One down, three to go. I think that’s the mentality that this Capitals team and maybe even its fans should take heading into the second round after downing the Blue Jackets in Game Six 6-3, winning the series.

Yes it’s the Penguins again, yes it’s the second round again, but more importantly they’d be team two of four.

The Blue Jackets out-shot the Caps 38 to 28 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 55 to 30.

• Braden Holtby finished the series with a 4-0 record in the games he started, stopped 130 of Columbus’ 139 shots in those games, and put up a 2.25 goals against average. His .935 save percentage in the series is better than his career playoff mark of .932 that is second all-time in NHL playoff history.
• Alex Ovechkin scored his 50th and 51st career playoff goals, becoming only the seventh active player that can claim that. Ovi also joins a club of players with 50-plus career playoff goals, but no Stanley Cup rings. Daniel Alfredsson, Jeremy Roenick, Daniel Briere, Steve Thomas, Cam Neely, Brian Propp, Patrick Marleau, and Dino Ciccarelli are the other members of said club.
• The Capitals scored on the power play in every single game of the series. Success a man up was a huge factor in the Capitals moving on to the second round, evidenced by the team currently holding the first round’s top man advantage unit (33.3 percent).
• The Caps four straight wins to win a playoff series marks only the second time in franchise history that they have accomplished that feat. The first time occurred in 1990 when John Druce scored an overtime winner in Game Five against the Rangers after the Caps had lost Game One 7 to 3. That team advanced to the conference finals where they were promptly swept in four games by the Boston Bruins.
• John Carlson‘s nine first round points are the most in a playoff series by a Capitals defenseman, tying a mark set by Kevin Hatcher in the 1988 playoffs against the Philadelphia Flyers.
• Is this more hope:

dinnertime graph for ya
Caps are playing good hockey finally pic.twitter.com/sTL0V9Kwpk

— Good Tweet Pete 🌮 (@peterhassett) April 23, 2018

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, Hockeystats.ca, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.

Full RMNB Coverage of Game Six

Headline Photo: Kirk Irwin