That was a well played game. Too bad Sammy lost his shutout on that cheap penalty call.
Sammy was good tonight.
Well, in reality he lost it on a freak deflection off a defenseman's stick - nothing Samsonov could do about that. That can happen any time, regardless of the manpower situation. That's why I don't get excited about goalie shutouts/non-shutouts. Hockey is a game of a thousand little subtle, often unintentional incidents. The vast majority don't affect the game's scoring, but most games there is at least one where the puck just happens to "go wrong in a good way/bad way" and scoring results. In reality, Samsonov "deserved" a shutout last night -- he made some great saves, and was solid all night. But .....
Well, so much for Tom Wilson being the indispensable heart and soul of the team. This seems to happen with the Caps all the time. Their actual performance versus what "seems predictable" is often so random. When he returns, they'll probably say "well, our energy bunny is back", relax, and go on a losing streak. I wonder to what extent the current winning streak is the team saying "we have to buckle up our chinstraps and suck it up while Tom is gone"?
