Washington welcomed in the Kings of LA on Sunday for their annual one road game in D.C..
The Kings quietly have been one of the best teams in the league when it comes to puck possession and the Caps held their own against the scrappy LA squad.
After an un-eventful 1st period Nic Down scored his 6th goal of the season on a 2 on 1 rush who beat the tendy with a nice backhanded flick to give the boys a 1-0 lead early in the 2nd.
Dowd has scored in back to back games and 4 points in his last five.
Then Kings then scored 2 unanswered before the Caps tied it back up from the slumping Dylan Strome who FINALLY was put back on the line with Ovi where he has been at his best all season. Trust the old saying if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
The team leading goal scorer Strome is a bonified All-Star and should be invited to Toronto plain and simple just keep him on the Ovi line for the love of God.
Ovechkin who has been quiet in the goal department this season recorded the primary assist on Strome’s goal extending his point streak to 5 games and now has 18 apples on the season.
Going into the 3rd tied at 2 the Kings took the lead early going up a goal before the 4th line started to shine.
Nic Aube-Kubel was able to tie the game 3 with a wicked wrister for his 4th geno of the season and his 10th career multi point game.
With less than a minute left in the game John Carlson from close to the point ripped a low snap shot to beat the Kings goalie and to seal the win for the boys.
With Johnny’s goal he ties Sergei Gonchar at 144 goals which is 2nd by a defensemen in franchise history. Next is Kevin Hatcher at 149 so Carlson has a great chance to be the Capitals goal scoring by seasons end.
Thank god we were able to finish this game out as a win against the Kings who are 2nd best when it comes to 5v5 puck control and the Caps are 29th (not great).
For some stupid reason Carbery is insistent on putting Kuznetsov as the center for Ovi’s line which is less than productive compared to when Strome is on that line. Finally, he made the change and reunited Strome and Ovi and it instantly paid dividends.
Darcy Kuemper did what he needed to do to secure the win minus a weak rebound goal that he gave up to Fiala.
Lastly, the Caps penalty kill has really struggled and has allowed 8 goals in 7 games since Santa came down the chimney.
A couple things to takeaway from this clip below, Pacioretty if he stays healthy can really help this team and regardless for a guy who is knew to this team saying they all like each other is HUGE. Also, Wilson looks like he just defended a belt in the UFC (still a beauty though).
The boys get a nice little 3 day break from games. Especially for guys like Wilson whos face was mangled from a hit last night, any rest is good rest.
The Capitals are back in action Thursday against the Kraken.
The Morning Skate 