In front of their dads and mentors, the Washington Capitals extended their season-long winning streak to five games at Madison Square Garden. The Caps took down the Rangers 5-3, overcoming an early two goal deficit to do so. The team is now first in the Metropolitan Division standings.
The Rangers out-shot the Caps 30 to 28, but were out-attempted at five-on-five 49 to 39.
- This was a pretty great game from the Caps, especially when you consider that it came on a back to back that included travel and two abnormal day game starts. This one was pretty much a sixty minute effort even though the Rangers did take an early two goal lead. There’s a trend forming in the last five or so games with opponent five-on-five heat maps looking a whole lot less dangerous than they were prior. This one looks particularly nice as the Caps put a good deal of offensive pressure on New York in very good positions on the ice while also spreading the Rangers offense thin around very low danger areas.
- Alex Ovechkin scored what at the time was a joint league leading 17th goal of the season, putting him on pace for over 60 goals this year. I say “at the time”, because Patrik Laine scored FIVE, count ’em FIVE, goals last night for the Winnipeg Jets to give him 19 total tallies. Ovi is having one of the better goal scoring starts in his entire career, yet is being outpaced by Laine who is currently on track for 70 red lights in 2018-19. Jeff Skinner of the Buffalo Sabres also scored once again giving him 18 goals on the season and forcing Ovi to “settle” for current third place in the league with David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins.
- I’m going to keep giving Tom Wilson some love in these posts until this hot streak cools off. Willy waited very late in this one to extend his goal and point scoring streak, as his empty netter to seal the team’s victory gave him four goals and nine points in seven games. The only forward averaging more time on ice per game than Wilson over the last seven fixtures is Ovechkin.
- John Carlson recorded three assists in the victory giving him 25 points on the season, which places him second in the league in defensemen scoring behind Morgan Rielly of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Thomas Chabot of the Ottawa Senators who each have 27 points. Carlson was also far and away the Caps leader in five-on-five differential stats as he was plus-16 in shot attempts, plus-12 in scoring chances, and plus-four in high danger chances. I think one of the factors in this recent surge of Capitals play is that Carlson’s partner, Michal Kempny seems to finally be hitting his stride after a concussion kept him shelved at the start of the season. Kempny has been one of the more noticeable positives for the Caps in this recent streak and the defense core as a whole because of that, has some seemingly rare stability.
- Good return to the fray from Jonas Siegenthaler. It’s kinda hard not to look good playing next to Swedish Nate Schmidt, Christian Djoos and Jonas was definitely solid enough to earn another game soon.
- Pheonix Copley was good in his return to the net after getting pulled in the Capitals win over the Canadiens in Montreal. Copley came up with 27 stops on 30 shots, one particular good one on a Chris Kreider deflection in tight.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Rangers
Headline photo: Jared Silber
