NHL preseason Recap- Washington Capitals defeat Columbus Blue Jackets 6-2
22nd September 2010 set the stage for an intriguing encounter during the 18th game of the preseason schedule in the NHL. There was an attendance of 10,908 who were present at the Nationwide Arena to witness the match between the Washington
Capitals and their cherished home team, Columbus Blue Jackets.
Before the match started, the Washington Capitals head coach, Bruce Boudreau said “though we might be strong on paper, but matches aren’t won on paper. This would be a tough battle as we have the disadvantage of being the away team. Let’s hope we do well”.
The match officiated by Kevin Pollock and David Banfield began at 7:08 local time and immediately the Blue Jackets bombarded a hard shot at the Capitals goal that went past the defence but was stopped by the goalie.
As the game progressed, the visitors (Washington Capitals) gained momentum and scored with 6:12 played in the first period. A 15-feet shot by Thomas Fleischmann tore pass the Blue Jackets defence and into the goal. Rest of the period was relatively slow
after a thunderous start by the Blue Jackets.
The end of the first period saw the Washington Capitals pile up 9 shots on goal out of which 1 went in. On the other hand a strong beginning by the Blue Jackets was backed by a weak end to the period as they finished with 14 shots without a goal.
After seeing the detailed conversation between Bruce Boudreau and his Capitals, everybody feared that something bad was installed for the Blue Jackets. This was indeed true as the period ended with the Capitals scoring four times compared to once by Blue
Jackets.
The second goal came for the Capitals came from a 31-foot shot by Matt Hendricks. The third goal of the match came when Thomas Fleischmann again managed to pass the Blue Jackets goalie with a hard shot from 35 feet. Seeing this, the Blue Jackets responded
with a 24-foott shot by captain, Rick Nash. The score at the time was 3-1.
The Capitals crushed any chances of a Blue Jackets come back when they scored twice at 14:15 and 16:30. The first goal was a result of a splendid strike by Matt Hendricks thanks to an assist by Thomas Fleischmann.
The second came from close range shot by Cody Eakins and sealed the match according to experts at the score of 5-1. The end of the period saw the Capitals scoring 4 times out of the 11 shots they attempted. The Blue Jackets on the other hand scored once
out of their 15 attempts.
During a little talk with one of the Capitals players, Brooks Laich said “though we are ahead at the moment we will still look to score but not at the cost of the Blue Jackets scoring against us”.
The third period as expected saw the Capitals come out relaxed but when Nikita Filatov scored with 5:23 into the third period from close range from the heart of the Capitals defence, the men regrouped. They came up with a very effective solution that resulted
in the Blue Jackets play against a locked defence. And on the other hand with constant pressure on the offence, the Capitals scored once again from 11 feet, thanks to Matt Hendricks.
The third period saw each team come up with 10 goal attempts scoring once. At the end, the score was a very dominating 6-2 in favour of the Washington Capitals.
The Washington Capitals managed 6 goals out of the 29 goal attempts made by them and Blue Jackets though had a huge 39 shots but managed to score only twice.
During the post game press conference, Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Scott Arniel said “this was by no means the performance that this team can come up. I apologize for disappointing the fans and hope next time they would make their way out of the arena
cheering”.
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