With the injury bug crushing the Caps this season more than it seems ever before it feels like everyday we are getting someone back from injury which almost feels like a free trade acquisition at this point because of how hobbled the Capitals have been so far.
Monday night the Capitals put on a solid performance vs the high octane offense that is McJesus and Co. which resulted in a 3-2 win for the boys in white!
After a pretty uneventful first period the Caps were still able to pepper the Oiler’s goalie with a 22 shot output, 10 hits, and 0/1 on the powerplay.
The Oilers got on the board first early in the 2nd period.
Then the Tiger formally known as Lars evened the score with a nice little backhand forehand dangle in front to beat the tendy from a turnover deflection pass from Milano.
The Oilers then took the lead again to go up 2-1 on a shorthanded goal. Carlson had the puck near the blue line and went to dump the puck in on the powerplay but it was a weak pathetic pass right in front of McDavid which you can’t make that mistake near and he made us pay immediately scoring on an easy breakaway goal Lindgren has no chance.
Then the Caps tied it back up on a nice tic tac toe pass from Kuzy to Strome to Oshie who ripped the pass top cheese for an easy game tying goal.
At the end of 2 the Caps were outshooting the Oilers 41 to 19 which is huge given how offense heavy Edmonton is. The Caps were taking the pucks in deep pucks on net saying seriously last night.
Then we have the GWG (game winning goal) that sealed the deal for the Caps from Nic Dowd who was given the easy goal chance from a beautiful selfless play by Aliaksei Protas who was on a semi breakaway but instead of taking the backhand goal chance last second he dropped the pass back to Dowd who was wide open for an easy wrister to give the Caps the final lead of the game.
The Capitals leave Canada with all smiles and that usually doesn’t happen often when you are playing Connor McDavid especially when he scores in that same game.
Overall Charlie Lindgren had an above average performance last night stopping 28 out of 30 shots which gave him his 3rd win of the season and 2nd vs the Oilers not too shabby.
Like I mentioned earlier in the season if we were relying on Lindgren to win a bunch of games we would be in trouble but him winning when Kuemper needs a night off is huge!
The Capitals have also killed off 54 of 64 powerplays in their last 22 games which ranks 2nd in the NHL in that time frame. Love to see that stat so lets hope we keep that energy on the penalty kill going forward.
Last nights win adds to the Capital’s record when they score 3 or more goals they are now 11-1-1 this season.
I have to mention it would be interesting to see if the Caps deal either Carlson or Mantha for some younger pieces more so Carlson than Mantha but I am unsure how much value we could get for either of them at this time to be honest.
Overall, great effort from the boys to get the win but need them to have this effort every game rather than every 3 games, but this game is a tourniquet on what is a deeper puncture wound the Caps have had as of late.
The Capitals are back in action against the Flyers tomorrow!
The Morning Skate 