The Washington Capitals scored early and scored often against former mate Braden Holtby and his Dallas Stars. The Caps came out of Texas with a 5-0 shutout victory.

That stings…but also was much needed.

• The Capitals dominated the mess out of the Stars at five-on-five really the entire game and boy, oh boy was that a relief to watch. When we adjust for score and venue, the Caps saw 58.5-percent of the shot attempts, 62.2-percent of the scoring chances, and 62.2-percent of the high danger chances. Dominating play recently hasn’t really turned into results though so seeing five pucks go in had to feel good for the team.
• Two of those five goals came on the power play. The Caps “launched” themselves above 15-percent (15.2) with a man advantage this season and we can only hope that this is a sign things will start turning around for that special teams unit.
• A three-point night from Nicklas Backstrom gives him 12 points in 12 games this season. You can visibly see him finding his legs and impacting games as he has for years as he gets more games under his belt. I’m really loving that second line with him centering Conor Sheary and Daniel Sprong. Sprong I thought was excellent again in this game. Three shots on net, seven shot attempts, five individual scoring chances, and four individual high danger chances for him.

The Capitals’ 5-0 win against Dallas ties their largest margin of victory this season (W, 6-1 vs. PIT, Nov. 14).

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) January 29, 2022

• Vitek Vanecek stopped all 29 shots that the Stars sent his way en route to his fourth career shutout and second this season. Since being handed the starter reins in mid-January, Vanecek has a .941 save percentage and a 1.67 goals-against average in his last six starts.
• No goals or points for Alex Ovechkin in a 5-0 victory feels very wrong. Three-game pointless streak for Ovi now as he only has eight points in 12 January games. This bullet is solely to point that out so it turns around soon.
• Two points for Connor McMichael including a goal, his sixth of the season. He played 12:34 total in the game. What a novel concept.

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