The Washington Capitals laid a statistical beatdown on the New York Rangers in their meeting at Capital One Arena on Tuesday. Washington’s stat sheet was full of brilliant individual performances, but perhaps none were more prominent and eye-popping than Connor McMichael’s.
The 23-year-old center, just days removed from becoming a father for the first time, fired an Ovechkian 10 shots on goal to go along with 16 individual shot attempts, 12 individual scoring chances, eight individual high-danger chances, and a goal — his fourth of the year. Coming into the night, his previous single-game career-high in shots was six.
“I thought he was all over the ice,” head coach Spencer Carbery said postgame. “Could have had four goals. Breakaways, the play on the two-on-one is a great play. Shesterkin makes a real good save on it, but for him to have that poise and pull it around – he was really, really good tonight.”
Carbery also saluted McMichael in his typical rousing post-game speech in the locker room. “And 10 shots on goal for f***ing Mikey,” he yelled, garnering huge cheers from his teammates.
“Ovechkian” truly fits McMichael’s performance. Per Capitals Outsider’s tracking, McMichael’s 10-shot game was just the 102nd double-digit shot game by a player in franchise history, and Ovechkin owns over half of them with 53. McMichael’s one game is just 12 behind second-place Peter Bondra (13).
McMichael created a game-leading 1.69 individual expected goals in the 5-3 win. His previous high this season was 0.45 against the Vegas Golden Knights, and his previous career high was 1.00 against the New York Islanders on November 2, 2023.
“I would have liked to have a couple more [goals], but it’s good we’re creating chances,” McMichael said. “I thought our line was really good tonight, turning them over and getting a lot of second-chance looks. So, yeah, like I said, we wanted to pot a few more for sure, getting that many looks, but yeah, it worked out.”
McMichael’s line was far and away Washington’s best in the win. They absolutely dominated their shifts in what Carbery deemed the toughest matchup of the game against Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck’s line. With McMichael on the ice five-on-five, the Capitals held positive differentials in shot attempts (+22), shots (+14), scoring chances (+12), and high-danger chances (+7).
The unit didn’t give up a single high-danger chance, keeping Panarin without a point for the first time in nine games this season. Overall, the line has been one of the NHL’s best over this early stretch of games.
“I think it shows the rest of the league that we’re here to play,” McMichael said. “And we’re not backing down from anyone; we can play with anyone. And I think our team’s off to a really good start, and we just wanna keep that going.
“We were all around the net, making it as tough as possible. And Shesterkin, he made a lot of good saves, but we tried making it as hard as possible, and I thought we did a really good job of that.”
Through eight games, McMichael is second on the Capitals in scoring with nine points (4g, 5a). He and Dylan Strome (11 points), the team’s leader, are the only two players producing at a point-per-game rate. McMichael set his single-season career-high last year with 33 points in 80 games. If he were to play 80 games again this year, he’d be on pace for a staggering 90 points.
The team’s 2019 first-round draft selection appears to finally be on the way to a breakout campaign in the league after playing in 155 games over the past four seasons. The only thing that could be standing in his way of more present success is a newborn keeping him up at night, but he may have found a solution for that, too.
“I had a good nap today, that felt way better,” McMichael said.
