The Washington Capitals played another very close game against one of the league’s best on Tuesday night. While the Colorado Avalanche put another six spot on them, the game was very much in reach despite what the final score says.
At some point though, “almost” isn’t going to work. They might be past that point already.
- This was yet another game where the Capitals had the better of the play at five-on-five but just did not have the offensive weapons to take advantage of that. In the third period, they got within one goal and held Colorado to just one total high-danger chance. Overall, a much, much better effort against the Avalanche than the last meeting but unfortunately the same result.
- Alex Ovechkin scored yet again. The big man has goals in six straight games for the fifth different time in his career and for the first time since 2018. He now has 17 points (8g, 9a) in his last 16 games and no one in the NHL has more goals than him since January 26.
- Anthony Mantha picked up two assists in the game to give him 10 total on the season. The multi-point effort is his seventh of the season which ranks behind just Ovechkin (8) and Dylan Strome (8) for the team lead.
Alex Ovechkin scored for the sixth straight game. His five different goal streaks of at least six contests are tied with Steven Stamkos for the most among active players.#NHLStats: https://t.co/pfmYWeZ9ws pic.twitter.com/1X2lq0ahyI
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 14, 2024
- The experiment of placing Tom Wilson on the team’s checking line with Nic Dowd and Beck Malenstyn to combat Nathan MacKinnon’s line did work to a degree. Dowd’s line won the goal matchup at five-on-five 1-0 and the high-danger chances ended pretty even 4-3 in favor of MacKinnon’s group.
- Really nice to see Connor McMichael bounce back from that turnover and get a little puck luck for his goal. McMichael seems to be hitting another good patch after a very slow start to 2024. He has three points in his last four games.
- The Capitals went 1-1-1 in the three games that general manager Brian MacLellan will reportedly be using to determine the team’s direction at the trade deadline. While they played well in all three games, they didn’t really make up any ground in the race for the last playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. They are still six points out of eighth and by points percentage rank 12th in the East. I think that will likely be the determining factor.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
