The Washington Capitals spent more than 36 hours in beautiful British Columbia before playing Vancouver in order to get accustomed to the late western time zone. That gave them time to catch up with old friend and now injured Canuck Jay Beagle as he was presented his Stanley Cup ring.
They wanted to get off to a quick start and going to BC early looked to pay dividends and shortly after a big hit on Alex Edler by Alex Ovechkin the Capitals got on the board. John Carlson scored his 5th on a beautiful feed from Jakub Vrana at 2:20 to make it 1-0 during 4 on 4 hockey. Carlson will continue to garner Norris Trophy attention as he plays in all situations leading the Caps in ice-time. Vrana is playing with a lot of confidence and continues to build off last year’s playoffs. He’s playing quick and has shown he can drive the play on his own. The pass he made reminds me Backstrom with the soft touch. With his speed he is forcing defenders off and opening up ice allowing him even more time to make plays. If he can prove to Coach Reirden he can lower his stick penalties he’ll have a home in Washington’s top six for years to come.
The Capitals played a strong period and had 24 shot attempts while Vancouver only 10. Outshooting the Canucks 13-6 goalie Anders Nilsson made some key saves with some help from the pipe as TJ Oshie fired a snapper from the slot off the crossbar keeping the game 1-0 after one. Andre Burakovsky playing on the 4th line made a huge hit midway through the period as he tries to find ways to get involved as he came into the game pointless in seven.
Wait.... was that .... it couldn’t be.... it is.... Burky laying the body. #AllCaps pic.twitter.com/3CjAM8S61j
— Marcus Boutilier (@SportMajor) October 23, 2018
The second period started off much differently. The Canucks were much more engaged and took the play to the Caps. Holtby made a few nice saves but an unfortunate bounce off Nic Dowd’s glove redirected by Holtby to tie the game 1-1. The goalie could do nothing and would have easily made the save had Dowd not reached for the shot.
The Capitals got the momentum back however as Evgeny Kuznetsov scored his 5th of the year to make it 2-1 at 9:29 on the PP. All of his goals have come with the man advantage so far. What is curious about the goal was that Carlson passed off to a one-timing Kuzy on the right side instead of Ovechkin from his office on the left. This, along with Carlson and Ovechkin switching sides on the go is going to create fits for opposing PK teams focused on Ovechkin. The Caps may have a better PP now then they have had ever and that’s saying something as they’ve been near the league lead over the past 10 years. Kuznetsov has added another dimension and Carlson’s increasing comfort level in passing or shooting is making the five man unit a nightmare for goalies. Since 2007-08 the Capitals have more PP goals than any other team with 666. Any coincidence that this was Nicklas Backstrom’s rookie year? I think not.
Alex Ovechkin made it 3-1 scoring his 7th goal of the year at 19:34. The Russian Machine crashed the net and scored when the puck bounced of his leg after a centering pass by Backstrom. After a rough first half of the period the Caps held the two goal lead at the 2nd intermission.
Starting the 3rd on the PK the Caps gave up an early PP goal strike at 19:40 by Sven Baertschi who buried a rebound off a Brock Boeser shot high in the cage to make it 3-2. But the Canucks then took two penalties in succession and the Capitals made them pay on the second one as Ovechkin buried his 8th of the year from his office on the PP to make it 4-2.
The Caps put the game away when TJ Oshie scored his 5th into an empty net to give the Caps a 5-2 win. Holtby finished with 22 saves in a strong game particularly early in the second. Caps PP finished 2/4 registering their 12th goal to lead the NHL in PP goals.
Next up for the Caps is high flying Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday at 9 EST from Rogers Place.
Capital Gain:
On the Ovechkin PP goal in the 2nd Nicklas Backstrom registered his 600th career assist becoming the 9th Swede to accomplish that feat.