The Washington Capitals have gone streaking again as they’ve won three games in a row and are an incredible 7-1-1 in their last nine outings. Their latest win came against the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights and pretty much on the back of one man.
And, that man is named Charlie Lindgren. What a performance.
- Look, folks, this game was not ever close at five-on-five in terms of who had more of the puck and who had more of the chances. You can see that quite obviously in the above heat map. I don’t really need to explain that to you, especially if you watched the game. The Vegas Golden Knights are simply an incredibly good hockey team and they showed that on Tuesday night, recording 15 high-danger chances at five-on-five and limiting the Capitals to just four. But, they didn’t have the guy in the net that the Capitals did and sometimes that’s all that matters.
- That guy is named Charlie Lindgren and he stopped all 35 shots he faced to record his first shutout as a member of the Capitals and the third shutout of his NHL career. According to Money Puck, Chuck stopped 3.81 more goals than expected in his effort. That performance should skyrocket him to near top of the league with names like Thatcher Demko, Adin Hill, and Jeremy Swayman for the best mark in that statistical category.
- Lindgren is now 3-1 on the season with a 1.76 goals-against average and a .947 save percentage. The Capitals don’t play until Saturday so he’ll be plenty rested should head coach Spencer Carbery decide to ride the hot hand and sit Darcy Kuemper for another game. There is no reason, at least in my opinion, that he shouldn’t do that. Lindgren deserves a run in net here.
John Carlson played in his 941st career game tonight, passing Kelly Miller (940) for the fifth-most games played in franchise history.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) November 15, 2023
- I’ve been saying, since really the start of the season, that I will never understand why the Capitals changed almost the entirety of their coaching staff and yet are still running the same, old, broken, horrible power play. That was very clearly on display when they did almost nothing with the five-minute major they could have scored at will on. Throw it in the garbage and try something else, please. They now officially have the worst man advantage in the entire league. The worst. All 31 other teams are better. How else can I hammer that home?
- Dylan Strome and Connor McMichael might be my two favorite Capitals players to watch at this point. Both guys scored goals in the win and Strome leads the team in tallies (7) and McMichael is now tied for second (4). There wasn’t a ton of good offensively from the game but when there was it seemed to come via these two guys.
- John Carlson played over 28 minutes again. The same Carlson that is going to turn 34 in like two months. This is really only concerning if he stays playing that much when the team gets healthier but man, dude’s playing a ton.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
