Capitals vs. Blues Recap: Blown Away By Blue Notes

Nathan Walker’s GWG was the difference maker in St. Louis’ 5 to 2 win.

In a week night battle between cross conference foes the St. Louis Blues downed the Capitals 5 to 2 in Washington.

Here’s Tuesday night’s Plus/Minus:

Plus: Marcus Johansson made his Washington Capitals return and skated a rather uneventful 17:56.

Minus: Michal Kempny and Anthony Mantha each taking a pair of penalties.

Nine more notes on the game:

1. Midway through the first Evgeny Kuznetsov tallied a power play goal. His perfect shot handcuffed Blues goaltender Ville Husso and the puck bounced into the net.
2. Multiple minutes later Brandon Saad responded for St. Louis. Saad skated through Dmitry Orlov and found himself a breakaway that he converted on from in close.
3. 73 seconds after Saad’s marker Tom Wilson scored, netting his 19th (!) goal of the season. On an odd man rush alongside Mantha Wilson drove hard to the net and put the puck up and over Husso as soon as he got it for a second lead.
4. But before the first intermission arrived the Blues even the game again. With Kempny in the penalty box Ryan O’Reilly scooped and stashed a loose puck into a yawning Capitals cage.
5. Halfway through the contest Nathan Walker struck against his old team, giving St. Louis their first lead of the night. Staking himself to space atop the crease Walker touched home a Brayden Schenn pass with ease.
6. And before the second intermission began Schenn extended the Blues’ lead to two. Picking up his own rebound in the slot Schenn spun it around Vitek Vanecek for some scoreboard insurance.
7. In the third period the Blues simply shut Washington down. Despite being down by multiple goals the Capitals were only able to muster four shots through the final twenty minutes of play.
8. With 28 seconds to play David Perron completed the game’s scoring with an empty net goal.
9. Peter Laviolette dressed seven defenders tonight, with Matt Irwin skating a game (and likely league) low 0:00.