The Washington Capitals bounced back from their back-to-back losses to the Columbus Blue Jackets with a great performance against the New York Islanders on Tuesday night. The Caps got a goal in each period from Dylan Strome en route to a 3-1 win.
Great game and a good start to the playoff tune-up.
- The Capitals gave the Islanders nearly nothing in this game at five-on-five, controlling play to the tune of a 53-43 advantage in shot attempts, a 35-13 advantage in scoring chances, and amassing 60.5 percent of the expected goals. The Caps recorded 17 five-on-five scoring chances in the third period alone, four more than New York had in the whole game. Total domination and far more like what we want to see ahead of the postseason.
- Dylan Strome was the big story, recording his third career hat trick, the first while with the Capitals. Strome set a new career high in goals (29) and moved past the 80-point plateau (81) in a season for the first time in his career. He joins Aliaksei Protas as the lone non-Ovechkin Caps players to record hat tricks this year.
- Charlie Lindgren was excellent in what feels like his best performance in quite some time. Chuckie stopped 34 of the 35 shots he faced, allowing less than two goals in a game for the first time since January 23. Per MoneyPuck, he saved 1.77 more goals than expected. It will be interesting to see if Lindgren asks for the final game of the season against Pittsburgh or if that honor goes to recent recall Clay Stevenson. Logan Thompson is also back skating, so is it possible he is even healthy enough to see the net? We shall see.
- I thought Alexander Alexeyev was superb in just his seventh game of the season. With him on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals saw positive differentials in shot attempts (+7), scoring chances (+8), and high-danger chances (+4). He made several impressive one-on-one defensive plays, and his work in the corners and along the boards was super clean. I hope the Caps can eventually carve out a more regular role for him. Alexeyev is a restricted free agent this summer.
- Big-minute nights for both Matt Roy (25:52) and Rasmus Sandin (23:03), with both Jakob Chychrun and John Carlson out. Roy has not played more minutes in any other game this season, while Sandin played 4:13 more than his game average this year (18:50).
- The Capitals are the lone team in the NHL still waiting to find out who their first-round opponent will be. If the Montreal Canadiens can earn a point later tonight on the road against Carolina, they will eliminate the Columbus Blue Jackets. If the Habs lose in regulation, the Jackets will need to beat the Islanders in regulation on Thursday night to take the spot.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
