If I Needed You - Wednesday night's game between the Capitals and the Rangers was emotionally charged right from the opening face-off when all three forwards from both sides dropped the gloves and went at it. Three more fights followed in the first five minutes of the game, and Rangers defenseman Brendan Smith incurred an instigator penalty for going after Tom Wilson, who'd drawn the ire of the New York organization in the previous game between the two teams on Monday night.
POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 4, Rangers 2
But over the course of 60 minutes of hockey, the emotionality of the game changed tenor. Wilson left with an upper body injury after the first period, and New York's Pavel Buchnevich was excused for the evening after committing three separate stick fouls, the last of which was a two-handed cross-check to the bridge of Anthony Mantha's nose.
The first period featured 100 minutes worth of penalties, and 41 more in the game's final 40 minutes. But early in the second period, another emotional story of an entirely different sort began to play itself out, and it fueled the Caps' 4-2 victory.
Washington winger T.J. Oshie didn't play in Monday night's game because he was on the other side of the continent with his dad, Tim "Coach" Oshie as the elder Oshie passed away from the ravages of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 56. For the elder Oshie, "Coach" was more than a nickname. It was part of who he was, and even T.J. grew up calling him "Coach" rather than "dad," a ritual that continued into adulthood.
Anyone who saw the two of them together or who witnessed Oshie's emotional and heartfelt tribute to ice dad on the ice surface of T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in the aftermath of the Caps' Stanley Cup hoisting the Stanley Cup there on the night of June 7, 2018 knows of the special bond between the two. It transcended a typical father/son relationship.
At a time of such immense grief and sorrow, Oshie was driven to return to his team for Wednesday's game, and they needed him. Playing without Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Daniel Sprong and Justin Schultz, and with a division title and playoff positioning at stake, the Caps needed Oshie, and even with him at Madison Square Garden and in uniform, they were a player short of a full lineup of 18 skaters.
With the first period's fistic fireworks in the rear view, the game took a turn early in the second.
Twelve seconds into the period, Oshie took a perfect cross-ice feed from Brenden Dillon, skated down the right side of the ice in the waning seconds of a Washington power play and scored. The goal gave the Caps a 1-0 lead, and immediately made the proceedings feel more like a hockey game.
Later in the second, Oshie scored a more typical - for him - power-play goal from his customary spot in the slot. When Dmitry Orlov teed up a shot from center point, Oshie was in position to get a stick on it and deflect it, only to see Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev shrug the shot off. A master of puck retrievals on the power play, Oshie wasn't done. He lunged after the loose puck and took the best hack he could take at it, with Rangers defender Adam Fox right on him. Oshie hacked it home for a 2-0 Washington lead, scoring his 20th goal of the season - in just 51 games - and his team-leading 13th power-play goal of the season, the most in the NHL and a single-season career high.
The Caps had a couple more power plays after that, and they were funneling pucks to Oshie in hope of helping him fill the hat trick. With Washington leading 3-1 and with Georgiev pulled for an extra attacker in the final minutes of the third, Oshie took a bump pass from Carl Hagelin and fired from his own blueline into the vacant New York cage. Oshie's third goal of the night came with 100 seconds left in the game. The hat trick is the fourth of Oshie's career and the first by a Caps player this season.
"A very special night," says Caps center Nicklas Backstrom. "He's going through some rough times right now. He's such a strong guy; he came back and played tonight. Honestly, I couldn't be happier for him that he scored three goals tonight and was the big game changer tonight. We're all so proud of him, and we're all trying to support him as best as we can."
To that very point, immediately after the final horn as the Caps congratulated one another on the victory, Backstrom was seen in a lengthy embrace with Oshie.
"I saw he got emotional there at the end, which is understandable," says Backstrom. "I felt like he needed a hug. I think I told him, 'You're the strongest person I know.' First of all, it's so impressive that he actually played today, and how he led the way. It's got to be so tough; I can only imagine.
"We're a family. We're in this together. His loss is everyone's loss. We feel for him."
Victory Road -Caps goaltender Vitek Vanecek stopped 19 of 21 shots on Wedensday to earn his 20th won of the season. In doing so, he becomes just the third rookie netminder in franchise history to win as many as 20 games for the Caps, joining Bob Mason (20 wins in 1986-87) and Michal Neuvirth (27 wins in 2010-11) on that short list. Vanecek leads all NHL rookie goalies in wins this season.
You've Got The Power - If someone told you before Wednesday's game that six different Capitals would earn fighting majors in the contest, you'd have bet on Dillon to be one of them. He entered the game with a team-high five fights. While Dillon did not drop the mitts on Wednesday, he had a couple of noteworthy moments in the game.
Washington started the night with only 11 forwards, and by the five-minute mark of the first period, six of them were in the penalty box for fighting. That left only five on the bench, not enough to populate two complete lines. So Dillon took a couple shifts on the wing, skating with Backstrom and Daniel Carr.
With his sublime setup feed on Oshie's first goal of the night, Dillon recorded the first power-play point of his NHL career, doing so in his 651st career contest.
"I've been telling the coaches for years that I'm just waiting to get my chance on the power play," deadpans Dillon. "I think a lot of different guys had to step up into different roles tonight. Collectively, everyone did a great job. We understood that we again had some adversity. We could have used tons of different excuses tonight. It's just a credit to the group of guys in here who did an unbelievable job of coming together and getting the job done."
I Can Help -Orlov had three assists in Wednesday's win, the first three-assist game of his NHL career and his third three-point game. With the three apples, Orlov reached the 200-point mark for his NHL career.
Bright Side of The Road - Washington's Wednesday night win in Manhattan was its seventh in its last eight road games of the season, and the Caps outscored the opposition by a combined 37-21 in those eight games.
The twin victories in New York conclude the road portion of the Caps' schedule this season, leaving them with a 19-7-2 road record for the season and ensuring they'll finish the 2020-21 season with a better mark on the road than at home. The Caps are 15-7-3 at Capital One Arena this season, with three home games remaining.
Washington has the most road wins and road points (40) in the NHL.
By The Numbers - Orlov led the Caps with 23:16 in ice time and three blocked shots … Oshie led the Caps with seven shots on net and 10 shot attempts … Five different Caps had two hits each to lead the team … Oshie and Backstrom each won eight of 10 face-offs (80%) while Nic Dowd won eight of 12 (67%) and Michael Raffl won four of six (67%).
