The Washington Capitals bounced back from their capitulating performance against the Toronto Maple Leafs with a smart and calculated shutdown of the Colorado Avalanche. Washington was 5-2 victors at the end of regulation, keeping their streak of not losing two games in a row alive.
There’s still some big work left to do on this road trip, but that was a good start.
- This game was like how the most successful games from last season went. The Avalanche only recorded three total five-on-five high-danger chances in the game and none in the third period. However, the Capitals still drew back into their shell a little too much for me and were heavily out-attempted 54-38 and out-scoring chanced 22-12. In my perfect world, we get a mix of this game and the sort of three-zone domination from earlier in the season. In the most basic sense, I want to see them have the puck more than the other team. They haven’t done that enough over the past few weeks.
- Perhaps the most impressive part about Friday night’s win was the Capitals keeping Nathan MacKinnon off the scoresheet entirely and without even one shot on goal. MacKinnon went without a point on home ice just twice last season, and this was the first time this season. He had only one game without a single shot on goal last season, and even then, he still tallied two assists in that game.
- A lot of that work on MacKinnon’s line fell to Pierre-Luc Dubois’s line. With the two groups on the ice five-on-five, the Capitals out-attempted the Avalanche 9-4 and the scoring chances were tied three apiece. There were no high-danger chances for either line. “Second line” go brrrrrrrrrrrrr.
- Charlie Lindgren let in a weird soft one to start this game but then really shut the door after that. He stopped 17 of 19 shots, earning his first career victory against Colorado. Lindgren is now 4-4-0 on the season with a 2.76 goals-against average and a .897 save percentage.
- I’ll touch more on him in another post later today, but Connor McMichael scored another two goals. Sam Reinhart (13) is the only player in the NHL with more goals than him. Reinhart (20:13) plays more than three minutes of ice time per game than McMichael (17:11).
- Rasmus Sandin scored the empty netter to seal the game. He has three goals this season in 16 games which matches his total output from last season in 68 games.
