Capitals come out of the Olympic break on top: numbers for the morning after

The Washington Capitals are back on the ice and back in the win column. After a nearly three-week break for the 2026 Winter Olympics, the Capitals returned to Capital One Arena and secured a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.

The start of the game wasn’t great, but they worked their way into it. Need to start piling up the points.

• If you take away the first 10 minutes of this game, the Capitals controlled most of the five-on-five play. The team’s best period was the second, where they finished up on the Flyers, 28-16 in shot attempts, 14-10 in scoring chances, and 6-5 in high-danger chances. The pace of the game really slowed in the third, as it felt like both teams were playing not to lose, but the Capitals took one of the few rush chances to net the game-winner.
• Trevor van Riemsdyk scored that goal, only his second of the season. TVR’s contribution wasn’t the first from the team’s backend as Rasmus Sandin scored his third goal of the year in the second period, and Declan Chisholm and Jakob Chychrun also notched assists in the win.
• Aliaksei Protas sealed the victory with a shorthanded empty netter, recording his 20th goal of the season on the same night that his little brother, Ilya Protas, did the same for the AHL’s Hershey Bears. Protas also posted his 20th assist of the season in the game, giving him an even 40 points this year.

• Logan Thompson was phenomenal in his first game back from Team Canada business. Thompson made 23 stops on 24 shots faced, and per MoneyPuck, saved 1.65 more goals than expected. He is one of only three NHL goalies to save more than 20 total goals than expected this season, joining Ilya Sorokin (27.8) and Andrei Vasilevskiy (21.9).
• According to the Capitals, with Protas’s goal, they are the only team in the NHL with four players with 20 or more goals this season: Tom Wilson (23), Alex Ovechkin (22), Jakob Chychrun (21), and Aliaksei Protas (20).
• Hendrix Lapierre looked really effective on the wing of the Capitals’ fourth line, registering the primary assist on Sandin’s tally. He skated 8:51 of ice time in the win, which was the most he’s seen in his last eight games.