The Washington Capitals came into Sunday afternoon’s matchup with the Los Angeles Kings losers of two in a row and in those two losses they gave up a combined 12 goals. They flipped that around and would not be denied the two points against LA.
That felt like a win that momentum could be built on. Let’s see if that holds true in a few days.
- While I didn’t love the full effort over the 60 minutes, I think the Capitals can be proud of that effort against a good Kings team. Their second period was especially great, recording seven high-danger chances at five-on-five and scoring twice. In the third I think they had a little too much trouble getting out of their own zone but it all worked out in the end with John Carlson grabbing the last minute winner. Overall, two points. Job done.
- The big story of the game was obviously the fourth line who I have slated pretty much all season. While I still think the process isn’t there for that line, you can’t argue with results. They’re a +8 now on the season in terms of goals for vs goals against and pretty much singlehandedly won this game. They even received an offensive zone shift start which is a rarity this season.
- Dylan Strome scored again and now has 15 goals to lead the team this season. He is now on pace for 32 goals. Strome formed a mid-game partnership with Alex Ovechkin and Max Pacioretty that looks like it should be explored a little bit longer. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that line on Thursday against the Seattle Kraken.
With his goal tonight, John Carlson has tied Sergei Gonchar (144g) for the second-most goals by a defenseman in franchise history. Carlson now only trails Kevin Hatcher (149g).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) January 7, 2024
- Evgeny Kuznetsov has been unplayable all season and that didn’t change on Sunday. With him on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals saw negative differentials in shot attempts (-14), scoring chances (-8), and high-danger chances (-1). His line was getting skipped over for some shifts because they just didn’t do much positive. To be frank, I don’t really know or quite get what the Capitals are doing with Kuzy right now.
- Max Pacioretty recorded his first point with the Capitals in the win. Patches finished with that assist, five shot attempts, two shots on goal, one individual scoring chance, one individual high-danger chance, and two hits. As Spencer Carbery keeps mentioning, I think Pacioretty will just keep getting better and better with the more games he plays.
- Pour one out for the Kings. They’ve now lost five in a row and Sunday’s outing was their first on a six-game road trip out east. They’ll finish that trip up with a brutal back-to-back in Carolina and then in Dallas. Oof.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
