The Washington Capitals are apparently not big fans of three-goal leads. They fumbled one to the Boston Bruins a game after overcoming one against the New York Islanders but none of that matters because Alex Ovechkin is still king. The Great Eight fired the Caps to a 4-3 overtime victory.
The Bruins outshot the Caps 43 to 23 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 65 to 38.
- The Caps let the Bruins have way too much of the puck in this game but took advantage of some fantastic goaltending from their starting rookie and some great, timely shooting to grab another two points. The Bruins are one of the top teams in this league so a couple of games like this against them are expected but the Caps should not look to make it a trend. Getting outshot by 20 and giving up 30 scoring chances at even strength is not advisable.
- Vitek Vanecek, man. The rookie made 40 stops in his seventh start this season. He’s now tied for the league lead in wins, ranks eighth in save percentage (.918) among all goalies with at least five starts, and ranks second in save percentage among all rookie goaltenders. With this win, he tied Jim Carey for the Caps franchise record of seven games unbeaten in regulation to start a career. He’s also one of only nine netminders since 1967-68 to accomplish this feat. This is when I also remind you that both he and Ilya Samsonov are eligible for the upcoming Seattle expansion draft. Yep, this again.
- Alex Ovechkin is simply the best. His 24th career overtime goal which is, of course, the most of that variety in NHL history grabbed the Caps two points. Ovi now also has five assists in five games to go along with his two goals.
Alex Ovechkin scored the 708th regular-season goal of his NHL career, tying longtime @Capitals forward Mike Gartner for seventh place on the League’s all-time list. https://t.co/PiaoVhI3lm #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/o58jiA2MLg
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 31, 2021
- Nicklas Backstrom is carrying a ton of the scoring load to start this season. He is now fourth in the entire NHL with 13 points after a three-point night in this one. He has five goals in nine games which is the fastest he has gotten to five goals in a season in his entire career.
- The Caps have only been given 18 power plays in nine games. That is the second least in the league behind only the Florida Panthers who have been given 15 in four fewer games played.
- The Caps have yet to lose in regulation and have had seventeen different Capitals score a goal this season. That is the most players with at least one goal on a team in the NHL in 2021.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Bruins
Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington
