The Washington Capitals lost 4-1 to the New York Islanders and yet had one of the best days in franchise history on Sunday afternoon. Alex Ovechkin is the new goal-scoring king. The chase is over.
Now, I get to throw ice water on the fun and talk about how bad the Caps were despite all of the happiness.
- We’ll start with the good stuff, though. Alex Ovechkin scored his 895th career goal, leaping over Wayne Gretzky for sole possession of the NHL’s all-time goals record. The goal came against Ilya Sorokin, one of only 29 goaltenders coming into the game who had faced a shot from Ovechkin without giving up a goal. Sorokin can claim that no more, as he is now number 183 on Ovi’s list.
- Ovechkin is the tenth man in the history of the NHL to hold the all-time lead in goals since the league’s inception. To go back to the first actual outright leader, Newsy Lalonde, you need to stretch all the way back to February 22, 1921. Fun fact: his real name was actually Edouard Charles Lalonde. We really need to go back to calling people random things and that just becoming their name. Lalonde earned his moniker by starting out as a reporter for a couple of Canadian newspapers.
- Tom Wilson and Dylan Strome earned the assists on the record-breaking tally. For Wilson, it’s his 50th career assist on an Ovechkin goal, and for Strome, it’s his 47th. I like to think that Nicklas Backstrom did some sort of Professor Snape watching Quidditch move and controlled Strome for a moment because it makes me feel better. Some people are not going to get that reference and will think I’m insane.
- Okay, now the other stuff. I’m willing to give the Capitals a break because these past two games have been an unbelievable emotional dump. However, their performances have been trending in this direction recently. While I acknowledge that a lot of their struggles are goaltending-based, I don’t love everything I’m seeing at five-on-five in front of the goalies, either. In this game, the offense-starved Isles controlled more of the five-on-five high-danger chances (12-9) and expected goals (2.48-2.34). The Islanders are not good. The Capitals need to spank them in their return game on April 15.
- I’ve been pointing out what I love about Ryan Leonard’s start to his Capitals career, so it’s only fair that I point out his first big-time NHL stumble. This game wasn’t good for him. He really struggled with the Islanders’ suffocating neutral zone strategy. With him on the ice at five-on-five, the Caps saw negative differentials in shot attempts (-5), scoring chances (-4), and high-danger chances (-4). Let me be clear, though – he’ll be fine. These things happen to the best players in the league who have played 10 seasons. It’ll be learning lesson for film review.
- Charlie Lindgren allowed four goals on just 22 shots faced. The defense wasn’t good on really any of the goals, but you’d love it if he could pull one or two back. That’s what Logan Thompson was doing for the team earlier this season. Now, neither of them are doing it, and Thompson is hurt for an undetermined amount of time. I feel like the team being so uncertain in net with just five games left before the playoffs is a huge worry.
