The Washington Capitals didn’t win on Saturday night in Montreal but they were at least competitive unlike their horror show defeat in Ottawa. The good guys forced the game to overtime and secured a road standings point before heading home from their mini trip to Canada.

The little victories are worth mentioning for the Capitals right now and this was one. Was it a full step in the right direction though? I’m not so sure about that…math wise. The pure vibes were bordering on “okay” though.

• A third-period comeback from 2-0 to earn a point will always spark a little bit of a good feeling. That final frame was clearly the Capitals’ best at five-on-five in the game but I’m not sure that’s much to write home about given less than half of it was spent at even strength. Overall in the game at five-on-five, they were out-attempted 48 to 43, out-scoring chanced 30 to 24, and out-high danger chanced 15 to 11. Again, the second period was their worst as Montreal had 17 scoring chances in that period alone.
• I wrote a post outlining Spencer Carbery’s pregame quotes on how to get the power play going and the Capitals responded to their head coach’s words by going 0-for-5 on their chances. They are now just one of two teams in the entire league to not have scored a power play goal yet this season. The other team is the St. Louis Blues and they have two less total opportunities than the Capitals.
• Hardy Haman Aktell made his NHL debut and skated the lowest total time on ice of any Capitals player (8:00) by over two minutes. There was a whole ton of special teams action in the game so I don’t really think that’s an indictment of his play from the coaching staff as he got zero of those minutes. Per hockeydb’s database, Haman Aktell is the 24th Swedish player to dress in a game for the Capitals. He is the first to do so from Kage, Sweden.

Evgeny Kuznetsov recorded the primary assist on Strome's second goal, his first assist of the season. Kuznetsov is now three points shy of passing Bengt Gustafsson (554) for the eighth-most points in franchise history.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) October 22, 2023

• Guess who is still tied for the Capitals’ team lead in scoring? Matthew Phillips. Phillips grabbed the secondary assist on Dylan Strome’s first goal. While that’s impressive for a guy who had to fight for his roster spot during the preseason, it’s also a blatant indication that something is not going right with the team’s top offensive talent.
• Alex Ovechkin recorded five shots on goal after going two games in a row without a shot for the first time in his career. This was probably his best showing of the season at least from an eye test perspective but still no goals for The Great Eight. Someone do some sort of sacrifice to the hockey gods.
• This isn’t a surprise to me because I’ve always been a believer, but man, Connor McMichael might be the best forward on the team through four games. What he is able to come up with from a chance generating perspective in the minutes he gets is impressive. In his 11:46 of ice time, fourth lowest among Capitals forwards, McMichael posted five individual shot attempts, three individual scoring chances, and two individual high-danger chances. He also created two rebounds, blocked a shot, and won his lone faceoff. I think it’s past time the coaching staff starts thinking about using guys like McMichael on the top power play unit.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.