There’s something about Montreal that brings the best out of Alex Ovechkin. Monday night, Ovechkin had another big night at Bell Center, tallying three points and bringing his career point total to 999.
Ovechkin also scored his 544th career goal, tying Maurice Richard for 29th all time.
After the game, Ovechkin posed with the milestone puck.
Nicklas Backstrom was already the Washington Capitals’ franchise leader in assists. On Saturday, Nicky registered his 500th career apple, making him the second-fastest Swede and the 139th player of all-time to reach that threshold (68 of those players are in the Hall of Fame).
The enormity of the moment was not lost on his teammates. After Oshie one-timed Backstrom’s pass into back of the net, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin celebrated, raising his arms with glee. As he approached his teammates’ goal hug, Ovechkin suddenly remembered Backstrom’s milestone and picked up the puck.
We know this because we found footage of that fateful moment from the overhead goal cam.
From winning the Vezina Trophy to “getting” into a fight, Braden Holtby has seemingly done everything a goalie can do during his time in Washington, minus winning the Stanley Cup and scoring a goal.
Well, courtesy of the NHL Public Relation’s twitter, Holtby had another first tonight. With his 30-save outing against Ottawa Saturday, Holtby posted back-to-back shutouts for the first time in his NHL career.
Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom was the hero Saturday night in Ottawa. Backstrom’s 500th career NHL assist would prove to be the difference maker in the Caps’ 1-0 victory over the Senators.
After the game, Backstrom posed with milestone puck along with the goalscorer, TJ Oshie, and the other assist man, Nate Schmidt.
Now, on Saturday, we had no 16-game winning streak on the line, but standings points count the same no matter who you beat. The Ottawa Senators aren’t a good team so you might have expected a letdown in the Caps play, and we did see of some that through three periods, but thanks to excellent goaltending the Caps pulled out another two points.
Trevor Jenkins Oshie put the Caps up 1-0 early, and his goal also involved the 500th assist of Nicklas Backstrom’s career. Well done, Nicky. The rest of the first was a bunch of cycling in the Senators zone and a few outside shots against Braden Holtby that he easily handled. Shots were 10-5 Ottawa.
The second period came and went without anything notable on the score-sheet outside of the two teams exchanging power plays. The Senators had a couple great late chances including a ping off the crossbar from Erik Karlsson, but Braden Holtby was elite, per usual. Shots 21-13 Ottawa (yuck).
The third period was pretty much more of the same. A few Caps rush chances here, a few Sens shots from the outside there. We were still locked at 1-0 through the first ten minutes. Braden Holtby held down the fort for the last ten minutes earning his second straight shutout.
Caps beat Senators 1-0!
By Chris Cerullo 6 years ago
Let me catch you up: TJ Oshie had a shoulder injury in November. He came back in December and played great. Then, on Saturday night, Oshie got hit in the shoulder by Dion Phaneuf. Oshie went to the locker room for a bit. Then he came back and seemed alright.
Now that you’re all caught up, Dion Phaneuf hit TJ Oshie again, and Oshie is apparently hurt. Again.
As of Saturday night, Caps forward TJ Oshie has 13 goals to his name, which even more impressive when you realize he missed 7 games to injury.
A collision with Ottawa’s Dion Phaneuf put Oshie’s season at risk again, but Oshie has powered through.
Saturday night in Ottawa wasn’t two minutes old when Nicklas Backstrom recorded his 500th career assist on TJ Oshie’s opening goal.
The Caps are fresh off a streak-busting win against Columbus and currently have a four-game winning streak of their own. They’ll look to push the streak to five tonight as they visit Ottawa for a battle of the nation’s capitals. The Sens have a solid 44 points in 37 games, but a juggernaut they aren’t. The Caps can pick up two points tonight to try to keep pace in the excellent Metro division.
Puck drop is at 7 PM on CSN
| Team | Record | SA% | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ottawa Senators | 20-13-4 | 47.4% | 99.8 | 16.0% | 82.5% |
| Washington Capitals | 24-9-5 | 53.5% | 102.7 | 16.7% | 87.9% |
By Patrick Holden 6 years ago
