The Washington Capitals followed up their awesome win over the Tampa Bay Lightning with two more big points on the road in Pittsburgh. The boys dressed in white found the end zone in the 6:3 victory.
This one felt good. The six different goalscorers included Marcus Johansson, Dmitry Orlov, Alex Ovechkin, Tom Wilson, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Martin Fehervary.
- This was by no means a dominant performance by the Caps in a five-on-five, but it was a brave, well-deserved victory that we should applaud. Expected goals in the game at all strengths ended up being 5.4 to 3.9 in favor of the caps, so let’s go ahead and thank some really big specials teams for playing. The Pens are now down four games in a row and the regular win puts the Caps back just four points in third place in the Metro with two games in hand.
- I was really hard on the summary Ilya Samsonov and to be fair, his first period was really awful. But in usual Samsonov fashion, he looked like a completely different goalkeeper in the final forty minutes. Sammy stopped 29 of 32 shots to earn the win, fading out Pittsburgh in those final two frames.
- I thought Dmitry Orlov was really, really, really good at this game. Orlov and partner Nick Jensen played most of their five-on-five ice time against Sidney Crosby’s line. The team still finished on a plus-4 shot attempt difference, a plus-9 shot difference, and a plus-2 goal difference with Orlov on the ice at five-for-five. Dima also continued his new singles season, career high in goals by scoring his eleventh.
The Capitals 45 shots today against the Penguins mark the most they have scored in a regular game this season.
– CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) April 9, 2022
- Alex Ovechkin scored again and is still on track to hit 50 by the end of this season. His 774th career goal earned him points against 158 different career goalies — the fourth most in NHL history.
- Guess whose line was statistically the best for the 5v5 caps. If your guess was Connor McMichael‘s, you are right and I appreciate your knowledge. With that “third” line on the ice at five-on-five, the Caps held a plus-8 shot attempt differential, a plus-3 scoring odds differential, and a plus-3 high threat odds differential. The kid just constantly and consistently helps cause offense when he’s on the ice, even if it’s not exactly flashy and noticeable. I also love that TJ Oshie rides shotgun with him. This combo just works.
- Tom Wilson threw eight goals, made four saves, took a penalty, made fun of Jake Guentzel and scored two points in the game. The first of those points was the game-winning goal, in which he looked away from Ovi and flicked the top shelf on an odd-man break.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.