Washington Capitals Beat Vancouver Canucks 5-2; Backstrom Scores 600th Career Assist

Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images

The Washington Capitals beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 Monday night at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British, Columbia. The win raised the Capitals record overall to 4-2-2. The Capitals return to action Thursday night when they visit the Oilers in Edmonton. Puck drop is 9:00PM ET.

The Capitals would open the scoring with a goal from John Carlson 2:20 into the first period. The Canucks would tie the game midway through the middle frame, but Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin would add tallies to give the Caps a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes of play. Alex Ovechkin would add a power play goal in the final frame to make it 4-2. T.J. Oshie would add an empty net goal for the 5-2 final.

STARTERS
Braden Holtby (3-1-1, 3.73 GAA, .881 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the Capitals. Anders Nilsson (3-1-0, 2.26 GAA, .925 sv%) got the start in goal for the Canucks. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the visiting Capitals:

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-DSP
Stephenson-Backstrom-Oshie
Vrana-Eller-Connolly
Jaskin-Dowd-Burakovsky

Orlov-Niskanen
Kempny-Carlson
Orpik-Djoos

Nathan Walker and Madison Bowey were the healthy scratches for the visiting Capitals.

FIRST PERIOD
The Capitals would strike first with a break away 4-on-4 goal from John Carlson at 2:20 of the first period. The goal was setup by a nice feed from Jakub Vrana. Dmtri Orlov was credited with the second assist.

The period would end with the Capitals leading 1-0. The Capitals outshot the Canucks 13-6 for the first 20 minutes of play.Vancouver won the battle at the dot 53-47%.

SECOND PERIOD
The Canucks stepped up the offensive zone pressure to begin the second period, and would eventually tie the game with a goal from Troy Stetcher at 7:30 of the middle frame. The shot was deflected off of Nic Dowd, who tried to stop the shot with his glove. It was Stetcher’s first goal of the season.

The Capitals would regain the lead with a power play goal from Evgeny Kuznetsov at 9:29 of the middle frame. This was Kuznetsov’s 5th goal of the season, all on the man advantage. Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson were credited with the helpers.

The Capitals would stretch their lead to 3-1 with a goal from Alex Ovechkin at 19:34 of the second period. Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie were credited with the helpers. The assist was Backstrom’s 599th career assist.

The period would end with the Capitals leading 3-1. Vancouver outshot Washington 12-11 for the second period. The Capitals led 25-18 after two periods of play.

THIRD PERIOD
The Canucks would close the gap to 3-2 with a quick power play goal from Sven Baertschi at .20 of the final frame.

Alex Ovechkin would make it 4-2 with a power play goal at 5:35 of the third period. John Carlson and Nicklas Backstrom were credited with the helpers. This was Backstrom’s 600th career NHL assist.

T.J. Oshie would add an empty net goal to make it 5-2, and that would be the final.

SHAVINGS

John Carlson gets his fifth goal of the year and his 11th point in his eighth game. He’s now on a three-game goal streak. Last year, Carlson led defensemen with 68 points. Last year, it took Carlson 15 games to reach the 11 point mark and 43 games to reach the five goal.
John Carlson’s 12 points in the first eight games makes him one of just four defensemen to record that many points in that span since 1997 (Morgan Reilly: 13, 2018-19; Bryan McCabe: 13, 2005-06; Niklas Lidstrom: 12, 1997-19), per NHL Stats.
Per NHL Stats, John Carlson is the eighth different defenseman in NHL history to record five multi-point games in his team’s first eight games and the first since Jeff Brown in the 1993-94 season. The feat has been accomplished 13 total times in NHL history.
Nicklas Backstrom registered his 599th career assist on the Ovechkin goal in the second period, and his 600th assist on the Ovechkin goal in the third period.
With his 601st assist, Nicklas Backstrom has passed Henrik Sedin (600) for the most assists since 2007-08, Backstrom’s first season in the NHL.
With a power play goal, Alex Ovechkin has passed Dino Ciccarelli (232) for 9th place on the NHL power-play goals list.
The NHL box score is here.

SCENES FROM VANCOUVER