The Washington Capitals certainly did not have their game on Thursday night in Philadelphia, but they still picked up another two points. Washington used two third-period goals to down Philly 4-3 in their last road game before the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
Great goaltending saved the Caps again. Praise be, Chuckie.
- I thought the Capitals lost all three periods of this game to the Flyers, and the stats back that up. Philadelphia recorded 16 high-danger chances in the game compared to Washington’s six. If I were Charlie Lindgren’s agent, I would just show this game over and over again. This was one of my least favorite efforts from the Caps this season. The Flyers were playing with half of an AHL lineup.
- Lindgren “only” made 19 stops in the win, but I would say the vast majority were incredibly difficult saves that gave the Capitals a chance to make their third-period comeback. The win was Chuckie’s 50th as a member of the Caps and his 12th this season. Per MoneyPuck, he only saved 0.08 goals more than expected, but I’m choosing to ignore that for this game because I truly believe the Flyers could have had nine goals if Lindgren wasn’t on.
- Alex Ovechkin scored in his fourth straight game to give him 26 goals this season and 879 in his career. He is now just 16 goals away from overtaking Wayne Gretzky for the NHL’s all-time goals lead. Ovechkin also tied Phil Esposito (1,590) for the 11th-most points in NHL history.
- Jakob Chychrun scored the game-winning goal to give him 14 total markers so far this year. Only Zach Werenski (17) and Cale Makar (20) have more goals than Chychrun from the backend in the league this season. Per the Capitals, Chychrun’s 14 goals are the most by a defenseman in his first season with the franchise, passing Larry Murphy (13).
- Lars Eller scored his 10th goal of the season and second in as many games. The Capitals are the only team in the NHL to have 10 players with 10 or more goals. Eller’s third line was great overall, posting positive differentials at five-on-five in shot attempts (+3) and high-danger chances (+1). They were also on the ice for two goals for and zero against.
- I thought Dylan Strome was very good early in the game. Strome recorded his team-leading 37th assist of the season on Ovechkin’s goal, extending his point streak to five games.
