The Washington Capitals lost for just the third time this season on Sunday. A fresh Carolina Hurricanes team flipped the script on the tired Caps, dominating them at five-on-five in a 4-2 win.
Washington was playing their third game in just four days against the literal worst possible team in the NHL to have to do that against. In the biz, folks, we call that a “schedule loss.”
- The Capitals we saw in this game are not the Capitals we know they are so far this season. Through the first period, Washington was actually ahead at five-on-five in scoring chances (9-4) and high-danger chances (6-1). Fatigue set in after that, though, and it is very tough to play Carolina as a tired bunch. The Hurricanes go brrrrrrrrr in the offensive zone and are relentless with their puck pressure. I don’t put much value in the stats from the second half of this game. Good stuff to stay in it with a chance until the end.
- Charlie Lindgren probably doesn’t love the goals he gave up, but overall, he had his best outing of the young season. Lindgren made 41 stops and truly carried the team very close to stealing a point on the road. Per MoneyPuck, he saved 0.69 goals above expected. Ha, nice.
- Alex Ovechkin scored the 860th goal of his career in the first period. Ovechkin is just 35 goals away from overtaking Wayne Gretzky for the NHL’s all-time lead in goals. We’re gonna roll with a bullet on this chase every single time he scores because it’s truly insane what he’s doing. Ovi, 39, is on pace for a 52-goal, 104-point season. Gordie Howe holds the record for the most goals (39) and points (82) recorded by a player in their age-39 season.
Ovechkin has recorded nine points (5g-4a–9p) over his last 10 periods played.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) November 3, 2024
- Sonny Milano got in the lineup for just the second time this season and saw only 5:37 of total ice time. Hendrix Lapierre saw a similar 5:49. Spencer Carbery is going to have to find a third line this season he trusts because I don’t think how he’s deployed the unit so far is optimal. Andrew Mangiapane’s ice time is suffering because of it as well. He saw only 7:52 of five-on-five ice time in the loss. Might be something Chris Patrick is asked to address this season as well. We shall see.
- Washington was again at their best five-on-five with Pierre-Luc Dubois’s line on the ice. With PLD out there, the game was actually played quite even and the Capitals even out-chanced Carolina 7-6. Call Carbs the PLD whisperer because he’s cooking this fall.
- I find the Hurricanes very annoying. So, here’s this: The Capitals’ all-time record against them is 108-75-14.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
