Capitals forward Dylan Strome has been a godsend addition for a team that has seen so many of its key offensive producers go down with injuries and be unavailable for long stretches of games early in the 2022-23 season.
The 25-year-old center is second on the team in scoring with twelve points in 14 games. He saved his best so far this year for the Edmonton Oilers on Monday as he scored two goals and grabbed the primary assist on another.
Strome kicked things off in the high-scoring duel between the two teams with a late strike in the first period. The Ontario native stripped Warren Foegele of the puck in the Oilers’ defensive zone, raced to the net, and sniped high over Stuart Skinner’s blocker. It was an unstoppable shot that dented the back bar of the net.
He wasn’t done when it came to scoring as just 26 seconds into the second period he found the back of the net for the second time in the game to give the Caps a 2-0 lead. This time he let Evgeny Kuznetsov do a lot of the work as he set up in front of the net with his stick on the ice for a slick redirect finish.
The favor was returned later in the second with the Caps on a five-on-three man advantage. Strome slid a backdoor feed to a wide-open Kuznetsov who had a ton of empty net to aim at as he restored the team’s lead to two.
The effort was Strome’s first three-point game with the Capitals and his fourteenth career game with three or more points. He has four multi-point outings in 14 games this season, which is the most on the Capitals. Seven of his twelve points have come on the power play which was an outstanding four-for-five against Edmonton.
“I think we just found a way to get pucks to the net and they went in tonight,” Strome said postgame. “I think we did a good job of screening the goalie, we had some great chances. Anytime you get a five-on-three you want to capitalize on it, so we’ll take the win.”
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
