The Washington Capitals kept a whole lot of doctors at bay as they took down the New Jersey Devils 4-3 at home. We asked for the full four in this back-to-back in the last morning post and they delivered.
Keep it chuggin’.
- By all means of analytics for this game, the Caps really should not have come out the victors. MoneyPuck had the Devils winning that game 64-percent of the time and had them with 4.23 expected goals to the Caps 1.98. Did the Devils have the magic of an awesome pregame ceremony and a couple of living legends on the ice though? Didn’t think so.
- It’s not a Caps game these days without Alex Ovechkin making history. Ovi scored his 42nd of the season and his 10th in the last 12 games. With the goal, Ovi tied Jari Kurri (1,398) for the 21st most points all-time in the NHL. Via Caps PR, it also turned out to be his 121st career game-winning goal which tied the great Gordie Howe for the second-most goals of that ilk in NHL history.
- The day was all about Nicklas Backstrom though and of course, he delivered. Two points on the night, one being the goal that gave the Caps a third-period lead and brought a shower of apples down. Congrats, Nick! They better put this man in the HHOF and that’s not my bias showing, he totally and completely actually deserves it.
Since his NHL debut on Oct. 5, 2007, Backstrom ranks fifth in the NHL in points (Alex Ovechkin: 1,200; Sidney Crosby: 1,169; Patrick Kane: 1,166; Evgeni Malkin: 1,047).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) March 27, 2022
- Evgeny Kuznetsov continued his career-long point streak by assisting on Ovi’s goal. It’s now up to twelve games and the fantastic no-look pass moved him past Scott Stevens (331) for 10th on the franchise assists list.
- Without Kuzy just incessantly putting up points of late, I really think you can make the argument that Connor McMichael has been the team’s best center five-on-five since he was moved back to his natural position. He was phenomenal again in this game and was rewarded with his ninth goal of the season. Stick taps to Tarik for initially pointing this next bit out. Among rookie players averaging less than 11 minutes of ice time per game, McMichael leads in both goals (9) and total points (18).
- I love TJ Oshie.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
