Verizon Center erupted as T.J. Oshie appeared to have scored the winning goal for the Washington Capitals nearly halfway through the overtime period, seemingly giving them the 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 1 of what will likely be a series played all the time with overtime intensity.
Then came the replay. And, as the sold-out crowd at Verizon Center realized that the game had truly not yet been decided, it became quiet.
All eyes were on the man in the stripped shirt with the headphones on, talking to someone 480 miles away — in Toronto, for God’s sake, another country — to determine one thing.
Can the Capitals really have nice things?
The man said, yes, they can. And Verizon Center erupted all over again.
It was a little more than a minute, but more than enough time to rerun all the times at moments like those when the answer was no — Washington fans can’t have nice things.
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You don’t have to go back very far — just last May, when Paul Pierce, a man who seemed to have an endless supply of nice things for Washington fans, hit an insane 3-pointer that would have sent Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals against the Atlanta Hawks into overtime, and kept the Wizards alive.
Alas, the replay said otherwise. The ball was in his hands at the strike of zero. Since then, Pierce has left town and taken all his nice things with him. The Wizards now have a new coach, and he was at the game. After the video monitor showed new Wizards coach Scott Brooks at the game getting a Capitals jersey from Rod Langway, Washington blew its 1-0 second period lead and gave up two Pittsburgh goals in a minute.
Nice things, indeed.
Thursday night, though — in a game that, as Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said “could have gone either way” — it went the Capitals’ way, thanks to Oshie’s goal, his third of the game, which just seemingly sat the on the line, creating some doubt from various angles that it was a goal.
As it turned out, it was a goal. Those moments waiting for confirmation should be cherished when they go your way, because they are seared into your brain when they don’t.
Washington coach Barry Trotz said they were confident they had the win.
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“We were pretty sure, but you don’t know for sure until you make the call on the ice,” he said. “So, we just hung around like everyone else.”
The talk on the Capitals’ bench was similar — nervous confidence.
“We are all talking like a bunch of rules committee people,” Matt Niskanen said. “They can’t call the goal off. They don’t have enough evidence to overturn it, pretending like we know what we’re talking about, hoping and trying to justify ourselves that it was going to stand.”
Nicklas Backstrom, who was on the ice a few feet away from Oshie’s game winner, told his teammates, “I had a good sight for it. I told everyone it was in.”
But were they confident Oshie had scored a goal, or confident they would get the call?
Trotz smiled, recognizing the difference, and said, “I was confident it was a goal. We’ve had a lot of reviews and stuff this year, goaltender interference and stuff like that, and haven’t done that great. So, you kind of hold your breath for a second, but I was pretty confident when I looked at the monitor.”
And in Toronto, a man saw the same thing — and said Capitals fans can have nice things for this one night.
They will be tough to come by. This ain’t Philadelphia. The team won the Presidents’ Trophy is going to have to show up in this series.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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