The Washington Capitals picked up another big win over a team in around the Eastern Conference playoff hunt. The Capitals took out the Tampa Bay Lightning on the road 5-3 and are now riding a three-game win streak.
They’re kinda creeping up the standings, y’all.
- The Capitals and head coach Spencer Carbery put together a perfect gameplan to take out the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night. The Lightning are really having their defensive depth tested with Mikhail Sergachev’s injury and the Capitals clearly made it a point to get in early and often with their forecheck and running those defenders into the glass. They also slowed the pace of the game down at five-on-five, limiting the usually high-powered Lightning to just three high-danger chances at five-on-five in the entire game. Can you even remember a single odd-man rush against? Some really masterful tactical planning went on before this one.
- With the win, the Capitals now have 60 points on the season and are just five points back of the Lightning for the second wild card spot with three games in hand. Their recent streak has vaulted them over the Pittsburgh Penguins, New Jersey Devils, and New York Islanders in points percentage. If I’m being honest, this team should still 100 percent be selling at the deadline but it’s fun to see this little run here.
- One of the biggest factors in the win was the play of the Capitals’ penalty kill against the Lightning’s number-one-ranked power play. The Lightning went 0-for-3 and only recorded four total shots on goal with a man advantage. And, that’s without Nic Dowd. Great effort.
The @Capitals earned a crucial regulation win against the Lightning and captain Alex Ovechkin helped secure the victory by extending his point streak to 10 games. #NHLStats: https://t.co/TdKwmCk2gf pic.twitter.com/DsbiaEQ8Se
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 23, 2024
- With the assist on Connor McMichael’s empty-net goal, Alex Ovechkin has his first point streak of 10 or more games since the start of the 2018-19 campaign. Ovechkin now has 22 points (10g, 12a) in 19 games. I didn’t think Ovi was all that great in this game but I also don’t think how this game went suited him either.
- Per Capitals PR, Connor McMichael became the first Capitals player since Jakub Vrana to record consecutive multi-goal games at age 23 or younger. McMichael has five goals in his last four games and seven points (5g, 2a) in his last seven games.
- Another great performance from Charlie Lindgren in net. Lindgren made 29 stops and is now 3-2 in February with a 2.87 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
