The Washington Capitals stumbled out of the gates in San Jose on Saturday but gathered themselves enough to lay an absolute beating on the lowly Sharks in the back half of the game. They finished things 8-3 victors.
That was fun to watch, no?
- The Caps had just eight shots on goal halfway through this game and the scoreboard showed things 2-1 in San Jose’s favor. Things ended with the Caps at 30 shots and 8-3 winners. That tells you about all you need to know. The second period was their best as they out-attempted the Sharks at five-on-five 25 to 23, out-scoring chanced them 13 to 2 and out-high danger chanced them 8 to 1.
- Huge debut for the new current number one defenseman on the team. Rasmus Sandin played 21:40 in the win, quarterbacked the first power play unit, and tallied his first three points as a member of the Caps. Per Caps PR, he is the first defenseman and just the seventh skater in franchise history to record three points in their Caps debut.
- Alex Ovechkin casually scored another two goals. Career markers number 814 and 815. How many goals do we think he scores if he plays in all 18 of the final games remaining on the schedule? I’ll say he turns it up from here and pots 12 more.
Tonight's @ovi8 update:
🚨 Passed Stan Mikita on the all-time points list
🚨 Recorded his 130th three-point game (tied for 20th in NHL history)
🚨 Recorded his 27th multi-goal third period (tied for 2nd most in NHL history)#NHLStats: https://t.co/gLoRa3pvfh pic.twitter.com/bWcv8XoBg6— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 5, 2023
- I called Sandin the number one defenseman but Alex Alexeyev actually by far played the most on the team with his 23:07 of ice time. I thought he was fantastic again. He did a bunch of little things that I don’t think will show up on the scoresheet. He had a ton of small one-on-one defensive battle wins, stuck up for Vinny Iorio, drew a penalty, blocked three shots, and made several great outlet feeds.
- Speaking of Iorio, he grabbed his first NHL point in his NHL debut. He ended up with just about 15 minutes of ice and really didn’t look out of place. I think he’s a surefire NHL defenseman once he gets more acclimated to the speed of things and plays more minutes. His Hershey defense partner Gabriel Carlsson also had a big night with his first two points as a Cap.
- The Caps scored eight goals. Anthony Mantha factored in on none of them. He has now gone 10 games without a point and 17 games without a goal.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
