The Washington Capitals gave the tired and downright bad Philadelphia Flyers almost nothing in a fun 5-2 home-ice victory on Wednesday night. The Caps led for the majority of the game and shut the door for good during the second period.
They easily beat a team they should easily beat. We take those.
- As I mentioned, the Capitals really put the Flyers in a cage at five-on-five, allowing them only four high-danger chances. At the other end of the rink, the Caps created 12 high-danger chances of their own in a professional, tidy, controlled win over a divisional foe. Instead of giving a flailing team life, as they did with the Los Angeles Kings, the Capitals sunk the Flyers further. Music to my ears.
- There isn’t much more to say about the Alex Tuch, Dylan Strome, and Jordan Kyrou line. Katie wrote up a postgamer on the trio last night, but we can go over some of the greatest hits. Tuch scored two more goals, giving him back-to-back two-goal games. Kyrou scored two goals, extending his point streak to five games, in which he has eight total points (3g, 5a). Strome registered three assists, giving him two consecutive three-point games and sole possession of the team lead in scoring with 12 points (3g, 9a) in 11 games. We might need someone to come up with a creative name for this line.
- The Winnipeg Jets front office and their fans had to be sick to see Jack St. Ivany put together one of the most picture-perfect Capitals debuts I’ve seen in a while. The recent waiver claim notched two assists, and I don’t think he did a single thing wrong the entire night. He played 14:43 of ice time, which is already a major plus over the alternative fill-in for Vincent Desharnais, and when he was on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals owned 74 percent of the expected goals and had a plus-four differential in high-danger chances. I’ve legitimately seen enough to say he should stay on the roster for the rest of the season. That is already a better game than Dylan McIlrath has ever had in the NHL.
- Logan Thompson stopped 23 of the 25 shots he faced in what was really a rocking-chair return to Washington’s net. According to MoneyPuck, he saved 0.48 more goals than expected, a perfectly adequate, good start. Charlie Lindgren will be back in the crease later tonight to see if he can win three straight appearances.
- Matt Roy threw nine hits and seemed to be playing with extra fire that even the officiating crew couldn’t avoid. I don’t think Spencer Carbery was very happy with Roy after those back-to-back penalties, but I do think they were truly Charmin Ultra Soft. No one goes to these games to see a ref show.
- According to Capitals PR, Washington’s 19 goals by new players (Tuch: 9; Kyrou: 4; Jenner: 4; Holl: 2) are the second most in the NHL, trailing only Toronto (23). Great work from Chris Patrick and co.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
