The Washington Capitals followed up their 15-goal, two-day performance last weekend with just one goal against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night. Washington’s inability to repeat their recent offensive success led to them falling 3-1 to Calgary.
Insert cliche, “should have saved some goals for this one.”
NHL GameScore Impact Card for Washington Capitals on 2025-02-25: pic.twitter.com/eH5MR9DOXY
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- The Capitals really struggled out of the gates at five-on-five but eventually found their game in the final two periods. Unfortunately, puck luck wasn’t on their side, and Calgary escaped with two standings points. The second period was masterful from Washington, allowing the Flames just five total five-on-five shot attempts while creating 27 of their own. When somehow no goals came from that middle frame, it likely spelled out how the game would end overall.
- Alex Ovechkin scored again, though. Ovi potted his 30th goal of the season and the 883rd of his career, moving him just 12 goals shy of surpassing Wayne Gretzky for the NHL’s all-time goals record. The Great Eight extended his own record for most career 30-goal seasons to 19.
- Ovi was absolutely all over the puck again. He fired five shots on goal and had 18 individual shot attempts. The 18 attempts in one game is a season-high for Ovechkin and his most in a game since he had 19 against the Ottawa Senators on January 31, 2020. He also drew a penalty and threw two hits.
John Carlson recorded his 35th assist of the season on Ovechkin's goal, extending his point and assist streaks to nine games (0g-10a–10p). Carlson’s nine-game assist streak is the longest of his career (previously 8 GP from 11/7/19–11/20/19: 12a).
— Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) February 26, 2025
- The regulation loss on home ice was Washington’s first since they fell 3-2 to the New Jersey Devils on November 23. The 16-game home point streak (11-0-5) ends as the second-best in franchise history, behind the 2009-10 Capitals’ 17-game streak (16-0-1).
- Rare poor game from the line led by Pierre-Luc Dubois. With the three on the ice at five-on-five, Washington saw negative differentials in scoring chances (-3) and high-danger chances (-2). They were also outscored 2-0.
- Just 5:43 of five-on-five ice time for Nic Dowd in the loss, the least on the team. Dowd’s previous low this season was 8:18 against the Utah Hockey Club on November 18.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
