Capitals claim two points and prevent season-long losing skid against Canes: numbers for the morning after

The Washington Capitals are back in the win column after a two-game hiatus. The Caps found enough scoring and got some elite goaltending en route to a 3-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Washington has yet to lose three games in a row this season. The two points on Friday night pushed them back to the top of the Eastern Conference.

#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Washington Capitals on 2024-12-20

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— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) December 20, 2024 at 9:52 PM

• The Hurricanes did their usual work at five-on-five, controlling most of the play throughout the game. They out-attempted the Capitals 56-31, but the Capitals’ defense, especially their netminder, held true. The third period was Washington’s worst, as they allowed six five-on-five high-danger chances and created none of their own. Who cares, though? Carolina is historically impossible to top five-on-five. Scoreboard.
• Charlie Lindgren was tremendous despite apparently being very ill. Lindgren stopped 24 of 25 shots, including an absurd windmill save on Tyson Jost. Per MoneyPuck, Lindgren saved 1.71 more goals than expected.
• I thought Aliaksei Protas was the club’s best skater and he was rewarded with his 12th goal of the year. The Capitals held positive differentials at five-on-five in shot attempts (+6), scoring chances (+8), and expected goals (+0.60) during Protas’s minutes.

The Capitals have a 9-4-0 record against Metropolitan Division teams this season.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 21, 2024

• Pierre-Luc Dubois earned the secondary assist on Connor McMichael’s goal. Dubois has nine points (3g, 6a) in his last nine games and leads the team in points in December (7).
• Spencer Carbery is still not loving the options he has on his third line. Hendrix Lapierre played just 6:04 of ice time in the win and Jakub Vrana played just 6:48. If the Capitals add another player this season, it’s probably going to be for that line.
• Per the team, the Capitals have allowed two or fewer goals in six of their last eight games. Washington has allowed the third-fewest goals in the NHL this season (84) and scored the third-most (121).

Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.