Thursday night the boys from D.C. headed down to Seattle to face the Kraken who have had their number as of late in the Emerald City.
It was an uneventful 1st period and it felt like both teams were playing timid because no one wanted to make the first mistake. It was nice to see Miroshnichenko throwing the body around tonight but aside from that the 1st was a snoozer.
It wasn’t till late in the 2nd with the Caps on the power-play when the Seattle goalie and former Sun Devil Joey Daccord made the bone head play of the night. Daccord played the puck to the left of the goal and went to clear it toward the center of the ice and as he shot the puck at crashing TJ Oshie knocked the puck down for an easy goal to give the Caps the 1-0 lead at the end of 2.
The Caps have scored a power-play goal in 9 of their last 10 games.
Oshie a native of Everett, Washington notched his first goal against the Kraken
Early into the second on the Seattle offensive transition they were able to tie the game at 1 with some gritty offense and solid puck movement to best Lindgren who was great tonight.
Then came around 8 minutes left in the game Seattle was going to cycle the puck at the blueline and a miscue I see a lot in beer league where you think the D-man is going to take the puck and then no one takes the puck, which is where McMichael took advantage of the mistake and on the breakaway and with a little forehand backhand dangles gives the Caps the 2-1 lead and the eventual game winner.
This was McMichael’s 3rd game winning goal this season which is tied for 2nd on the team. Connor is really coming into his own and the confidence is growing.
Also, both Capital goals went unassisted, but were really apples from the Kraken players.
As I mentioned Charlie Lindgren was great again tonight and over his last 4 starts he has stopped 119 of 124 shots for a .960 save percentage with a 1.25 gaa.
After the games had concluded last night, the Capitals stand at (31-25-9, 71 pts. in 65 GP) and trail the Detroit Red Wings (33-27-6, 72 pts. in 66 GP) and the New York Islanders (29-22-14, 72 pts. in 65 GP) by one point for the final Wild Card position in the Eastern Conference.
Nice solid win and the Caps not have to head back across the border again and play a stellar Vancouver Canucks team who for some reason not many people are giving them their flowers for how good they are this season.
The Morning Skate 