The Washington Capitals sandwiched the Thanksgiving holiday with two wins on home ice. They took down the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime 3-2 on Wednesday and shut out the Calgary Flames 3-0 on Friday.
Those black jerseys are absolute money. I agree with what Kuzy said after the game about them.
- I didn’t love the Caps’ first period (shocker) but at least this time they were able to survive without giving up anything on the scoreboard and got their play together for their typical final forty-minute push. They out-chanced Calgary 21-12 in those final two frames and really shut things down defensively for much of the latter half of the third.
- The two wins over Philly and Calgary are only the third pair of consecutive victories the Capitals have this season. I don’t think you need me to tell you how that isn’t good enough. They need to rattle off a bunch in a row now that they’re starting to get “healthier”. Real big emphasis on the air quotes around that last word there because there are still so many key dudes not playing.
- Darcy Kuemper pitched his second shutout of the season in a 32-stop effort. The 32-year-old netminder absolutely owns the Flames over his career to the tune of a 7-2-1 record with a 1.61 goals-against average and a .953 save percentage. His four career shutouts against them are the most he has against any team.
Alex Ovechkin scored his 147th career power-play goal at home and moved within one of Teemu Selanne (148) for third most in NHL history.
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— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 25, 2022
- Alex Ovechkin got on the board again for career goal number 791. Ovi has hit a bit of a hot patch recently and is creeping back up toward being a point-per-game player this season with 21 points from 22 games. He is 37 years old and still leading the Caps in scoring by five points.
- Sonny Milano put in a two-point performance against the team that took a look at him during the preseason and deemed him not good enough for an NHL contract. Milano now has seven points in ten games for the Caps.
- It’s now time for the longest road trip of the season. The Caps will play their next six as visitors which includes one of their annual trips out west where they’ll see the Vancouver Canucks, Seattle Kraken, Edmonton Oilers, and this same Flames team. Get ready for a lot of hockey at ridiculous hours of the night.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
