Photo: X/@Capitals
The Washington Capitals had their biggest test of the young season taking on the red hot Vegas Golden Knights. Charlie Lindgren was the difference, stopping 35 shots and the Caps would get their first shutout victory of the season.
The Capitals (8-4-2) have now won three straight games for the second time this season.
Here is how it went down.
PERIOD 1
Prior to Tuesday’s matchup, the Caps’ power play was 0-for-16 in their last six games. They had a chance to end the drought but came up empty.
Dylan McIlrath and Keegan Kolesar dropped the mitts and the Hershey captain got the better of Kolesar. This all ensued after the big defenseman laid out Golden Knights forward Jonas Rondbjerg.
Dylan McIlrath delivers a HUGE hit and then answers the call 👊 pic.twitter.com/fc9K1bkSYY
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) November 15, 2023
After Lindgren denied William Karlsson on a breakaway, the Caps went to work. Sonny Milano sent a perfect bank pass to Dylan Strome to force a two-on-one with Matthew Phillips. Strome rifled a puck over the far side of Logan Thompson giving the Caps a 1-0 lead. It was Strome’s team-leading seventh tally of the season and he also broke a five-game goalless drought.
Seven goals for Stromer pic.twitter.com/e32GQHHqh8
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 15, 2023
Washington got another power-play heading into the second period. The Golden Knights outshot the Caps 15-12.
PERIOD 2
The Caps had 53 seconds of power play time to work with, but once again came up empty. Vegas forward Paul Cotter was assessed a match penalty for a check to the head on Evgeny Kuznetsov. He eventually went to the locker room.
Washington was put on the man-advantage for five minutes and had four shots, a bulk of them towards the end of the two minutes.
#ALLCAPS MCMICHAEL HAS ARRIVED, the finishing hasnt arrived yet but pic.twitter.com/LMBU8Rw7rU
— Capitals Replays (@capsreplays) November 15, 2023
Shortly after the long power play, Lucas Johansen headed to the sin bin for a hold. Vegas came up empty and the Caps PK remained perfect. Johansen had a great defensive play breaking up a three-on-one odd-man rush.
Quality from JoJo defending 1-on-3 pic.twitter.com/7yyVXa9EKh
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 15, 2023
Lindgren made more key saves keeping Vegas at bay offensively and it was still a 1-0 contest after 40 minutes. The shots were dead even at 12 a piece.
PERIOD 3
Vegas came out swinging in the third period with numerous chances and eventually got its second power play. The Caps once again came up unscathed.
Vegas turning up the heat to start the 3rd. Lead in 5v5 shot attempts, 8-0. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/3CAzQMyZ2X
— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) November 15, 2023
Lindgren continued to dominate, coming up with a lot of ten-bell saves especially late in the stanza.
Connor McMichael had an empty net goal to make it 2-0. John Carlson and Rasmus Sandin had the helpers.
Then Beck Malenstyn iced things off with a beautiful breakaway move to make it 3-0.
By Jacob Cheris
Capitals Postgame Audio
Please don’t start Darcy next game. Pleeasssse.
In Chuck We Trust….and God Bless The Carburetor
I’d be happy going with Chucky and Shep. Would we win the Cup? Probably not. But I have more faith in those two than I do Darcy. And for those who believe that the team plays better in front of Chuck and is the reason for his success, why is that a hit on him? Maybe they support him more because of him.
Just give Charlie the Vezina already.
In all seriousness, dudes been on fire since coming back, he was a brick wall tonight. Made countless crucial saves. MVP of the night. Defensive play was also stellar. LuJo and Sandin especially looked better on both ends. 4th line with Dowd at C is on another level. They cannot break that group up. Loved seeing McIlrath taking the gloves off, but hopefully we get TvR and Eddy back so we can send him and HHA back down.
CMM showing that he makes this team better than Backy does at this point. Offense was kinda sluggish. Had trouble corralling the puck and Vegas was noticeably, though not significantly faster. We, in true Capitals fashion, made up for that with more physicality and suffocating defense, and ultimately we scored on our shots. PK was rock solid, but with all the PP opportunities we got, we should have cashed in on at least one, but credit to Vegas for also putting up a stalwart effort. Capitals are still here, and still a threat. Old, but not obsolete.
The 4th line is very similar to the trio that won the Bears the Calder Cup last season. Beck is the hitting machine, that can also score, Dowd provides excellent defense, NAK is the speedster. That Hershey 4th line was literally unstoppable. Opponents were afraid of them. A 4th line like that is a handy weapon
They have cap space and can look at a few options… starting to think Charlie could be a trade chip…. Oilers and Leafs need people but dont see a match or how the money could work….
Yes, let’s trade the better goaltender and watch old one shot one goal Kuemper all season. Smart move.
Who is this hockey team, and what have they done with the Capitals?
The Washington Bears
Amazingly (not), the kids who won the Calder Cup are pretty good… The Bears, plus the other guys under 30, are carrying the team right now.
On the other hand, I would like to know who that guy wearing 8 for the Caps is. He doesn’t look like the greatest scorer of his generation, the one who is threatening Gretzky’s record. Among many examples, the real Ovechkin wouldn’t have stubbed his toe in the offensive zone with an empty net begging for the puck that was on his stick. So what’s going on???
Father Time: 117 billion (give or take), Human Race: 0
Well he’s gonna have to turn back the clock if this team is to go anywhere… and if he wants that record. Same with Oshie, but I’m not too worried about him just yet.
I, personally, could give a fig about the record. The Bears who are up, probably don’t either, they’re used to winning hockey games. I know Leonsis cares about it, but he and Ovi should be the only ones.
I care about it.
I care about it too. And so does everyone in that locker room. Stanley Cup happens every year. All time goal scoring record is… well, “an unbreakable record”.
I also like winning. Both can be true.
Caps just shot out the defending champs…. without 3 D and G1… and lots of cap space… and yet, people saying not that good….
It appears the system that this team is playing is Bend, But Don’t Break. They give up a lot of chances. Is this a winning formula? It probably won’t win a Stanley Cup, but if it gets us into playoff contention, I’ll be happy. Baby steps. Carbery is a young coach. I think he’ll be Washington hockey’s equivalent of Joe Gibbs.
I’m sure Carbs will have plenty of video work with the team. they aren’t going to win that many games playing like that. But they did last night. Great sign. But gotta tighten up that defense. Sandin is impressing. Hopefully TVR back on Saturday. Edmundson Thanksgiving weekend.
God damn, we just might have a hockey team. Youth is king!
Trade over paid Kuemper.
What a nail bitter to watch! Great game. Chuckle was outstanding. Beck was all over the place. But other than our goal tender, the biggest impact I saw was McIlrath’s open ice hit and then the knockout! If I’m Carbs, he is not going back to Hershey!
Postgame Vegas HC Cassidy said that Chucky was hot but Vegas had some second chances and didn’t take advantage of them. He liked their PK but not their PP. Said his team was disciplined and stick penalties was something they could work on. He felt up until the end that it was winnable.
Pregame, he talked about role of AHL callups (Henderson Silver Knights). He said that when they called a player up it wasn’t to sit on the bench. He expects them to be productive on the ice. Won’t have top minutes on ice but won’t have just 4 either. They are called up to fill a need and he expects them to do it. Contrast that with Lavi who last year said he would not use his callups later in the game if they were not ahead and whose callups were always at the bottom of the TOI chart.
Carbs said something similar a couple of times, too, about callups. And their minutes tend to reflect that, when the score is tight (which happens more often than not) 😉