{"id":505645,"date":"2026-01-10T07:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T07:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/505645\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T07:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T07:35:10","slug":"caps-beat-blackhawks-5-1-alex-ovechkin-adds-another-name-to-the-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/505645\/","title":{"rendered":"Caps beat Blackhawks 5-1: Alex Ovechkin adds another name to The List"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1563\" height=\"1172\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/eva-caps-hawks.jpg\" class=\"above-the-fold wp-post-image\" alt=\"WSH @ CHI\" decoding=\"async\"   fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ud83d\udcf8: Eva from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youcantdothatpod.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YCDT, my fave podcast<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The Washington Capitals wrapped up the work week with a workman-like win over the Chicago Blackhawks. My advice for pro hockey teams is, if you can, try to infect the other team\u2019s goalies with the flu.<\/p>\n<p>The Caps took an early lead when the Hawks failed to clock Anthony Beauvillier at the goal mouth. Connor McMichael, the best Connor in the game, doubled the lead with a breakaway goal that we\u2019ll discuss below. Ethan Frank made it 3-0 heading into the first intermission.<\/p>\n<p>Oliver Moore put the Blackhawks on the scoreboard with a brilliant shot to beat Logan Thompson. Justin Sourdif stayed hot by crashing the net. 4-1 after two periods.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Ovechkin did it himself on a rush play to make it 5-1.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Caps win! <\/strong>Bailamos!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>                        Get RMNB ad-free<\/p>\n<p>Support us on Patreon for $5 to hide all ads and get other perks<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/russianmachineneverbreaks.com\/patreon-flow\/?patreon-login=yes&amp;patreon-final-redirect=https%3A%2F%2Frussianmachineneverbreaks.com%2F2026%2F01%2F09%2Fcaps-beat-blackhawks-5-1-alex-ovechkin-adds-another-name-to-the-list\" class=\"btn btn-outline-primary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">More Info<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The flu is going around, you guys. Goalies Spencer Knight and Arvid Soderblom are both down and out (north and south?), so the team called up <strong>Drew Commesso<\/strong>. I\u2019d say that was their first mistake, but their first mistake was lack of PPE in an era of declining public health.<\/li>\n<li>Commesso gave up three goals on the first seven shots he faced. That was the game right there.<\/li>\n<li>With Knight and Soderblom AFK, and the call-up on the ice, that meant we had a treat: EBUG!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"BoUQcfeSVg\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/russianmachineneverbreaks.com\/2026\/01\/09\/dave-nozzolillo-beer-league-goalie-banker-emergency-backup-chicago-blackhawks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dave Nozzolillo, a beer-league goalie and banker, forced into emergency backup duty for Chicago Blackhawks<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Connor Bedard<\/strong>, Team Canada snub, returned to play after missing time with a shoulder injury. He was fine. Second best Connor in this game\u2019s Connor power rankings.<\/li>\n<li>Okay, that\u2019s enough about the Hawks.<\/li>\n<li>I\u2019ve seen <strong>Connor McMichael<\/strong> get a semi-break many times in the last two seasons, and I have to rack my brain to think of a time he finished one of those chances. On Friday he did: five-hole.<\/li>\n<li>Another crackerjack game from <strong>Justin Sourdif<\/strong>. He scored the purest kind of hockey goal: uh, just get up in there and whack at it. Then he drew a penalty with this clean hit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Sourdif has speed, he\u2019s won battles, he\u2019s made good passes, and it\u2019s infectious how happy he is to be here. But now he\u2019s added scoring and rabble-rousing to the kit. Love it.<\/li>\n<li>What I wished for was <strong>Alex Ovechkin<\/strong> to score on Commesso to a<a href=\"https:\/\/russianmachineneverbreaks.com\/every-goalie-alex-ovechkin-has-scored-on\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dd him to the list<\/a>, and then that goal forces Blashill to play the EBUG, and then Alex Ovechkin scores on him to add him to the list. I got half that. Ovechkin has 19 goals, goals in three straight, and 916 in his career \u2013 not counting shootout goals, but I wouldn\u2019t worry too much about that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"bluesky-embed\" data-bluesky-uri=\"at:\/\/did:plc:nqxxi7akzkcxg5vvyetwtjof\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mbzt2woxui2g\" data-bluesky-cid=\"bafyreihxebr43ocwaceeh7pi2yplmbgqels3mlymbit5p6zyvlaozzjexu\">\n<p lang=\"en\">Look the hell out. It&#8217;s Friday night and Joe is wearing a three-piece #joebsuitofthenight<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:nqxxi7akzkcxg5vvyetwtjof?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RMNB (@rmnb.bsky.social)<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:nqxxi7akzkcxg5vvyetwtjof\/post\/3mbzt2woxui2g?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2026-01-10T01:06:51.179Z<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>We needed a game like this after that disappointment with Dallas. Chicago kinda has nothing going for them except for a good PK and the hope that Bedard can regain his form.<\/p>\n<p>Preds on Sunday. I know they look like trash, but they\u2019re a sneaky team. If they can finish some shots and get some saves, everything else they\u2019ve got is pretty okay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udcf8: Eva from YCDT, my fave podcast The Washington Capitals wrapped up the work week with a workman-like&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":505646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-505645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115869655009564462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}