The Washington Capitals made the quick trip to Northern California to play the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday after downing the Los Angeles Kings the night prior. The meeting was the team’s first look at the blazing hot phenom Macklin Celebrini and the rest of the upstart Sharks.
Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring, jamming a loose puck home at the post. Sonny Milano doubled the lead just 1:40 later with a quick shot. Ryan Leonard made it three for the Capitals after fooling Askarov with some patience. Brandon Duhaime struck shorthanded on a great feed from Aliaksei Protas to give the Caps four first-period goals.
Ovechkin notched his second of the night on an early second-period power play. Dylan Strome found the end zone with a tip on a point drive from Matt Roy. Leonard hit the extra point with a gorgeous individual effort. Pavol Regenda broke Charlie Lindgren’s shutout bid.
Capitals beat Sharks 7-1!
- Well, you can’t really script a better first period than that one. The five-on-five stats don’t really matter when you put four goals on the board and don’t allow anything at the other end. The Sharks looked dangerous on their power plays, but Charlie Lindgren had all the answers. Staying out of the box against this team is probably one of the number-one keys, so Anthony Beauvillier needs to take better care of his stick.
- Alex Ovechkin is at it again, folks, scoring the 910th and 911th goals of his career and 13th and 14th of the season. He has 10 goals in his last 11 games and is on pace for 41 goals and 85 points in his age-40 season. I mean…if he does anything close to that…he can’t call it quits, right?
- We started the late-night action, finding out that the Capitals would be without John Carlson (upper-body) and Justin Sourdif (lower-body) due to injury. Carlson took warmups but couldn’t dress, and Sourdif missed a few shifts late against the Kings. Let’s hope neither is a long-term issue.
- More of the same in the second period, and they stayed out of the box. The Capitals chased Yaroslav Askarov from San Jose’s net in the first period after he gave up four goals on 12 shots. Alex Nedeljkovic didn’t fare too much better, allowing two goals on the first 14 shots he faced. The pucks are falling for the Caps right now, and it’s very fun to watch.
- Ryan Leonard has never looked better in the NHL than he has the past few weeks. The rookie winger recorded his first career four-point game (2g, 2a) in the win (he’s the only rookie in the league to have four points in a single game this year) and also drew his 15th penalty of the season. His plus-9 penalty differential is tied with Connor McDavid for the second-best in the league. Some of the passes he’s zipping around are absurd. Keep it up, young fella.
- Good to see Dylan Strome get on the scoreboard. He had quietly been without a goal for 11 games until his deflection of Matt Roy’s shot. You could see some of the frustration finally being lifted off his shoulders during the celebration and on the bench afterward. Let’s hope this kicks off a hot streak for him.
- I thought Nic Dowd looked utterly fantastic in his return to game action after missing eight in a row. He was making life not fun for San Jose’s defenders behind their own net and skating really well for a 35-year-old player who had just taken so much time off. I felt like he deserved a point.
- The third period felt like a scrimmage. I don’t have any takeaways other than the refs decided to call nothing blatant on the Sharks, but still call penalties on the Capitals. Annoying.
- Dmitry Orlov, you scoundrel. I hope he’s having a good time in the good weather out west.
- Blowout and all but Charlie Lindgren was absolutely brilliant in net for the Capitals. Shame the referees somehow gave a team losing 7-0 four power plays for some reason. Bizarre.
The Capitals finish up their work in California against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night. They’ll be back home to play the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.
