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Capitals’ Trevor van Riemsdyk has career night vs. Blue Jackets

By Matt Weyrich

Van Riemsdyk has career night with two goals vs. Blue Jackets originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington   Trevor van Riemsdyk’s took his turn on the Capitals’ scoring carousel Tuesday night, netting two goals in a 4-3 overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets for the first multi-goal game of his nine-year NHL career. All season long, the Capitals have looked to every corner of their roster for offense. Though no single player has emerged as the team’s No. 2 option behind Alex Ovechkin, they have had 18 different players record at least 10 points this season — tied with the Seattle Kraken for the most of any team in the league. As was the case Tuesday, that has often meant relying on defensemen to carry some of the offensive load. Washington had gone 14 days without a goal by a blueliner, tied for their longest such drought of the 2022-23 campaign, but van Riemsdyk broke through with his fifth and sixth tallies of the season to set a new career high.

With 29 goals scored by defensemen this season, the Capitals are tied with the New Jersey Devils for the most such tallies in the NHL behind only the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes. The injured John Carlson leads the way with eight followed by Erik Gustafsson (seven), van Riemsdyk, Martin Fehervary (four) and Dmitry Orlov (three). With Carlson out for the foreseeable future, the Capitals have looked to the rest of its defensemen to step up in the scoring department. Gustafsson was in the midst of a seven-game point streak when Carlson went down and Orlov has scored a couple game-winners. On Tuesday, it was van Riemsdyk who provided the scoring both from the point and the low slot. Aside from perhaps Gustafsson, whose career high is 17 goals with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2018-19, none of the Capitals’ remaining defensemen are suddenly going to emerge as a nightly threat to light the lamp for Washington. However, the group as a whole has proven to be capable of generating its fair share of offense.

Now with Caps, Tuch recalls Holtby’s save on him in 2018 Final: ‘If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’

By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Tuch joins the Washington Capitals having already been part of a big moment in their history. It was Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final in 2018. Tuch, then a member of the Vegas Golden Knights, swept the puck toward an open net — only for Capitals goalie Braden Holtby to make a stupendous save with a desperate reach of his stick and blocker. Washington held on to win 3-2, knotting the series on the way to a five-game triumph. “I talked to Holtby in the line afterward and he said it was the luckiest save of his life,” Tuch said Friday. “So that made me feel a little bit better — but not really at the same time, because he was shaking my hand after winning the Cup.” Tuch was in his first full season that year. Now he's a three-time 30-goal scorer the Capitals acquired in a trade this week with Buffalo. He spent four seasons with Vegas and then five with the Sabres.
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