The Washington defenseman suffered through a miserable first period in which he spent more time in the penalty box than he did on the ice. Green only ended up logging 3:31 of his 17:57 of ice time in the first period.
That total was so low because of the incredible 18 penalty minutes Green racked up. It started with a double-minor for high sticking at 2:14. Then at 9:07, he went back to the box, this time for tripping. At 11:42, he got sloppy with the stick yet again and earned another high sticking. To top it off, he got a 10-minute misconduct thrown on for good measure. Five penalties, 18 minutes.
Did those penalties come back to hurt the Capitals? Of course they came back to hurt the Capitals. The Lightning ended up scoring two power-play goals as a direct result of Green’s penalties. So there’s that.
Oh, and not only that, in the 3:31 he was on the ice, Green managed to be on the ice for the other Tampa Bay goal in the period.
Other than that, though, everything went swimmingly for No. 52 in red.
Unfortunately for Green, Twitter exists. So the exploits of his first period started making the rounds around the Internet and he eventually became something of a laughingstock, which is a bummer if you’re Green. It didn’t necessarily get better, either, thanks to the fiancee of one of his teammates. Maria Kirielnko, engaged to Caps superstar Alexander Ovechkin, was none too pleased with what she saw from Green. Like anyone else, she took to Twitter to log her complaints.
Naturally, the tweet has since disappeared. Seemingly in its place is a tweet reading “Have a good night everybody, stay [calm] and positive coz the life is good! Love you all.” One might ask why the future Mrs. Ovechkin had such a sudden change of heart. The fact that Ovechkin ended up scoring four goals in a 6-5 shootout win might have done the trick.
Not all was lost for Green, either. He ended up getting an assist on Ovechkin’s third goal. So he’s got that.
Twitter screen shot via Sporting News
