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The road trip has started rather poorly: Oilers beat Capitals 7-2

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📸: @Ozzdog12

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The Washington Capitals are making their way further west on their five-game road trip and stopped in Edmonton to take on the Oilers on Wednesday night. Connor McDavid has already hit the 100-point mark this season and had four points in Edmonton’s 5-0 defeat of the Capitals in DC back before Christmas. Deja vu lies ahead.

Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring on a power play and McDavid doubled that lead on another man advantage. Ivan Miroshnichenko and Connor McMichael responded with two goals for the Capitals but a Zach Hyman strike gave the Oilers the lead heading into the first intermission.

Zach Hyman scored another in the second to give him 45 goals on the season. Hyman added one more to give Edmonton a three-goal lead heading into the final period and himself a hat trick. Warren Foegele and Connor Brown added two more in the third.

Oilers beat Capitals 7-2.

  • The Capitals really weren’t all that bad at five-on-five but you can’t put the McDavid-led Oilers on six minutes of power plays to open a game. That proved to be the difference in the first period as the Capitals had Stuart Skinner ready to exit the frame without a single save until he robbed Alex Ovechkin with a diving effort. Good to see the fight back in the team even if they couldn’t get the game tied at the end of 20 minutes.
  • Ivan Miroshnichenko kicked the scoring off from a Capitals perspective with his second NHL goal. The fadeaway blast from the right faceoff circle was Miro’s reward for a lot of hard work in the past few games as he’s pulled the Capitals through rough stretches of play on his own at points. Let’s hope his confidence just keeps growing and growing.
  • Can’t say I loved watching the Capitals penalty kill let McDavid get the puck at the top of the zone and just glide his way between the hash marks in the slot. That is not giving Darcy Kuemper a fair chance and just asking to be scored on. McDavid is going to beat you when you actually try to defend him and he’s going to absolutely destroy you if you don’t.

  • Well, the Capitals probably played the Oilers even better in the second but they had no puck luck. That’s just how it goes and Edmonton has the offensive talent that will bury you if you’re undisciplined with the puck and with penalties. Both of those things burned the Capitals and the Oilers brought a three-goal lead into the third.
  • Bit of a brutal night for Martin Fehervary in his return to action. He made the direct turnover that led to Zach Hyman’s second goal and looked off the pace from the outset. I know you want your best players in every game if they’re available but I’m not sure if a game against McDavid and co. was the best for his injury comeback.
  • Zach Hyman scoring 50 goals this season is going to be quite the trivia answer in the future. He and Jonathan Cheechoo will dominate that category.
  • Eight hours west of the Capitals in Edmonton, there was a battle between Caps prospects in the WHL going on between Andrew Cristall and Zac Funk. Both players got on the board for their respective teams and are both in the league’s top-five scorers overall. Stack up that farm system.

  • Can’t say much about that third period other than it got away from the Capitals and there was no way back. The Oilers are a very good team and Darcy Kuemper is not having a good season.
  • Not that he exactly is on the money with passes to Alex Ovechkin in every game but sure felt like John Carlson hit every part of Ovi’s equipment with passes in this game other than the blade of his stick. Some of those power play feeds were a tough watch.
  • Of course, Connor Brown scores his first goal since 2022 against the Capitals.

No Joe B, so here is a happy Miro in place of your suit of the night.

The Capitals will make their way back into the US tomorrow as they visit the Seattle Kraken. They have yet to win on the road in Seattle in two previous tries.

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