The Washington Capitals are finally back in the win column. After struggling to find offense, scoring just five goals during their four-game losing streak, the Caps put a six-spot on the St. Louis Blues in a 6-1 victory.
Finally, the good process led to some good results. Now, do it again to the Penguins.
- I really liked the overall effort from the Capitals in this game, even outside of all the scoring, and despite NaturalStatTrick having the Blues down for seven high-danger chances in the first period. The eye test definitely didn’t match that for me. Overall, the Capitals kept the pressure on despite going up big, recording seven high-danger chances of their own in the third period. Good to put that bad luck behind them.
- Obviously, we need to praise the big man some more. Alex Ovechkin got career goal number 900 out of the way, slipping a backhand past a salty Jordan Binnington. Ovi became the first player in NHL history to join the 900 club and had a good night overall, recording three shots on goal, eight shot attempts, three individual scoring chances, and one individual high-danger chance in 16:40 of ice time.
- The power play finally decided to score again and actually looked dangerous multiple times throughout the night. Tom Wilson got the breakthrough man-advantage tally, his first of two goals in another game in front of Team Canada decision makers. Wilson is the Capitals’ overall scoring leader with 15 points (8g, 7a) in 13 games, and only Leon Draisaitl (6), Kirill Kaprizov (5), and Pavel Dorofeyev (5) have scored more power-play goals than him (4) in the league this season.
- Logan Thompson was also pretty spotless in direct competition with one of Team Canada’s likely goaltending picks for the Olympics. Thompson stopped 23 of 24 shots he faced, saving, per MoneyPuck, 1.3 more goals than expected. Jordan Binnington let in four goals on 15 shots before being pulled from the game during the second period. He allowed 2.07 more goals than expected.
- The Capitals were absurdly dominant at five-on-five, with their third line comprised of Sonny Milano, Hendrix Lapierre, and Ryan Leonard on the ice. With Leonard on the ice in particular, the Capitals finished up 26-8 in shot attempts, 11-6 in shots on goal, 14-3 in scoring chances, and 4-1 in high-danger chances.
- Jakob Chychrun, who had his first three-point game of the season, played the most minutes on the team (22:46), but due to the lopsided score, head coach Spencer Carbery was able to spread ice time out pretty evenly among the roster. Aliaksei Protas actually ended up playing the least (11:31), meaning he should be fresh against Sidney Crosby and co. later tonight.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
