The Washington Capitals beat the very bad Chicago Blackhawks 5-3 on Friday night, but the end result was perhaps the third most important part of the game.
Alex Ovechkin is tied with Wayne Gretzky. Holy smokes, folks.
- The Capitals played very well five-on-five against a team that they should dominate. I wouldn’t call what we saw domination, but it was enough for me to come away pleased with the overall effort. The second period was especially good, with the Caps up 24-13 in shot attempts, 15-10 in scoring chances, and 5-2 in high-danger chances. With all of the fanfare and chaos of the night, we’ll take that.
- Alex Ovechkin scored his 893rd and 894th career goals to tie Wayne Gretzky for the NHL’s all-time goals record. In doing so, he reached the 40-goal plateau in a season for the 14th time in his career. Ovechkin has 41 goals in 60 games this year, which would see him on pace to score 55 goals over a full 82-game schedule. Darn, broken leg.
- Ovechkin also became the first player in NHL history with at least three 40-goal seasons at the age of 35 or older. Dylan Strome, John Carlson (2), and Andrew Mangiapane earned the assists on his two goals. Strome reached the 50-assist mark in a season for the first time in his career and also scored his 25th goal of the season to give him 75 points this year.
- Ryan Leonard scored his first NHL goal into an empty net. As a giant prospect nerd, it is such a cool feeling to watch a player you’ve followed for years get into the NHL and then on the scoresheet. Leonard has been so good in his first three games, making the goal just the cherry on top. The Capitals were tremendous with him on the ice at even strength again, seeing positive differentials in shot attempts (+2), scoring chances (+3), and high-danger chances (+4). He also led the Caps with four shots on goal.
- I didn’t like two of the goals Charlie Lindgren allowed, but he was solid enough to earn the win. Lindgren made 19 stops on 22 shots faced. Per MoneyPuck, he saved 0.68 fewer goals than expected.
- The Capitals’ next game comes against the New York Islanders. Ovechkin has never scored against goaltender Ilya Sorokin. Semyon Varlamov is not healthy, so he can’t randomly take yet another start against the Caps. It’ll either be Sorokin or Marcus Hogberg in net. Ovi has scored against Hogberg twice in his career.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
