The Washington Capitals made their first visit to Connor Bedard’s new digs on Sunday night and while Bedard showed off why there is so much hype around him, it wasn’t enough to stymie the Caps. The good guys came out of Chicago with a 4-2 win and will now have three days off.
Really great response to how depressingly the long road trip ended last week and no undefeated in the second half of back-to-backs this season.
- Remember what I said a bunch of times in the morning numbers post after the win over the Rangers about wanting to see the Capitals take it to teams at five-on-five more? Well, we got that again and then some on Sunday night. Sure, the Blackhawks did have some good spells but I felt like those were caused by self-inflicted wounds rather than system holes and the Capitals responded very well on basically every next shift after soaking up pressure. In another prime example of how you want to close out games, the Capitals did not give up a single five-on-five high-danger chance in the third period and out-scoring chanced Chicago 8 to 2 in the frame. Perfection.
- The Capitals’ top line was their best again. With those three on the ice at five-on-five, the team saw positive differentials in shot attempts (+3), scoring chances (+6), and high-danger chances (+5). Zero Chicago high-danger chances during those minutes. That was unheard of like a few weeks ago when Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov were still paired up.
- Speaking of Alex Ovechkin, no goals in 10 games for just the second time in his career. Ovi was quieter in this game but for some reason I’m still not worried. I feel like he’s noticeably playing his best hockey of the season right now despite not being able to find the back of the net. Still though, we would really love to see that again. Please.
Connor McMichael skated in his 100th career NHL game tonight vs. Chicago. In 25 games this season, McMichael has registered 12 points (5g, 7a) and ranks fourth on the team in assists and fifth in points.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 11, 2023
- Great stuff from the fourth line as they chipped in with two goals. Beck Malenstyn seems to be the bringer of wins when he records a point as per Capitals PR, the team is 5-0 when he does. Nic Dowd scored both goals, his fourth career multi-goal game.
- Darcy Kuemper was very good when his team needed him and ended up with 32 stops in the victory. If both Kuemper and Lindgren are hot at the same time, this Capitals team is in for a lot of wins and will continue to have margin for error offensively. That has been huge so far even though they seem to be getting it together recently.
- Really nice to see Anthony Mantha keep scoring. He grabbed his seventh of the season and his sixth point (4g, 2a) in his last seven games.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
