The Washington Capitals are the new boys atop the East Division mountain after taking down the streaking New York Islanders 3-1 on Tuesday night. Streaking no more.

Shots were locked up at 22 apiece, but the Caps were out-attempted at five-on-five 46 to 38.

• That was a great win that I don’t think exactly shows up in the stats book too well. When you factor in that the Islanders were resting and waiting for a Caps team playing the second half of a back-to-back it’s even better. Yes, their first period was pretty bad and they clearly didn’t have their legs yet but they survived it and fully controlled the pace of the game from there. The Isles almost doubled the Caps in five-on-five scoring chances and high danger chances, but the Caps won the special teams battle and even the five-on-five expected goals battle (52-percent to 48-percent). That’s the sort of game that gives you a dangerous feeling about a hockey team…hope and/or faith.
• Let’s knock the only negatives I want to mention out real quick. John Carlson and Brenden Dillon got abused by every Islanders line that isn’t their fourth line. There is a concerning pattern forming with those two but the Caps are winning in spite of it so we don’t quite notice it often. With the pairing on the ice at five-on-five, the Caps saw a minus-nine shot attempt differential, a minus-nine scoring chance differential, and a minus-four high danger chance differential.
• The “second line” of Jakub Vrana, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Daniel Sprong was only played together for 6:01 at five-on-five. That is probably a good thing as in that time the Caps saw a minus-six shot attempt differential, a minus-six scoring chance differential, and a minus-three high danger chance differential. They did not create a single scoring chance with that trio on the ice. I don’t think they can stay together long-term unless the extreme zone starts sheltering continues to minimize the damage. It looks like Lavi agrees because he switched Kuzy onto Ovi’s line in the second period. Totally unrelated, but I wonder if Brian MacLellanis having a nice week.
• Ilya Samsonov was in a groove in this game and that is so very good to see as I really don’t think the Caps should be offloading assets for goaltending help at the deadline. Sammy guided the squad through a rough first period and stopped 21 pucks on the way to his sixth win. Since his return from a COVID related absence, Samsonov is 5-0 with a 2.22 goals-against average and a .921-save percentage.

Only The Great One (925 GP) required fewer games to hit 718 career regular-season goals than @ovi8 (1,177 GP).

That’s it. That’s the tweet. #NHLStats

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 17, 2021

• Would it be a surprise to anyone at this point if I said that I thought Nick Jensen was superb in this game? The way the Caps play under Peter Laviolette is just such a perfect fit for his strengths. With Jensen on the ice at five-on-five, the Caps controlled 62.5-percent of the shot attempts (plus-six), 66.7-percent of the scoring chances (plus-two), and 75-percent of the high danger chances (plus-two). His pairing with Zdeno Chara is working extremely well.
• With his 718th career goal, Alex Ovechkin officially passed the great Phil Esposito for sole possession of sixth in all-time NHL goal-scoring. Before we could even get to that milestone though, Ovi secured another. His assist on TJ Oshie‘s goal was the 1,300th point of his career, a feat that only 35 players in the history of the league have achieved. Within that group, he’s only the fifth left-winger and fifth European.
• So, now the Caps sit atop the NHL’s East Division. They halted the Islanders long winning streak and are now protecting a six-game streak of their own. The Pens lost as well. The boys are playing some pretty darn good hockey so let’s enjoy it.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.

RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Islanders

New headline photo: KP8 Design