The Washington Capitals continued their dominance on the road this season by taking down the Flyers 5-3 in Philadelphia, Thursday. It wasn’t pretty but what Caps win is right now?
They have a week off and it’s nice to go into that on a high note.
- I feel like a broken record but I was yet again not pleased with this game from the Caps. The Flyers point blank and the period…s-u-c-k, suck. I’m so very tired of this Caps team letting these bottom dwellers stick with them and sometimes even stick it to them. That second period was atrocious. After the first, the Caps held a 5-0 advantage in high danger chances at five-on-five. The Flyers would go on to record eight over the final two periods to the Caps total of seven. Please take a lead and then actually keep playing hockey. That’s all I and I think “we” ask for.
- Ilya Samsonov was pretty darn awesome again which is really nice to see. He made another 30 stops as he continues to dominate on the road with wins in four straight.
- Joe Snively just keeps on scoring as he now has four goals and seven points in nine games this season. He led the team with five individual scoring chances and three individual high danger chances. It’s going to be hard to take him out of the lineup at this point.
John Carlson recorded his fifth consecutive 10-goal season. Only one @Capitals defenseman has recorded more: Kevin Hatcher (7).#NHLStats: https://t.co/u4Vc1GpK4J pic.twitter.com/MXL3Hx3V9V
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 18, 2022
- The fourth line is absurdly hot right now and is honestly carrying the Capitals. Garnet Hathaway scored twice and is only one goal shy of tying his career-high of 11 that he set during the 2018-19 season with the Calgary Flames. The Caps scored all three of their five-on-five goals with that line on the ice.
- Michal Kempny returned to the lineup and had quite the active game, scoring a goal and taking two minor penalties. You can kinda see the lack of wheels that he once had in those two penalties but overall he was the Caps best defenseman statistically. The team, at five-on-five, held a plus-10 shot attempt differential, plus-5 scoring chance differential, and a plus-2 high danger chance differential with Kempny out there.
- With the win, Peter Laviolette passed Mike Babcock (700) for the ninth most wins (701) in NHL history.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
