The Washington Capitals made it 14 straight games earning a
standings point on Monday night with a 6-1 win over the Carolina
Hurricanes. It was a 60-minute exercise
in just about everyone contributing in different ways consistent with their
roles.
The unusual part of the game came in the fifth minute when
it was Carolina that opened the scoring.
With T.J. Oshie in the penalty box, the Hurricanes scored on the ensuing
power play, Jordan Staal converting a feed from Elias Lindholm to snap a shot
over the glove of goalie Braden Holtby from between the hash marks.
After that is was all Caps.
Dmitry Orlov tied the game at the 11:49 mark on a power play for
Washington. The Caps worked the puck
around the right side, but finding no openings for a shot, Andre Burakovsky
worked the puck around the back of the net to Evgeny Kuznetsov in the opposite
corner. Kuznetsov fed the puck out to
Orlov for a one-timer from the top of the left wing faceoff circle, and the
puck found its way off a Carolina defender and past goalie Cam Ward to make it
1-1.
Just over five minutes later, Washington took the lead for
good. Matt Niskanen started the play by
sliding the puck off to Karl Alzner circling around the left point. Alzner dropped the puck off for Justin
Williams turning behind him, and Williams sent a floater from the point that
snuck through a maze of players and past Ward at the 17:05 mark.
Orlov got his second of the game eight minutes into the
third period. Burakovsky worked the puck
down the right wing wall, turned, and skated back out where he found Brett
Connoily with a cross-ice pass. Connolly
touch passed the puck back to the middle
for another Orlov one-timer that beat Ward cleanly to make it 3-1 with 8:06
gone in the period.
Late in the period, Williams skated down the right side and
left the puck for Kuznetsov trailing.
Kuznetsov stepped up and wristed a shot that was blocked. Kuznetsov followed up the shot and from the
low slot snapped a shot past Ward to make it 4-1. At the 18:40 mark of the period, the rout was
on.
T.J. Oshie joined the scoring parade 13 minutes into the
third period. Nicklas Backstrom nudged the puck into the Carolina zone where
Alex Ovechkin picked it up. Ovechkin
skated it down the left side, then fed it across to Oshie barreling down the
middle. One stick move put the puck on
his backhand, and he flipped it over the right pad of Ward to make it 5-1 at
the 13:30 mark.
Lars Eller closed the scoring following up a rebound of a
Nat Schmidt shot, beating Ward from low in the right wing circle at 17:13 to
send Caps fans home happy.
Other stuff…
-- Five different skaters had goals, and 12 skaters had
points for the Caps. Everyone except the
fourth line of Jay Beagle, Daniel Winnik, and Tom Wilson, plus defenseman
Taylor Chorney finished in plus territory. Those four players were even.
-- Nicklas Backstrom recorded a point in his tenth straight
game, over which he is 4-13-17, plus-6.
-- With a goal and an assist, Justin Williams continued his
strong offensive play. Over his last 15
games he is 10-7-17, plus-14.
-- The same could be said for Evgeny Kuznetsov. Recording a goal and an assist of his own,
Kuznetsov is now 4-12-16, plus-11, in his last 11 games.
-- Alex Ovechkin recorded a point in his eighth straight
game, over which he is 4-9-13, plus-5. He has not gone consecutive games without a
point since Games 22-24 to start December.
In 23 games since then, he is 10-15-25, plus-8.
-- The six goals made it six time in the Caps’ last 13 games
that they scored six or more goals. In
those 13 games, the Caps have 64 goals (4.92 per game).
-- The Caps outscored Carolina, 5-0, at 5-on-5. That upped their goals for/goals against at
fives to 110-60, their plus-50 at 5-on-5 by far the best in the league.
-- In other players playing their roles, Jay Beagle didn’t
have a point, but he did win 12 of 19 faceoffs (63.2 percent).
-- The same could be said for Lars Eller, who finally seems
to be getting into a groove. Eller had a goal, won nine of 14 faceoffs (64.3
percent), skated more than three minutes of shorthanded ice time, and finished
a plus-2.
-- In other role-playing news, there was Tom Wilson with
four hits and Karl Alzner with four hits and five blocked shots. Alzner added two assists, his first multi-point
game of the season.
In the end…
The win was so complete as to be almost boring. Well, not really, but this is an unreal run
that the Caps are on at the moment. And
this was the sort of game where fine performances might get lost, like Andre Burakovsky
recording three assists, his high for the season and first three-assist game of
his career. Braden Holtby looked sharp,
stopping 25 of 26 shots and shrugging off a couple of sub-par
performances. Seven of their last ten
games have been wins by three or more goals.
Wrap it all up, and over almost half a season – the last 23 of 47 games
played so far – the Caps are 18-3-2. You’re
seeing the game about as well as you are going to see it played in the NHL this
season.
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