The Washington Capitals bested the Philadelphia Flyers again on Wednesday night, sweeping the home-and-home series and extending their early-season win streak.
The Caps dominated the first period but had just one goal to show for it: Taylor Raddysh deflecting Dylan McIlrath’s shot to make it 1-0.
They piled it on in the second period with early goals by Dowd and two from McMichael before we were even eight minutes in. But they ran out of steam as the Flyers started chugging. Travis Konecny scored from a sharp angle on a power play, then Owen Tippett used Jakob Chychrun as a screen to make it 4-2.
On a third period power play, Matvei Michkov scored an effortless-looking goal to make it a one-goal game. The Flyers pulled their goalie and then flubbed a line change, giving Dubois an easy empty-netter. They weren’t done yet; Alex Ovechkin added his own empty-netter a bit later.
Caps win 6-3!
- Dylan McIlrath is 32, which I used to think was very old, but now I realize that people born in 1992 might never have played Super Mario 2. In any case, the old man had his first ever two-point game.
- According to Natural Stat Trick, the Caps controlled 95 percent of the expected goals in the first period – then 25 percent in the second period. That is excessively spastic. They looked superhuman in the first while the Flyers could barely move their feet. And then it flipped. Really disappointing effort in the middle frame. Without Flyers goalie Ivan Fedotov struggling, the Caps wouldn’t have had a lead to protect at all.
- The Caps had a very long shift in the Flyers zone late in the second period that ended abruptly as Morgan Frost forced a turnover. Frost raced up the ice and put a hard shot on Logan Thompson, who laid flat to stop the puck. For no apparent reason, someone turned the goal light on. When Thompson finally moved, we learned the puck was like 30 inches from the goal line.
MATVEI MICHKOV 🙌
His goal brings the @NHLFlyers within one! 👀
📺: @NHL_On_TNT & @SportsonMax ➡️ https://t.co/4TuyIATi3T pic.twitter.com/lWWD025Smu
— NHL (@NHL) October 24, 2024
- Matvei Michkov is fun to watch. He’s undeniably skilled, but I would have killed to have seen and heard John Tortorella’s reaction when Michkov tried the Michigan – and then blew his defensive coverage on the very next shift. I was wondering if he’d get benched. Instead he got a starring role in the power play. Is he already Philly’s best scorer?
- We talked up Connor McMichael‘s backhand passing skills last game. This time he was doing the scoring with that same backhand, and the passing skills belonged to Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Stay for the Mikey finish, but don't sleep on the the sauce from PLD pic.twitter.com/HPqDcdeRZT
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 24, 2024
- I made the dirtiest joke of my RMNB twitter career tonight and no one even noticed. I was too subtle. That’s what people always say about me.
- The Caps’ fourth line is elite. Let’s give it a few weeks to be sure, but I’d bet they’re in the league’s top eight.
- The Capitals power play went oh-for-four. They were oh-for-five last night. It’s bad. Especially if you’re primarily interest in Alex Ovechkin‘s chase.
- Speaking of: I hate the Ovechkin – Strome – Protas line. Strome is wonderful, but he’s not and has never been right for Ovi, who didn’t have a shot on goal until the 53rd minute. Don’t worry; it worked out for him in the end.
pretend that i knew how to type "the future is now, old man" in Russian pic.twitter.com/kqprICqG8f
— Kurt (@Kurt_BSH) October 24, 2024
Ugly middle period, but whatever. I’ll take it. The Caps remain undefeated in the pandas-back-in-DC era. I’m not going to complain. That’s a lie. I was about to complain until Ovechkin got the empty-netter. I know I’m spoiled. It’s my mom’s fault.
The Caps now have a few days off before traveling down to Florida for Saturday night. I will be a couple minutes late for that one because I’ll be at a John Carpenter double feature until 7 PM. Two classics: The Fog and They Live. Can’t wait. I love Carpenter. (If you’ve listened to my music, you know this.) See you on the flip side.
