The Washington Capitals are back playing hockey and immediately back in the win column. A lineup that actually looked somewhat familiar was iced against the Predators as the Caps secured a 5-3 win.

No thanks to their power play.

• Overall, amid all of the non-referee-influenced parts of the game which were, unfortunately, few and far between, I thought the Caps played pretty well at five-on-five outside of that bad stretch early in the second. They were certainly the better team once the game was tied and that’s really all you can ask for at that point. They held the Predators to only 19 shots in the game which is fantastic for everything except Ilya Samsonov’s save percentage.
• Big night for John Carlson as he scored and assisted on three other goals. That ties his single-game career high which he set last season against the Philadelphia Flyers with four assists in one game. I also thought his pairing with Dmitry Orlov was very good but it’s also very hard not to play well next to Dmitry Orlov.
• Didn’t it feel really good to see Michal Kempny back in a Capitals jersey? Kempny grabbed an assist on the Capitals’ third goal and played 20:57 of the game. He and Trevor van Riemsdyk were the two defenders tasked with the bulk of the penalty kill work and the Preds did not score with a man advantage.

With the Capitals' win against Nashville, Peter Laviolette has passed Dick Irvin (691) for the 10th-most wins by a head coach in NHL history.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 30, 2021

• The power play went 0-for-6. It is now the third-worst unit in the entire league at 14.6-percent efficiency. Only New Jersey (13.8-percent) and Montreal (12-percent) are worse with a man up. That is atrocious. Something needs to be done.
• Alex Alexeyev was given his NHL debut and was promptly stapled to the bench for most of the game due to all the special teams time. He played 10:34 overall and I really did not think he looked out of place which is a good sign. Alexeyev is a personal favorite of mine due to just how nice he was to me when I met him at the Caps media fantasy camp they did a few years ago. Awesome dude.
• Aliaksei Protas only played seven minutes in this game and Connor McMichael only played 10:04, the lowest of the forwards. With the Caps getting healthy this is going to become even more common and I think Protas will likely make his way to Hershey or the practice squad. I would prefer Hershey so he’s actually playing games.

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