Wonderful! The Washington Capitals and Dallas Stars meeting in DC usually means only one thing for Caps fans, more sadness and despair. Some would say that’s just our normal state of being, but that’s for another time.
Alas, the Caps 0-5-1 record in their last 6 home games against the Stars has been thrown out the window because the Caps did the thing and we got to go to sleep happy.
The Caps out-shot the Stars 32 to 27, but the Stars out-attempted the Caps at five-on-five 42 to 38.
- The man of the night, TJ Oshie struck for his fourth goal in four games on his bobblehead night. I was at the game and came away with my own bobbly Timothy Jimothy! Oshbabe has looked a ton better of late and is hopefully fully recovered from the concussion and whatever else that could have been hampering his production like that pesky shooting percentage bug.
- Another milestone for the greatest goal scorer in the history of the sport was reached when Ovi scored his league leading 44th of the season on the power play in the second period. Alex Ovechkin (602) now holds sole possession of 19th place on the NHL’s all-time goal list, passing Jari Kurri (601) who he tied against Philadelphia.
- Matt Niskanen‘s strange floater goal was his 6th of the season and is a new single season high for Niskanen since he joined the Capitals.
- The third line got barely any ice time yet they were easily the most effective line on the ice for the Caps when it comes to five-on-five possession. Jakub Vrana (7:04), Brett Connolly (8:10), and Travis Boyd (8:54) all got the Caps at least 68 percent of the five-on-five shot attempts when they were on the ice and in that same time the Stars only recorded one scoring chance. They did all of that while not receiving a single offensive zone start.
- I thought Braden Holtby had a great game. The crowd at Capital One Arena saluted him for some big saves on multiple occasions and he definitely looked more like his old confident self. Holts stopped 24 of 27 Dallas shots.
- Although the Caps have definitely ran into some recent bumps on the road, they’re back to making their home rink a fortress. This victory gave them six wins in a row on home ice. Rock the red and unleash the fury, baby.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, Hockeystats.ca, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Stars
Featured image: Rob Carr
