The Washington Capitals have finally won three games in a row this season. They returned home from their season-long road trip and promptly took advantage of that home ice to dunk on the Seattle Kraken to the tune of a 4-1 victory.
Keep. It. Going.
- This one was incredibly well played by the Caps. They really responded well to taking a loss in Seattle to the Kraken that their head coach was very, very unhappy with. At the end of regulation, they had more than tripled up Seattle in terms of five-on-five high-danger chances (16 to 5). Without Philipp Grubauer pulling a rabbit out of about seventeen different hats, the final scoreline of this game is likely uglier than just a three-goal difference.
- Charlie Lindgren is now 3-0 with a 1.34 goals-against average and a .953 save percentage since taking over the starter reins from Darcy Kuemper due to Kuemper’s upper-body injury. Lindgren didn’t have a ton to do in this game but made all of the saves he should have, particularly late when Seattle did have a few surges to try and tie the game when it was just 2-1.
- Alex Ovechkin scored yet another empty netter. Due to a weird NHL statistical quirk, that goal was actually his 500th career even-strength tally. Ovi is now just four goals shy of 800 career goals and six goals shy of passing Gordie Howe (801) for second on the NHL’s all-time goals list. Time to start planning some important home game ticket purchases if you want to potentially see hockey history made live.
Evgeny Kuznetsov recorded the primary assist on Ovechkin's empty net goal. With the assist, Kuznetsov tied Calle Johansson (361) for the seventh-most assists in franchise history.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 10, 2022
- Ovi’s line, which we have discussed positively in these posts before, was utterly, utterly dominant at five-on-five. With Ovechkin on the ice in those 14 five-on-five minutes, the Caps held major positive differentials in shot attempts (+15), scoring chances (+14), and high-danger chances (+11). That trio has found a way to completely negate the defensive deficiencies of Ovi and the importance and value of that cannot be understated. Not only does it mean the Caps aren’t getting scored on with number eight on the ice, but more importantly it means he is in the offensive zone a whole lot more. Bad news for opposition teams.
- Something else we have talked about in these posts before is how the defensive pairing of John Carlson and Erik Gustafsson has been a disaster at some stages of the season. Well, in December they are the exact opposite. With the duo on the ice at five-on-five in the five December games, the Caps see 55.6-percent of the shot attempts, 65.9-percent of the expected goals, 59.9-percent of the scoring chances, and most importantly 74.4-percent of the high-danger chances. More of that, please.
- The only negative from the game that I can really see is that I think Aliaksei Protas playing just 7:57 of ice time is far too little. That second line doesn’t seem to be building on some of the early chemistry they showed and are the weakest link statistically in the Caps’ lineup of late. I don’t think you tinker with anything as the team seems to be in a groove but I do think I’d want to see Protas moved up to the second line, Sonny Milano shifted down to the third line, and Marcus Johansson placed on the checking line if things start to falter. Just a personal observation though.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
