The Washington Capitals were able to enact a modicum of revenge against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night. Jalen Chatfield got fed by Brandon Duhaime, and the Caps picked up two points with their 5-4 shootout victory.
Definitely not a great start to the game, but they really turned things around in the second half.
- Look, we all know the first period was a mess. The Capitals managed just 10 shot attempts compared to Carolina’s 34. However, that’s also just how the Hurricanes play. I’m not going to tell you that the Caps were anything but bad to start the game, but I think they and Charlie Lindgren really stemmed the tide for the most part. Carolina only managed three five-on-five high-danger chances in the first. For literally what felt like never touching the puck for 15 straight minutes, that’s pretty excellent defense.
- Carolina is a team that throws anything and everything at the net. We all know that. They finished the game with 70 five-on-five attempts compared to the Capitals’ 49. In many games, you’d expect a bloodbath on the scoreboard if you saw that, but against the Canes, you can often exploit the fact that they are constantly getting rid of the puck in favor of throwing rubber on net. And that’s exactly what the Caps did in the second and third. While Carolina still held their big lead in shot attempts, the Capitals finished 16-4 leaders in five-on-five high-danger chances in the final 40 minutes and recorded 57.6 percent of the expected goals across the full 60 minutes. The back half of the game sure felt more like what the game plan was coming into the night.
- Pierre-Luc Dubois getting the power play on the board late in the first was also huge. He now has five career 20-goal seasons and a new single-season career high in points with 64 (20g, 44a) this year. I thought this was one of his best games in recent weeks. He was all over the puck in all three zones.
- Alex Ovechkin was properly honored before the game and responded by delivering his most physical performance of the season. He was credited with four hits, and all four were of the bone-crunching variety. He also picked up the primary assist on Dylan Strome’s goal, giving him a 70-point season (42g, 28a) for the 14th time in his career.
- Rasmus Sandin picked up the slack left by Jakob Chychrun missing out due to illness, playing a game-high 27:28 of ice time. He was a tough luck minus-3 in the win because I don’t think he was bad at all. He also picked up an assist on the Dubois goal, threw a hit, and blocked two shots.
- Tom Wilson scored two goals in the game, one into the correct net. The correct-net goal was his 33rd of the season and, per Capitals PR, his 33 goals are the most by a Capital other than Alex Ovechkin since TJ Oshie scored 33 goals during the 2016-17 campaign.
- Charlie Lindgren had spurts of excellence to keep the Capitals ahead in the game, but I also think he’s still having trouble seeing the puck well. He battled through it, though, stopping 30 of the 34 shots he faced. Per MoneyPuck, he saved 0.92 fewer goals than expected, which matches what my eyes saw.
