The Washington Capitals took two of three from their homestand to begin the 2024-25 season after ending the Dallas Stars’ four-game, undefeated streak to start the year on Friday night.
Washington’s 3-2 victory was powered by a three-goal second period and some good defensive work to end regulation. Good vibes all around to start this season.
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Washington Capitals on 2024-10-17:#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/F4vQYu8fLW
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) October 18, 2024
- While there were certainly more lulls in their play against Dallas than there were against Vegas, the Capitals should still be happy with their overall effort against one of the NHL’s best clubs. Their second period was their best, as they scored all three of their goals and produced the bulk of their big chances during the frame. To go along with the three goals, at five-on-five, they outshot Dallas 12-5 and were a plus-3 in high-danger chances.
- Washington was once again at its best when Jakob Chychrun was on the ice. During his five-on-five ice time, the Capitals scored two of their goals, and held positive differentials in shot attempts (+5), scoring chances (+3), and high-danger chances (+3). Chychrun is playing like a number-one defenseman next to John Carlson who is also playing like a number-one defenseman. That pairing is super exciting if they can keep this level up.
- The win on home ice against the Stars was the team’s first since March 20, 2018. That 4-3 win, just months before the Capitals would capture their first-ever Stanley Cup, featured Braden Holtby in net, Christian Djoos on the backend, a goal from Matt Niskanen, and multi-point efforts from Alex Ovechkin (1g, 2a), Lars Eller (2a), TJ Oshie (1g, 1a), and John Carlson (1g, 1a).
Seven different skaters have scored for Washington through three games, led by Tom Wilson's three goals.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) October 18, 2024
- Charlie Lindgren was superb in net, earning his first win of the season after making 22 saves on 24 shots. Per MoneyPuck, he stopped 0.23 more goals than expected. The skaters in front of him were also in the shooting lanes all night, blocking 29 attempts from the Stars.
- The Capitals were not able to keep up their early power play success, misfiring on all five of their opportunities. However, the penalty kill was excellent, blanking the Stars on their four attempts. Through three games, Washington is one of five teams in the league with a penalty kill still successful more than 90 percent of the time.
- I thought the two best forwards for the Capitals, from an individual perspective, were Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson. Wilson scored for the third straight game to start the season and earned specific praise from Spencer Carbery postgame. Protas had his skating legs from the start of the night and created several dangerous opportunities with his speed and reach. The two big wingers combined for two points (1g, 1a), six shots on goal, 12 individual shot attempts, 10 individual scoring chances, six individual high-danger chances, one drawn penalty, one hit, and two shot blocks.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
