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The Washington Capitals headed into the 2023 All-Star Game break with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets, a crucial two-point gain that puts the team 27-20-6 and fourth place in the Metropolitan Division.
Head Coach Peter Laviolette analyzed the state of the team, his approach to overtime, and secondary scoring from players other than the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and the team’s top players in his weekly appearance on The Sports Junkies.
The Caps’ overtime victory came just 26 seconds into the extra frame, thanks to a goal from Kuznetsov. The 3-on-3 format gives players more room to operate and coaches with the challenge of putting the right players together on the ice.
“It starts first for me, whoever is best in the faceoff circle”, explained the third-year Washington bench boss, “And…it’s all about possession. That faceoff is so important anytime they drop it, that’s automatic possession. If you think about 3-on-3, sometimes you hang onto that puck for a minute, minute and a half…and so the possession is really important. So usually we’ll go to the top faceoff guy, or someone’s doing really well against somebody, we’ll send that guy out on the ice…”
The Capitals’ win on the final day of January came in part, thanks to a two-goal performance from defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk, who recorded his first career multi-goal game, in addition to setting a new career-high in Goals.
“It is good, I think you need contributions from everybody”, Laviolette said, “Some nights the numbers don’t come from that you mention you’re expecting. Maybe more to score, but everybody kind of lives by the same rules the way we play the game, they’re all talented guys. It’s nice to see guys like TvR get a couple goals, Hath’s [Garnet Hathaway] pass has been good, that line has been good, and it’s nice to see them chip in.”
The Capitals’ performance in the final month of 2022 saw the team close the month of December going 11-2-2 (.800), however the club struggled in the month of January, finishing the inaugural month of the New Year with a 6-7-1 record.
“I think the one number that stands out, the one that stands out from December to January, is shooting percentage. We were dropping a lot of goals in the net, and scoring four goals a game. We were pretty tight defensively, that number was low, so when you’re generating offense and your shooting percentage is high and you’re playing good defense, you’re going to win hockey games.”
“That’s probably the one thing that sticks out for me, I thought there’s some games we could have played better in front of our goaltenders defensively, and then just the shooting percentage we’ve got to find ways to get those pucks to drop.”
To hear Laviolette’s full comments, see below: