The Washington Capitals were disappointed with their effort against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday, and they vented their frustration at the St. Louis Blues. When the final buzzer sounded on Saturday night, your Caps were 8-1 victors.
Well, you can’t ask for much better than that after the loss to the Pens. Bailamos.
- I was a little concerned with how things were going through two periods of this game, considering the Capitals had played the night prior, but they shut me up real quick in the third. Believe it or not, this is already the second time the Capitals have scored five goals in one period this season after they ambushed the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first period just over a week ago. Washington scored five or more goals in an entire game just 10 times last year and never scored more than six in one game.
- Alex Ovechkin stayed red hot, finding the back of the net twice. Ovechkin now sits just 31 goals shy of tying Wayne Gretzky for a share of the NHL’s all-time goals lead. The Great Eight is tied for second in the league in goals with 10, just one back of William Nylander, Sam Reinhart, and Nikita Kucherov. He is on pace to score 58 goals if he keeps this up. I sure hope he does.
- Dylan Strome assisted on both goals, as he has for all of Ovechkin’s markers this season. Strome, who could probably write these posts better than me with how he keeps track of the team’s stats, is tied for fourth in total points leaguewide with his 22 (4g, 18a) in 14 games. His 18 assists trail just Nathan MacKinnon (19) for the league lead and he is on pace for an absurd 128 points (23g, 105a).
- Logan Thompson won his seventh start in a row to begin his tenure with the Capitals. He is the first goaltender in franchise history to win their first seven games with the club, separating himself from Tomas Vokoun (6). Thompson made 24 saves on 25 shots in the win and, per MoneyPuck, stopped 1.75 goals above expected.
- Jakob Chychrun skated 18:43 in his return to the team’s lineup. The 26-year-old blueliner recorded two points (1g, 1a), took a minor penalty, and blocked two shots. More importantly, as you can tell by the impact card, he reformed his tremendously successful pairing with John Carlson.
- Connor McMichael is one of just 10 players in the NHL with 10 or more goals this season after he potted two more in this game. Here are the nine other names on that list: Nikita Kucherov, Sam Reinhart, William Nylander, Alex Ovechkin, Artemi Panarin, Tage Thompson, Nico Hischier, Cole Caufield, Leon Draisaitl. So, um, when do we start talking about McMichael and Strome for Team Canada?
- The Capitals power play…scored…TWICE!? All it took was an 8-1 rout, but hey, you’ll take them any way you can get them.
