The Washington Capitals found the endzone again as one of the NHL’s worst teams in the Columbus Blue Jackets did not prove to be much of a test for the red-hot Caps. The one-game road trip proved fruitful as two points will be coming back with the team on the plane to DC.
That is win number one in 2023.
- I didn’t feel like the Caps really ever got out of second gear in this game and it turns out they didn’t have to. Columbus is a bad team that is also getting some truly terrible goaltending. That combination will lead to very ugly results like this one. The Caps turned it on in the second to score four goals and then basically coasted through the entire third period. I don’t necessarily love that and them getting out-chanced at five-on-five 10 to 4 in that final frame is not fun to watch but it didn’t hurt them in this game at all. They can’t make a habit out of that though.
- Alex Ovechkin scored the game’s final goal. It was his 29th of the season and the 809th of his career. With the goal, Ovi passed Teemu Selanne (1,457) for the 16th-most points in NHL history. See ya later, Finnish Flash.
- Right after talks have started about Dylan Strome probably having to move to the wing to accommodate the return of Nicklas Backstrom, he of course posts a three-point game. It was his second three-point game of the season and featured his 200th career point. His line was also probably the team’s best on the night. They held positive differentials at five-on-five in shot attempts (+4), scoring chances (+6), and high-danger chances (+2). They also scored twice.
With a 6-2 win tonight against Columbus, the Capitals won their seventh straight road game and established a new franchise record for longest road winning streak.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) January 6, 2023
- I thought Anthony Mantha‘s first game on that fourth line started a little shaky but the trio figured it out eventually and ended up with a handful of shifts that shoved Columbus underwater and had them begging for some sort of zone clearance. What will be concerning to Mantha fans though is that he played the third-lowest total ice time on the team (12:31) and the only two players that got less action were his linemates Aliaksei Protas (10:09) and Garnet Hathaway (10:04).
- TJ Oshie finding the back of the net twice felt really good to see. He had a really active game on the scoresheet, posting 7 shot attempts, 7 individual scoring chances, 5 individual high-danger chances, two hits, and a shot block.
- The Caps are now 22-1-3 when they score three or more goals in a game this season. The formula appears simple, guys.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
