniil Tarasov on the short side, giving the Caps a 1-0 lead at 6:58.
The Jackets evened the score less than four minutes later when Fantilli beat Charlie Lindgren from the left circle at 10:47. Three minutes after the Fantilli goal, Columbus took the lead when James Malatesta scooped up an Ovechkin turnover at the Columbus line, tore in on a breakaway and made it a 2-1 contest at 13:49.
Washington wasted little time in getting even. Connor McMichael won the ensuing center ice draw back to John Carlson, took a return feed, and skated into Columbus ice. He issued a backhand sauce feed to Jakub Vrana on his left, and Vrana threaded a shot through Tarasov’s pads, knotting the score at 2-2, just a dozen seconds after the Malatesta tally.
The middle frame was all Columbus. Mathieu Olivier scored from the slot at 2:50 to restore the Columbus lead, taking a nice feed from Hunter McKown on the left half wall and beating Lindgren on the glove side.
A couple minutes later, another Washington miscue at the Columbus line resulted in another Blue Jackets breakaway, this time it was Fantilli again, scoring to make it a 4-2 game at 5:25.
Washington got one back on the power play at 10:01, Andrew Cristall making a sublime backhand cross-crease feed to Dylan Strome for a backdoor tap-in off the rush.
Columbus responded on its own man advantage at 14:49, restoring its two-goal cushion on a nice shot from Mikael Pyyhtia and sending the Caps to the room looking up at a two-goal deficit.
At 11:43 of the third, Jakob Chychrun took a puck off the back wall and tucked it in on the short side before Pavel Cajan – who came on in relief of Tarasov at the start of the third – could get to the post. Chychrun’s goal made it a 5-4 contest.
Fantilli struck again at the 16-minute mark to fill the hat trick and restore the two-goal cushion; he scored a goal in each period.
Cole Sillinger and Olivier both scored into an empty Washington net to account for the 8-4 final.
For the Capitals, only two preseason games remain now, and AHL Hershey opens its camp on Sunday, with Monday as the first on-ice day. Saturday is an off day, but by Sunday, Washington’s roster will certainly be trimmed significantly. A trio of forwards helped their respective causes as they bid to stick around for Monday’s trip to Columbus for a rematch with the Jackets.
Cristall and Vrana certainly helped their respective causes in Friday night’s game. Both were on the scoresheet, both were deployed briefly on the penalty kill, and the two skated on a line with McMichael in the third period, to good effect.
“Credit to him as a young player that isn’t allowed to play in the American Hockey League for continuing to push the envelope and make us consider keeping him in the National Hockey League,” says Carbery of Cristall. “That’s not an easy thing for him to do at his age and his experience level, and frankly, at his stature, when you put that into consideration as well.”
Vrana had a number of scoring chances and was engaged throughout the contest, and it was a tonic to see him score again in front of the home crowd at Capital One Arena.
“[He was] nocticeable tonight,” says Carbery. “And he showed some things that make him special from a speed standpoint, and his offensive mind, to know when he can make some reads to get out of the zone, to anticipate where the puck is going. And you saw him on some break situations; I’ve been around a few players like that. [Toronto’s] Willie Nylander is very much like that; he gets himself two or three times a game into situations where all of a sudden he is on a 2-on-1 or a rush where he is taking on a [defenseman] 1-on-1.
“And I chalk that up to just very, very high offensive IQ, of just knowing where the puck is going next, and when he can start to move his feet to find space. And we saw that tonight.”
Like Cristall and Vrana, Henrik Rybinski played for the third time in four preseason games on Friday, and the right-handed pivot has shown himself to be a heady defensive player who can kill penalties and make some plays in the offensive zone.
Heading into this third pro season, Rybinski has shown some growth and has opened some eyes in the first week plus of camp.
“I think he has been one of the big surprises of someone that wasn’t necessarily on our radar to make the Washington Capitals,” says Carbery. “And when I say that, we’ve followed him, and what he’s done in Hershey, and becoming a bigger part of their Calder Cup-winning team last year.
“Coming into camp, you’ve watched him a little bit in the American League and seen him, and now he really impressed our staff, and I know management feels the same way, and that’s why he’s earned the opportunity that he’s gotten, getting into games. He’s done a tremendous job of excelling in the games that he’s played in, and he’s been good in practices. It feels like he’s been trending [upwards] in our organization.”
