So Jakub Vrana is having a night.
After assisting Tom Wilson on the opening goal, Vrana punched his own ticket with a solo effort and then snapped the Caps power-play slump.
Goal 1
For his first goal, Vrana began by defending Flyers forward Sean Couturier just below the Caps blue line. With a deft stick check Vrana intercepted a pass, sending the puck into neutral. Vrana chased it and carried it into the Flyers zone with alarming speed.
Positioning himself to turn away Couturier’s check, Vrana instead absorbed a slash, but by then he was ready to score — which he did with a simple wrist shot, lifting the puck to McKenna’s glove-side.
For a long time, Vrana has been considered an offensive talent with some defensive liabilities. Plays like this are gradually proving his critics wrong.
Goal 2
A few minutes later, the Caps stepped up the power play as Ivan Provorov served time for a trip. With the second unit out, Travis Boyd funneled the puck towards the net. There Vrana was waiting.
V scored after his centering pass to Alex Ovechkin went off McKenna and into the net.
The tally marked Vrana’s first power-play goal of the season and made tonight his third career two-goal game. It’s his first career three-point night.
Vrana’s 14 goals is a new career high, hitting the mark in 31 fewer games than last year.
The Czech forward also passed Tom Wilson (Sorry, Tom) for solo ownership of the number-two spot in goals among Caps as well.
— Billy Chambers (@Bildoor4) January 9, 2019
