A full day after their last game, the Capitals hit the road and faced off against the Hurricanes in North Carolina. The Capitals had a slow start and Lucas Wallmark opened the scoring for the game, bringing the Hurricanes into the second period leading 1-0.
Warren Foegele opened the second period and scored his seventh goal of the season. But, Nic Dowd wasn’t too far behind to give the Capitals their first goal of the evening and his fourth goal of the season. The Canes grabbed one back and Alex Ovechkin scored a quick power play goal after coming up slowly after a kneeing penalty. Foegele sealed the high scoring second period with a final goal to bring the game into the third period with Carolina up 4-2.
Evgeny Kuznetsov opened the third period with a power play goal. Of course, the Canes came back with a goal right after and there was an empty netter, but there was also a final lightning goal from Radko Gudas!
Canes beat Caps 6-4.
- Nic Dowd brought the Capitals to the board with his fourth goal of the season. That was the eighth goal the Capitals’ line of Leipsic-Dowd-Hathaway has been on the ice for at five-on-five, while they have allowed just four (66.67 goals for percentage).
- Of course, John Carlson caught an assist on the Nic Dowd goal. That brought him up to his 49th point of the season with 13 goals and 36 assists. He later caught another assist, bringing him to 50 points this season. He’s the first defenseman to reach 50 points just 40 or fewer team games into a season since Brian Leetch (38) & Phil Housley (39) both did so in 1991-92.
- Scary moment in the second period, Alex Ovechkin was very slow to get up after a knee from Jordan Staal. He was back on the ice soon enough and didn’t miss a single beat to score the power play goal. He has officially become the greatest powerplay goal scorer of all-time born outside of North America.
- Ovechkin’s second period goal was his 682nd career goal and he is now three goals shy of passing Selanne (684) for 11th on the NHL’s all-time goals list.
- Not too shabby for our Captain:
Alex Ovechkin scores on the power play to cut the Carolina lead to 3-2. It marks Ovechkin’s 256th career power play goal, passing Teemu Selanne for the third most in NHL history. pic.twitter.com/mHhOxmUN7e
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 29, 2019
- After the first period, Christian Djoos was announced out for the rest of the game with an upper-body injury. Not exactly sure what was going on, but it seems like he wasn’t 100% healthy going into tonight’s game.
- Great to see an Evgeny Kuznetsov goal this evening. It was the second power play goal of the night and Kuzy’s first goal since Dec. 6 (nine games).
- Ian was definitely trying to hurt me with this tweet:
I think the question is slowly turning from “Will Braden Holtby re-sign this summer?” to “Will Braden Holtby remain the starter for the rest of the season?”
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) December 29, 2019
- I’m a big Braden Holtby gal and I think our defense could be stronger…but that being said…. with all the injuries and sickness, the Capitals needed Braden Holtby to be sharp. He wasn’t. The fourth goal Holtby gave up to Warren Foegele, where he couldn’t freeze a loose puck with his glove, was the backbreaker the Caps couldn’t recover from. If you include the first period from the Caps-Bruins game on Monday, Holtby had given up eight goals in 53 minutes of play.
- Radko Gudas got his second goal of the season! He has five points in his last seven games.
Missing some key players and having a game 24 hours after the last one? It’s all good. We will see you back here on New Years Eve for an afternoon showdown at home against the New York Islanders. Have a good few days and I wish great holiday leftovers to all of you.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Hurricanes
Headline photo: NBCSN Washington
