The Washington Capitals put another hurting on the Carolina Hurricanes by taking two points away from them in this very close Eastern Conference playoff race. The 3-2 Caps victory gave the good guys 100 points on the season and clinched a playoff spot which means the quest for #NotSuckBack2Back is officially underway.
The Canes out-shot the Caps 26 to 20.
- I’m back from my very short hiatus from this series of posts and with a bang if you check out that genius title. Only one of you asked me what was up with me missing the last game, so now I for sure know that none of you care about me. I kid, I kid. I had some laptop issues that are now fixed, so lets get back to the good stuff.
- Alex Ovechkin did not score in this game and it’s entirely my fault because I missed writing about his 49th goal in the previous game. I am the sole reason we do not have 50 right now.
- Nic Dowd scored his seventh goal of the season via a nifty deflection of his college bff Nick Jensen‘s shot. Dowd has now set a new career high for goals in a season, topping his 2016-17 total with the Los Angeles Kings.
Additionally, this is the 10th time in NHL history a team has recorded five consecutive 100 point seasons, and, following this season, they will be the only franchise with an active atreak of at least five seasons. https://t.co/hmkrczYf20
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) March 29, 2019
- Braden Holtby was excellent in this game and picked up his 30th win of the season. He now has five straight seasons with at least 30 wins and he’s only the twelfth goaltender in NHL history to have that kind of streak. That’s kinda nuts.
- Could the Caps be finally solving their Evgeny Kuznetsov problem in the defensive zone by plugging Carl Hagelin next to him?It’s very unlikely that Hagelin alone magically will fix said issues, but Kuzy spent the entirety of his five-on-five ice time with Hagelin in this game and actually led the Caps in shot attempt percentage (61.1-percent), scoring chance for percentage (83.3-percent), and high danger chance differential (Caps four/Canes zero).
- I’m here for more Hagelin love, are you? Carl was not only part of the Caps best line of the night, he created a shorthanded scoring chance on the Canes only power play, had six individual shot attempts, four individual scoring chances, and three individual high danger chances. Hello GMBM, please sign this guy to a cool, very nice deal this summer.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Hurricanes
Headline photo: Gregg Forwerck
