There’s probably no player on the Washington Capitals roster about whom fans have a wider spectrum of opinions than Ilya Samsonov (sorry, Kuzy - your hot start has seen you dethroned).
The still-young former first-round pick is anywhere from a bust to the future of the franchise, a hard-luck case or a head case, and everywhere in between, depending on who you talk to.
Watching the first period of Friday night’s win over the Blue Jackets in Columbus - a period in which Samsonov absolutely kept the Caps in the game - Washington looked like a different team than the one that had put together one of its best defensive effort to date just a night earlier in Detroit, as the Jackets piled up 15 scoring chances (six of them of the high-danger variety).