Dmitry Orlov Flipped Matt Duchene

It is not often we start the morning blog march with a hip check. But, as T.J. Oshie mused of Dmitry Orlov’s hit that sent Matt Duchene tumbling helmet-over-skates, “that was one of the cooler hits that I’ve ever seen.”

It totally was:

The Capitals beat the Avalanche 3-0 on a pair of goals from Oshie and an 18-save performance from Philipp Grubauer, but the real topic of conversation was the first-period hit by Orlov (who, as we saw at Worlds, likes to go low) to upend Duchene and send him through a full rotation.

It’s downright hypnotic!

The Caps were raving about the hit, with Alex Ovechkin calling it a beauty and coach Barry Trotz declaring it clean.

“That was a real clean hit — a shoulder to sort of the midsection, the hip, and he just lifted him,” Trotz said. “I know Duchy from Team Canada and he can fly. He got caught there and he was up in the air a little bit. It was good to see that he didn’t get hurt or anything like that, but that’s a classic one.”

Duchene was less pleased:

“I don’t really want to talk about it because I might say something that might get me in trouble.”

When asked if Orlov went for his knees, Duchene said: “What did it look like? You guys saw it so I shouldn’t have to say too much about it.”

Regardless, please enjoy this sequence from photographer Rob Carr: