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Capitals slap the Senators silly with an easy six spot: Capitals beat Senators 6-3

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📸: kurly from #crashers

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The Washington Capitals played host to the Ottawa Senators on Monday night as they continue to try and claw their way back into a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Ottawa gives up a lot of goals but can also score a lot of goals so this had the chance to be a fun one.

Aliaksei Protas opened the scoring with a super sweet backhand move off of a feed from Anthony Mantha. John Carlson struck minutes later with the Capitals on a power play. Drake Batherson capitalized on some chaos behind the Capitals net and cut the lead in half. Shane Pinto knocked a puck out of mid-air to tie things up.

Max Pacioretty beat Anton Forsberg shortside to restore the lead and Beck Malenstyn added one more just seconds later. Brady Tkachuk opened the second period with a goal and Hendrix Lapierre responded soon after with two of his own.

Capitals beat Senators 6-3!

  • The Capitals didn’t necessarily play all that well in the first period but the Ottawa Senators have minor-league-caliber goaltending so that didn’t matter. This is a game that was always going to have a lot of goals so we can be happy that the majority in any period goes in the opposition’s net. I will say I thought Ethan Bear had a really nice first period after a pretty rough stretch recently.
  • Congratulations to John Carlson as he is now the defenseman with the most games played for the Capitals in franchise history. Carlson capped his milestone night off with a power-play goal that saw him pass Sergei Gonchar (144) for the second-most goals by a defenseman in franchise history. Game pucks all around for Carly.
  • Aliaksei Protas and Connor McMichael have both caught fire a bit here lately which is always good to see. Protas has seven points (2g, 5a) in his last five games and McMichael has six points (4g, 2a) in his last four games.

  • The Capitals played a better second period outside of the opening minutes where Brady Tkachuk put one past Darcy Kuemper. The Senators only managed one five-on-five high-danger chance and the Capitals again scored more goals than they did. Elementary hockey stuff but you never know with the Capitals this season.
  • Per the phenomenal Katie Adler, this is the sixth time this season that the Capitals have scored 5-plus goals in a game and the first time they’ve done it in the first half of a game. Experience, Senators goaltending.
  • Two goals for Hendrix Lapierre after his recall from the Hershey Bears. Lappy now has three points (2g, 1a) in his last two NHL games. I would really love to see him get the chance to lock down the third-line center spot out of Training Camp next season.
  • Anthony Mantha must have heard there were a billion scouts in attendance for this game because he was active in all three zones. Two more points for him after he was also heavily involved in a good way against the Panthers on Saturday. That trade value is on the rise, baby.

  • I talked a lot about how Alex Ovechkin needs to play with Dylan Strome in my last morning numbers post and then that top line was on the ice for three Ottawa goals and zero for the Capitals. Ask me to explain that. I can’t. Off night, I guess.
  • I’ve watched a whole lot of the Hershey Bears this season so I knew Pierrick Dubé had an edge to his game down there but it’s nice to see him still throwing the body around in the NHL. A much better sample size of ice time tonight and I liked what I saw. I hope he gets an extended look in the lineup at some point because once he smooths out some of the rougher areas, I think there are goals at the top level in there with his combo of speed and shot.
  • Darcy Kuemper was good enough which is all the Capitals needed with the whole scoring six goals thing. Quite clear Charlie Lindgren is considered the number one though.

The Capitals will be right back in business on Tuesday night as they make the trip to Detroit to take on the Red Wings. Detroit currently occupies one of the wild card playoff positions in the East.

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