Capitals make it three in a row after putting an eight spot on the Habs: numbers for the morning after

The Washington Capitals have won three games in a row and have climbed back into a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The club’s latest victory was an 8-4 shellacking of the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.

Well, well, well, looks like the 2024-25 Capitals have finally arrived. More goals all the time.

• When this game was played five-on-five, the Capitals did a fantastic job of limiting the Canadiens to the outside, then burned them in transition for being overaggressive. The Caps ended up 13-5 in high-danger chances, putting together a particularly impressive third period during which they created eight of those chances and allowed only two. Tremendous effort from a team that played at home yesterday and then traveled north.
• I mean, if you’re a regular visitor to the site, you saw the billion Alex Ovechkin posts we did last night. With his four-point (3g, 1a) game, Ovechkin extended his goal-scoring streak to four games, notched his 33rd career hat trick, broke the NHL record for most career goals scored against a goaltender, and moved into the top 10 on the NHL’s all-time points list.
• The other Capitals player who ended his night with four points was Ethen Frank (2g, 2a). He decided to have his first-ever multi-point game in a huge way, finishing the night with two goals, two assists, four shots, and a drawn penalty.

• Sonny Milano (2g) and Hendrix Lapierre (2a) recorded four points in a combined 13:28 of ice time. For comparison’s sake, Tom Wilson played 20:25 of ice time by himself and did not record a point. Nothing against Wilson, just those two dudes certainly made the most of their time over the boards.
• Dylan Strome put up three assists, marking his eighth career three-assist outing. He is rounding back into form nicely, tied with Ovechkin and Wilson atop the team’s overall scoring leaderboard at 20 points. Strome has also played two fewer games than both of them.
• Really great results from Justin Sourdif’s line at five-on-five, as the Capitals finished the night up 21-11 in shot attempts, 9-7 in scoring chances, and 6-3 in high-danger chances with Sourdif, Wilson, and Aliaksei Protas on the ice. The 15:47 time on ice that Sourdif played is the most he has ever seen in an NHL game.