The Washington Capitals went into PPG Paints Arena on Thursday night and absolutely smacked the life out of the Pittsburgh Penguins. I don’t care what you want from the end of this season, giving the Penguins a beatdown like that will forever feel phenomenal.
This is one of those games where you channel the fantastic Enrique Iglesias and live this night forever, bailamos.
- The Capitals won this game rather easily and a lot of their goals came from some of the prettiest passing plays of the season. While the five-on-five stats weren’t lopsided or anything, that didn’t matter because the Penguins looked like they just got done watching the Christmas episode of The Bear the whole night. This was the first time the Capitals have downed the Penguins by a 6-goal margin since they won 7-1 back in November of 2016. Nicklas Backstrom had five points (2g, 3a) in that game and Braden Holtby made 25 stops in net.
- Ivan Miroshnichenko scored his first NHL goal and truly looked like he belonged at the NHL level. I think that first stint was a little overwhelming for him so the return to Hershey was probably the best thing for him as he was all around the puck in his fifth career game. Miro fired three shots on net which was second on the team and led the team in individual shot attempts (6), scoring chances (4), and high-danger chances (3). The sky is the limit in terms of growth if that’s how he plays every night.
- Dylan Strome had another three-point night and is now on pace for a career-high 67 points this season. Strome has 22 points (6g, 16a) in his last 16 games. This is your reminder that the Capitals got him for free and I can’t wait to see the sort of contracts handed out to worse players by other teams this upcoming summer.
Washington has won five of their last six games at PPG Paints Arena (5-1-0).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) March 8, 2024
- Charlie Lindgren was spotless in what could be his last game as a member of the Capitals. Lindgren has reportedly received a bunch of interest from around the league and a 39-save shutout on the road is only going to stoke those flames even more. MoneyPuck had Lindgren stopping 4.56 goals above expected which is just an absurdly good start that should rocket him back up into the top 20 goaltenders in the league this season in that stat category.
- What if Hendrix Lapierre just never stops producing like he has since his recent recall? That would be an absolute boon for the Capitals as Lappy has seven points (4g, 3a) in his last six NHL games. With Sgarbossa now ineligible to play for Hershey in the playoffs this year, I’d love to see Lapierre given the big-time role down in the AHL during the Bears’ run to a repeat.
- The trade deadline is tomorrow. If I was a betting man, I’d say the Capitals are less active than some might think they’d be or want them to be. I don’t think Nic Dowd gets moved because the prices being paid for forwards seem rather weak. I don’t think Lindgren gets moved because the Capitals won’t be wowed by any offers. I don’t think Jensen gets moved because I don’t think they’d want to deal another defenseman. The most likely in my eyes might be Max Pacioretty given the rumblings about him. What say you?
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
