As an Arizona resident and living around 5 minutes away from Mullett Arena I was lucky enough to be in attendance for Thursday nights 4-0 shutout vs the Arizona Coyotes or should I say Coyotes University (see what I did there).
For a Thursday night there weren’t many empty seats, but there were TONS of red sweaters in attendance and Caps fans were loud (me included). If you want a more detailed read on my experience watching an NHL game I wrote a blog about my first impression attending a game at Mullett. https://morning-skate.com/2022/12/12/the-mullett-arena-coyotes-experience/
Overall the Caps dominated all facets of the game from forwards, faceoffs, defense and goaltending.
Specifically the former Yotes put on a show tonight with Dylan Strome and Darcy Kuemper leading the way.
Darcy is starting to play to the caliber of what we are paying him and now leads the NHL with 5 goose-eggs on the season and 30 career shutouts for the man in between the pipes. Kuemps was locked in all night and the only mistake he made was a goal that he gave up but was eventually ruled offsides after review.
Former 3rd overall draft pick by the Coyotes Dylan Strome started the scoring off with a beautiful deflection goal off a shot from the blue line to give the Caps an 1-0 lead in the first.
This was Strome’s 10th goal of the season and his second straight game with a goal.
Then our fluffy haired friend Sonny Milano got on the scoresheet in the 2nd with a quick tap pass from Wilson and Sonny with the quick trigger beat the AZ goalie.
On the goal Nicklas Backstrom had a secondary assist on the play which now gives Backy 750 career assists.
Then it cam slick Willy’s turn with a rocket wrister from the point by Orlov Stanley Cup Champion Tom Wilson was able to get his stick on the puck where it trickled into the back of the net.
Then knock knock guess who it is again Dylan Strome after serving a second penalty out of the box got his second goal against his former squad. Off a MJ90 shot rebound Kuzy corralled the puck then dished to Stromer for the finish.
This was also Strome’s second multi-goal game of the season and now has 5 goals and 2 assists in 11 games versus the team that drafted him.
Kuznetsov with this assist now gives him 376 career apples which passed Dale Hunter for the 6 most assists in Capital’s history.
Washington now has 5 shutouts on the season and are tied with the Hurricanes for most in the NHL.
When the Caps are firing on all cylinders they are an extremely dangerous team. I am not going to lie I was a little nervous since the Coyotes are an inferior team the Capitals would play down to their level because that has been a trend against the bottom of the barrel this season but tonight was not the case at all!
My only question I had is why the heck do we have Nicolas Aube-Kuble on the same line as Ovechkin, put a better skilled guy on Ovi’s line and let Auble-Kuble play 3rd or 4th line minutes seems dumb to have him on that line in my opinion due to the lack of scoring opportunities.
Also, it still baffles my mind how were able to get guys like Milano and Strome for basically a bag of pucks. I know I know it could be just right place right time situation but man these two are fun to watch play hockey.
The Capitals are now 9-1-0 in their last 10 road games reaching back to December 5th and in that span they have outscored their opponents 43-20 not to shabby.
Also Ovi hasn’t scored in three games so if your a betting man put the house on him scoring one this Saturday!
The Capitals will stay out west for this roadie where they head to Sin City to play the Golden Knights next on Saturday so you East coast folks put some extra beer in the fridge and get the late menus locked and loaded.
The Morning Skate 