In Chicago, you can have all the closed door sessions and rants you want, but unless you are going to turn that frustration and anger into something positive you are going to get results like a Blackhawks 7-3 loss to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.
Alex Ovechkin scored twice in the opening period to give the Caps a 2-0 lead. He had a hat truck in the game to make it 800 in his career.
“It was great,” Ovechkin said. “Obviously, the first couple goals was good bounces, and the third one [Anthony Mantha] gave me a nice pass and I just have to put it in. The puck was on my curve, so I knew I just have to put it up and it’s in.
“It’s a huge number. It’s the best company you ever can imagine since you start playing hockey to be connected to Gordie (Howe). Eight hundred, I’m the third person who ever scored that many goals. So without my teammates, without the organization, the fans, my family, I would never get that number and I would never talk to you right now about those numbers.”
Charlie Lindgren made 26 saves in the Caps win.
Washington improved to 15-12-4.
Ovechkin is one back of second place in the NHL record book.
“You know what? It was awesome,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “It was just awesome to be on the bench and be a part of it, be a part of history. You work with somebody every day and they reach such an incredible milestone, it’s an unbelievable accomplishment.
“Yeah, we said it after the game. That’s an incredible accomplishment. When somebody has a career where they can get 200 goals, that’s a heck of a career. But 800 is something and I think everybody is just really happy for him.”
Chicago dropped to 7-16-4, they have lost five straight.
“Obviously, pretty incredible milestone. One of kind,” Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. “In some sense, when we’re out of this moment, it’s one of those things you’ll look back on. He’s one of the great players of all time, so all due respect to him in scoring three goals to do it, getting himself an ovation and the ‘Ovi’ chant in our building.
“Aside from the milestone, it didn’t feel great on our side, but lots of respect for him.”
Tyler Johnson scored for Chicago in the first to send the game to the middle frame at 2-1.
“Obviously, it’s always better when you’re playing games,” Johnson said. “I’m not a big fan of being out. It was nice to be back with the guys, but obviously not quite the result we wanted.”
In the second, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Nic Dowd sandwiched a goal from Toews for a 4-2 advantage.
Ovechkin completed his hat trick in the ninth minute of the third for a 5-2 lead, Mantha then made it 6-2.
“That’s great, cheering my name, throw their hats,” he said. “Even in the warmup, I was feeling that energy right away. The fans watch me and the fans want to see that historical moments.”
Max Domi cut into the deficit for a 6-3 count, but Dmitry Orlov ended the scoring with late strike for the 7-3 final.
Chicago dropped to 7-16-4.
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Petr Mrazek, made 23 saves in the Blackhawks loss which has lost five in a row.
“I thought we battled back,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. “I thought there was a couple of fortunate bounces, and it’s Ovechkin. He scores on those and he makes you pay on those. But we fought back to 2-1 and then 3-2.
“Petr gave us a chance. He made a save, but then we over backchecked. I thought we over backchecked a little too much, kind of focusing on guys like Ovechkin and [Evgeny] Kuznetsov. Their forwards are creative, but we gave up the back weakside a couple times tonight. It cost us the fourth and maybe even the third goal.”
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