The Capitals tried their darndest to find their second loss in their last ten games, but a couple star players willed them over the line to an overtime victory. The Caps short jaunt down south saw them pick up a 5-4 win against the Panthers and they will now return home for a couple against western foes.
The Panthers out-shot the Caps 36 to 31 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 46 to 38.
- Look, this was probably one of the worst collective even strength efforts from the Caps this season. Don’t tell the Caps star players that though as they carried the boys through two kinda awful periods, before the rest of the team woke up for the third and overtime to give the Caps a 9-0-1 record in their last ten games.
- The first of those stars was Braden Holtby. Holts made 32 stops on the night, many of the utterly fantastic variety. That includes his huge split save in overtime that led to Tom Wilson‘s ensuing game winner.
- The Caps first line of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and TJ Oshie were really the only Caps forwards to stay above water in this one. With the big trio on the ice at five-on-five, the Caps saw 67.7-percent of the shot attempts, 53.3-percent of the scoring chances, and 60-percent of the high danger chances.
The Capitals improve to 8-1-1 on the road this season and lead the NHL in road wins and points (17).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) November 8, 2019
The Capitals have set a franchise record with seven-straight games with a multi-goal scorer, besting their six-game run from Feb. 7 to Feb. 24, 1987. The last time this has been accomplished in the NHL was by the Boston Bruins from Dec. 12 to Dec. 27, 2013.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) November 8, 2019
- Ovi recorded his fourth multi goal game of the season, the 136th of his career. That is good for seventh most in NHL history (passing Mike Gartner at 135) and he now has 52 more of those games than the next highest of 84 by Sidney Crosby since Ovi entered the league. With an assist on Ovi’s first goal, Backstrom recorded his 886th career point, passing Peter Forsberg for the seventh most point by a Swede in NHL history.
- John Carlson was another good egg in this one. Carlson recorded three points to give him 429 in his career, passing Kevin Hatcher (426) for for the third-most points in franchise history by a defenseman and now tying Scott Stevens for second-most.
- Evgeny Kuznetsov had a three assist night, the 14th of his career. Michal Kempny kept up his hot streak, earning his tenth point in only nine games since returning from injury. Wilson with his seventh goal and 14th point of the season, is now on pace for 33 goals and 67 points. Meanwhile, Ovi is now on his usual early season 62 goal pace.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Panthers
Headline photo: FOX Sports Florida
