The Washington Capitals came into Saturday night’s action looking to leave behind a very disappointing two-game losing streak that saw them blow third period leads in both games. They did just that as they were able to hold their lead over the Columbus Blue Jackets from the second they obtained it.
This one was a lot more like what we want to regularly see.
- Despite the scoreline and needing an empty netter to seal things, this game was never actually close in terms of process. The Caps dominated the Blue Jackets defensively even limiting them to two total shots in the second period and didn’t let them get to double digits in shots in any of the three periods. The Caps out-chanced the Jackets 35 to 15 overall and only gave up three total high danger chances at five-on-five. Daniil Tarasov in the Columbus net was the sole reason this wasn’t a four or five-goal victory for the good guys. This was an encouraging game to follow up a few in a row that had me a little concerned and led me to write that final bullet in the numbers post for after the Chicago game.
- One of the things that has been good all season but has come off the wagon a little in the recent losses is team discipline. They sure cleaned that up against the Jackets as they were not penalized a single time. That’s the first spotless game for them this season and the first time they haven’t had to do any penalty-killing duty at all in a game since almost exactly two years ago December 3, 2019, against the San Jose Sharks.
- Ilya Samsonov is back in the win column after getting absolutely peppered by the Florida Panthers in that ferocious comeback. Sammy only needed to make 17 stops to earn his tenth win of the season. Of all goaltenders with ten wins this season, Samsonov has played the fewest number of games with 13 and made the fewest number of starts with 11.
Alex Ovechkin scores his 20th goal of the season and his 750th of his career, becoming the second-fastest player in NHL history to reach 750 career goals.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 5, 2021
- I thought Carl Hagelin had a very good game. He, of course, whiffed on his one glorious offensive opportunity but everywhere else he was really good and he seemed more like the jitterbug Hagelin that used to torment the Caps with the Penguins. There was one particularly notable intercept of a pass that he made on a backcheck that saved what was probably a sure goal against. The Blue Jackets didn’t record a single shot on goal against the Caps with that line featuring Hagelin, Lars Eller, and Garnet Hathaway on the ice at five-on-five. All three also posted at least a plus-six scoring chance differential under the same context.
- Another line that I thought was incredibly unlucky to score was Connor McMichael’s featuring TJ Oshie and Conor Sheary on the wings. That’s a trio that I would love to see kept together for as long as both Backstrom and Dowd are out. McMichael himself had six shot attempts, five shots on goal, six scoring chances, and two high danger chances. Once Osh gets back into the full swing of things I think that line has some point barrages in their future.
- Aliaksei Protas got another goal. Protas has four points in his last five games and it’s nice to see him stay on the scoresheet even away from that top-line assignment. You have to love what we’ve seen from the big Belorussian so far. A reminder that big Protas, McMichael, and Brett Leason were all only just drafted in 2019.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
