The Washington Capitals may have just put together their proof-of-concept game. The Caps went into the never-friendly confines of the Lenovo Center and delivered a 4-1 defeat to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.
Beating that team always feels good. Even better when the great play from recent losses finally gets rewarded.
- The Capitals flipped Carolina’s normal game plan on its head in the first period, dominating five-on-five play. The Hurricanes recorded just six five-on-five shot attempts in the first frame, their fewest in any regulation period this season in which at least 12 of the 20 minutes were played five-on-five. From there, the Capitals took their lead and battened down the hatches very well, staving off any of the Hurricanes’ attempts at a push in the second half.
- Logan Thompson was absolutely tremendous in net again, responding to what was his first down game of the season in Tampa. Thompson stopped 30 of the 31 shots he faced, saving, per MoneyPuck, 3.61 more goals than expected. He now ranks second in the league in goals saved above expected this season with 12.8, trailing only Chicago’s Spencer Knight (13.3).
- Special teams, special teams, and more special teams. The Capitals went 1-for-5 on their power play and looked far better than they have in a long time. I really liked how Rasmus Sandin looked at the point, and the second unit was really dangerous overall. The penalty kill was also a perfect 5-for-5, which is a game-deciding result. Great work. Now, consistency, please.
- Matt Roy played a game-high 25:15 of ice time in the win. During those minutes, the Capitals went even with the Hurricanes at five-on-five in scoring chances (9-9) and high-danger chances (3-3). Neither team scored a goal. That’s good work.
- Alex Ovechkin scored the 901st goal of his career into an empty net, sealing the win. The tally marked Ovechkin’s fourth goal in 16 games this fall. In his age-40 season, he’s now on pace to score 21 times. If you encounter anyone complaining about him recording another empty netter, make sure to let them know that Wayne Gretzky (85) AND Sidney Crosby (88) still have more career empty-net points than Ovechkin (83). One of them is just better at doing the part that matters the most.
- I recently wrote a post discussing how Spencer Carbery is utilizing Ovechkin this season and doing so incredibly well. After the win, Ovechkin is still the only player out of 561 in the league to play 100 five-on-five minutes without starting a single shift in the defensive zone. In Raleigh, he started four shifts in the offensive zone and his other 12 on the fly. The results were great again, as during his minutes, the Capitals left up 11-9 in shot attempts, 9-3 in scoring chances, 4-3 in high-danger chances, and most importantly, 1-0 in goals. The goal came via Dylan Strome, and Ovechkin grabbed the primary assist. One could also surmise that the lack of heavy minutes spent defending allowed Ovechkin to be fresh enough for a long 6-on-5 shift at the end of the third period, which resulted in him scoring the game-sealing empty-netter.
- Ethen Frank has jumped off the screen to me in his two games since returning from injury. He now has two beautiful assists in back-to-back games and has been extremely effective in winning puck battles, making zone entries, and generally being a nuisance for opposing players.
- Shoutout to Martin Fehervary for his third career NHL fight. Carbs highlighted the bout as a motivator for the team during his postgame victory speech. In his career, Fehervary has now fought 6-foot-6 defenseman Niko Mikkola, 6-foot-3 forward Dylan Cozens, and 5-foot-8 forward Logan Stankoven.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
