The Washington Capitals answered their horrendous performance in Columbus with a much better effort in San Jose, taking down the Sharks 5-1. The team started off the western swing portion of their six game road trip in a good way.

The Caps out-shot the Sharks 29 to 26.

• TJ Oshie‘s three point night meant that he has reached the 500 point milestone. TJ has gotten hot recently with 16 points in his last 13 games and is now only the seventh player from his 2005 draft class to reach 500 points.
• Oshbabe’s linemate, Jakub Vrana also had a great night. V scored his 18th goal of the season, blocked two shots, assisted on TJ’s 500th point, drew two penalties and was just generally awesome all game.
• Tom Wilson scored the empty netter to seal the victory and that goal was his 15th of the season, setting a new career high in that category.

Alex Ovechkin gives the Caps a 3-1 lead with his NHL-leading 39th goal of the season, sitting one goal shy of his 10th career 40-goal season. Only three players in NHL history have recorded 10 or more 40-goal seasons: Wayne Gretzky (12), Marcel Dionne (10) and Mario Lemieux (10)

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 15, 2019

• I really liked how the Caps played in the third period with their big lead. It felt like the Caps of last year with how they were able to limit the Sharks to only five shots on goal at even strength and zero high danger chances with the same context.
• Another big factor in this win is that the only penalty taken from the Caps side was by Michal Kempny. From a personal standpoint for Kempny, this continuing issue is concerning. But from a team standpoint, that’s a great step in the right direction discipline wise.
• Third line was awesome again. Andre Burakovsky is really hitting a groove in all areas of his game.

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

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Sharks

Headline photo: Brandon Magnus