The Washington Capitals traveled to Dallas to wrap up their mini road trip and finish their season series with the Stars. The Caps lost the first meeting at home in overtime, could they find the regulation touch Saturday night?
Tom Wilson dented the twine first on the power play. John Carlson’s ninth point of the season was the second of the night. Evgeny Kuznetsov added the third and Radek Faksa spoiled Ilya Samsonov’s shutout bid.
Alex Ovechkin empty netter.
Caps beat Stars 4-1!
- A ton of special teams play muddied up the first period. Overall at even strength the Caps had spurts of good play and spurts of running around in their own zone. More good than bad in the end though.
- The Caps second power play unit cashed in on a Stars penalty kill that was obviously not ready for the Caps to use Alex Ovechkin‘s normal turret like position as instead a playmaking outlet via Brendan Leipsic. That tweak led to the Caps first goal and about eight solid scoring chances in the following few minutes. Love that wrinkle.
- Tom Wilson was the benefactor of that second unit’s magic, scoring a goal in consecutive games.
Sean Doolittle, on Daniel Hudson choosing the birth of his daughter over Game 1 of the NLCS …
“If your reaction to someone having a baby is anything other than, ‘Congratulations, I hope everybody’s healthy,’ you’re an asshole.”
— Ryan Fagan (@ryanfagan) October 12, 2019
- The second period was marred by even more penalties, this time all four against the Caps. No worries though, the penalty kill killed off all six Stars opportunities on the night. The half of the period played at even strength favored the Caps again and without Anton Khudobin, the Stars would have left it down four or five to nothing.
- John Carlson made a tremendous play to keep the puck in zone, fed the puck to Garnet Hathaway, and then slammed home the return feed for his second goal and ninth point of the season (assist on Evgeny Kuznetsov‘s goal later was his 10th). I don’t think it’s really that arguable that he’s been the best Caps player so far this season. He’s been fantastic in all situations.
- The fourth line was absolutely flying in this game. I do not want Nic Dowd out of this lineup again, please and thanks.
- That new reviewable hand pass rule is totally a knee jerk reaction to the blown call in the Sharks-Blues playoff series last season, right? I think extremely close calls like the one in this game are going to be impossible to get a good enough angle to overturn the call on ice. I’m not a fan of even more review time either…until the Caps maybe benefit from one.
IT’S HOCKEY O’CLOCK! #LETSGOCAPS #CAPSstars #ALLCAPS #CAPSPETS #CAPSCANINES Saffy Bean is hardcore napping and refusing to put on a game face 😂😂#10thSeason #CAPSBULLDOG #CAPITALSBULLDOG pic.twitter.com/FpFct0IDVy
— Ovie the Bulldog (@OvietheBulldog) October 13, 2019
- The third period was the Caps worst again, but still probably their best third period of their last four games. That led to a regulation win. Woo.
- Ilya Samsonov was utterly fantastic. The young buck has arrived.
- Hey Bryce, how’s vacation going?
#JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsStars pic.twitter.com/i8a3dHo94y
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) October 13, 2019
The Caps return to DC for their next fixture and will meet one of the Western Conference’s favorites, the Colorado Avalanche. Hello, Philipp.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Stars
Headline photo: NBC Sports Washington
