Can't Have A Stanley Cup Hangover If You Stay Drunk
To be honest, it was unfair to make a team skate 60 minutes with the Caps last night. They should have had the banner ceremony, given the Caps the 2 points in the standings, and not made Boston hit the ice. Because it was the Red Wedding at Capital One last night.
Just annihilation in every way. The Bruins couldn’t skate with the Caps, they were badly outshot, the Caps went 4/6 on the PP, and Holtby registered a 25 save shutout. Imagine if the Caps could win a faceoff (a bit concerning tbh), as the Bs won 41/60. Game would have been 10-0, so definitely room for improvement.
Now, let’s talk Brad Marchand. Him jumping Lars Eller is bush league, obviously. Fighting a guy with 0 career fights, who didn’t want to fight, isn’t the way hockey is supposed to be. He certainly wouldn’t have jumped Eller had Wilson been in the lineup, that’s for sure, but he for sure would have ducked out of fighting Wilson. Marchand is a pest, which is fine, but throwing 3 punches at a guy’s face before he drops the gloves goes against everything hockey is supposed to be. Find a guy to drop the mitts with who is a fighter, don’t just start throwing knuckles into a guy’s forehead because he scored a goal.
I mean, that’s pretty weak. If you don’t want a guy celebrating scoring a 7th goal, don’t give up a 7th goal, it’s truly that easy. It’s like a pitcher getting mad at a batflip, well, don’t give up the home run and you won’t have that problem.
All in all, an awesome opener. And now they have to turn around and try to do it all again in Pittsburgh. Very tough to go back to back like that, but that’s kinda the point of the entire season, so let’s get after it.
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Here is the full 34 minutes pregame celebration last night. Definitely worth the watch, it was supremely well done:
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If you don’t have 34 minutes, here’s a small piece that’ll make you want to watch the whole thing:
Banner nights are sweet. We should have those more often.
