The Washington Capitals will not stay down. After a really rough loss to the Buffalo Sabres to end last week, the Caps came back with a clutch regulation victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.
They are back in control of their own destiny. Wow.
- The Capitals put together one of their best overall efforts in recent weeks to claim two desperately needed points. With their season on the line, they controlled the final two periods and gave the Lightning little to nothing to work with at five-on-five. Tampa Bay recorded just one five-on-five, high-danger chance in the final two periods combined.
- John Carlson scored the game-winning goal in the third period. Carlson’s ninth of the year was also his 150th career goal, moving him past Kevin Hatcher (149) for the most goals by a defenseman in Capitals franchise history. Have we gotten to a point where Carlson is actually underrated by both Capitals fans and NHL fans in general?
- Dylan Strome picked up the primary assist on Carlson’s tally. The helper was Strome’s 66th point (27g, 39a) of the season, setting a new career-high in scoring for the second straight season. Unless Alex Ovechkin has a scoring surge over the last two games, Strome will end the season as the team’s leading scorer. He would join Evgeny Kuznetsov (2015-16), Nicklas Backstrom (2016-17, 2020-21), and John Carlson (2019-20), as the only players not named Ovechkin to lead the Capitals in scoring during the Great Eight’s tenure with the club.
The Capitals registered 56 hits against Tampa Bay, the most by any team in a single game this season.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) April 14, 2024
- Nick Jensen’s scary injury in the first period meant that the Capitals played over 40 minutes of the game with just five defensemen. Martin Fehervary ended up skating a career-high 27:06 of ice time, John Carlson led the team with 27:25 of ice time, and both Alex Alexeyev (21:42) and Trevor van Riemsdyk (21:28) skated over 21 minutes.
- The Capitals held Nikita Kucherov scoreless in the win, giving him just one point, a secondary assist, in three games against them this season. The superstar Russian leads the NHL with 141 total points (43g, 98a this year.
- Charlie Lindgren was excellent in his 23rd victory of the season. Chuckie stopped 32 of 34 shots he faced. According to MoneyPuck, he kept out 1.36 more goals than expected.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
