The Washington Capitals played a topsy-turvy, back and forth game against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night. They put themselves in an early hole, came all the way back to take a lead, blew that lead, and then won a game in overtime for the first time this season 4-3.
Ovi also scored and that’s what it’s actually important.
- If you ignore the horrid start, the Caps played pretty well in this game. I thought there were a few too many defensive breakdowns at five-on-five for my liking but Vitek Vanecek was good and sometimes you just need a little luck to win in the NHL. Coming all the way back to lead this game is always good and it becoming a three-point game matters a whole lot less as the Jets are in the Western Conference. 30 stops for Vanecek and he continues to look solid since that very, very poor showing against the Bruins. Good stuff.
- The Caps won a game in overtime and now hold a 1-7 record in that frame this season. That’s enough for a bullet at this point because good lord it felt like that was just never going to happen again.
- Alex Ovechkin got on the board with his 27th goal of the season. That total leads the league and gave him his 1,375th career point which puts him into sole possession of 24th-most points in NHL history over Mike Modano.
Alex Ovechkin of the @Capitals took sole possession of the League lead in goals this season with his 50th career tally against the Jets/Thrashers franchise (50-44—94 in 69 GP).#NHLStats: https://t.co/1Uhnld3fvV pic.twitter.com/vWxJvgoX3l
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 19, 2022
- Tom Wilson went through a seven-game pointless streak recently so it’s very nice to see him score a goal in three straight. Despite that long scoreless stretch he still has 28 points in 36 games this season which is well over a 60-point pace over a full 82 games. I would very much like to see his five-on-five ice time be more than 14:37 though which was basically the exact same as someone like Carl Hagelin.
- Aliaksei Protas scored the go-ahead goal, his third career goal and ninth career point. Protas is going to be a good one.
- Connor McMichael played 5:16 of total ice time. He had the primary assist on the Capitals’ second goal. Please just send him back to Hershey where he will actually get to play hockey. This is ridiculous.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
