Photo: X/@Capitals
The Washington Capitals defeated the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 to end their brief two game losing streak. The Caps also ended the Kings’ five game winning streak and improve to 11-6-2 on the campaign, while Los Angeles falls to 13-4-3. Charlie Lindgren was outstanding with 38 saves.
Here is how it went down.
PERIOD 1
The Kings got on the board first at the 10:56 mark of the first period, when Arthur Kaliyev potted home a fortunate bounce off the end boards past Charlie Lindgren. Andreas Englund and Jordan Spence had the assists.
Arty said it’s time to party pic.twitter.com/brfN1wJ7Iz
— LA Kings (@LAKings) November 30, 2023
The Capitals responded to tie things at one thanks to Anthony Mantha burying a 2-on-1 odd-man break. Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas had the helpers.
Mikey and Mo with the 2-on-1 clinic pic.twitter.com/LuoGhCguao
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 30, 2023
The Kings outshot the Capitals 11-5 after 20.
PERIOD 2
The third line gave the Caps a 2-1 lead after some great forechecking work. McMichael earned his fifth goal of the season after batting a puck out of mid-air with 2:30 to go in the middle frame. Mantha and Protas had the helpers.
Swing batter, batter
🚨 @con91mcmichael pic.twitter.com/BvrBPrVNre
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 30, 2023
LA outshot the Capitals 13-6 in the middle stanza.
PERIOD 3
Anze Kopitar thought he had tied the game at two, but the goal was called back due to offside.
The Caps held on to secure the victory.
Shavings
- The Capitals held the Kings, the NHL’s highest scoring team entering tonight’s game (4.00 GF/FP), to one goal. Washington has allowed one goal against or fewer in five of their last 12 games.
- The Capitals improve to 4-1-1 in their last six road games and to 11-6-2 on the season.
- The Capitals improve to 7-3-1 in November. Only the Rangers (9-2-1) and Panthers (9-4-1) have more wins this month among Eastern Conference clubs.
- Charlie Lindgren stopped 37 of 38 shots faced to earn his fifth win of the season. Lindgren’s 37 saves are the fifth-most he has made in a game in his career.
- Aliaksei Protas recorded the secondary assist on McMichael’s goal, his second assist of the game and seventh of the season. Protas is now tied with Alex Ovechkin for the second-most assists on the Capitals (John Carlson: 10).
Up Next
The Capitals will be back in action on Thursday, Nov. 30 against the Anaheim Ducks at 10 p.m. EST.
By Jacob Cheris
Charlie. F@#%ing. Lindgren.
In Chuck We Trust!
Go Caps!
Lose to the Sharks and beat the Kings….
The Capitals improve to 7-3-1 in November. Only the Rangers (9-2-1) and Panthers (9-4-1) have more wins this month among Eastern Conference clubs.
Young guys like AP. CMM, RS, and BM all doing well… We have 2 G1s… trade one? I really like how Mantha is playing… We just beat a western leader and thats with TJ out…
Also, all Fs had over 10 min and all Ds had more than 17 min… Mantha only played 11 min+ but 2 pts… MP better be replaced with a Bear like JS or EF…
And where’s PD-Bird? Shooed Away By The Win? 😄
Negative! Good Morning andrew777dc! Great Caps win on the Left Coast
Boo-bird is merely a poet. PD is a fan!
We’re delighted to win vs. LAK. Hope for more tonight vs ANA
Giving up 40 shots while taking 17 not a great recipe for sustained success. And I agree with ANON about six comments up that “MP better be replaced with a Bear like JS or EF.” Wish I had as long a leash as Matt Phillips! I’d still be married to my first wife.
Hooray for Mo Mantha and 24 Connor Mac. But the Caps are still “Stuck in neutral” and provide absolute minimum run support for their starting pitchers
Charlie freaking Lindgren absolutely stood on his head last night. He’s had some gems here and there but DAMN. Dude was in his zone.. I got to admit I was down on this team going into year with lack of moves other than draft and extending Wilson. But I love everything about this team thus far. They show a lot of grit and heart night in and night out . I really like Carbs and the way he coaches. I mean obviously the power play need work but other than that playing pretty well without Ovie and Wilson at their best. Oshie was playing well without the stats showing up before getting hurt and then we also obviously lost Nicky. .. These kids have stepped up huge Mikes playing well Protas is playing really well I think . Hendrix has looked solid when called upon. And THEN you got Beck Malenstyn playing his ass off !! I already love everything about the way this kid plays hockey. Every second hes all out 100 percent. Then you you.have guys like Stromer and Sonny who are really solid players. Mantha playing as well as he has sense he been in Dc. .
On Defense Carly is back to doing his thing after last years scare. Marty is a Legit top 4 same with Sandin both are young and progressing as well. Lucas and Alexeyev have both had flashes as well. TVR and Edmondson have looked solid .. Jensen been the only ?? At times
Then you have Charlie I got to admit I wanted Sheppard to get a legit shot at number 2 going into the year but this guy had been phenomenal all year other than 1 game. Dude better be rotating with Darcy every other game till further notice. . After what I’ve seen thus far
Hey there, Prevent)
I thought our chances were next to zero. But here we are, with another gritty, grimy win. And the only goal those Kings got was off a bad bounce! Go figure!
But there’s lots of areas to improve in. The “urgenter” the better)
Somehow the comment got misplaced, though I was pretty sure I was replying to PD) Sorry about that. Nice comment, though, Anon! 🙂 Resonates much.
Play your hot goalie until he cools.
can someone who actually stayedup to watch that game make sense of it? they got outshot 39-15 and lost 60% of faceoffs. was this lindgren stealing another game? and forgive my skepticism (and fear) but how long can we expect to get outplayed like this nearly nightly and expect to keep up the pace of wins?
Yeah, these games are hard to watch, in more ways than one… Totally wasted afterwards.
It seems the Caps were always trying to bite back. In every period there were good stretches with some good chances for. Bad thing is after that LAK would always lock the Caps up in their zone and just start pounding. For very long periods of time… That is when the guys laid their bodies out on the line, and were pretty good at clearing the blue paint of any enemy bodies or pucks (even if they let them through in the first place). That seemed to be helping a lot.
And Chucky was just being the Chucky we know he can be.
so ovie was 8th among forwards in TOI last night with a paltry 13:49. interesting. however , we had zero power plays. i cannot fathom how, in 60 minutes of actual hockey, a team doesn’t do ANYTHING worthy of a whistle. that said, those penalties tend to happen when a team is being attacked more, and since the caps only generated 15 SOG over 60 minutes, the Kings likely never needed to resort to the sorts of hooks, holds etc that come with sustained attack time.
Mantha doing his last year of the contract effort. Glad he’s helping the team this year and making himself look possibly acceptable for a trade.
or maybe playing for a coach who isn’t a jerk and working on his mental and physical improvement over the summer is coming to fruition. He has improved every single game and plays a better game that Ovi, Kuzy and Wilson! I really don’t think he is acting a particular way just because he’s on his last year of a contract.
Always someone else’s fault.
you seem to be very short-sighted
you seem to have a short memory.
so mantha actually said these things:
1. “[The Capitals] came to get me two and a half years ago already and I feel like I haven’t been the player they wanted so far,” Mantha said earlier this preseason. “So that’s my goal this year, to prove to them that that player’s here (now) and he’s ready to play.”
2. “I was not present and involved enough for my team”
3. “I have more of a mentality that it is a business. It is sure that we will move and play elsewhere so I try to stay focused.”
4. “My personal goal is 60 points this year and then to sign a long-term contract somewhere. I must have a big season – this is the last year of my contract and I would like to bounce back. It’s practically a second chance after last season.”
soooo yea he’s really only doing it for the chance to fool another team and sign elsewhere big guy
mantha said similar things in Detroit a few years ago:
1. “It’s just a matter of getting my feet moving and being intense in battles and everything will line up from there.”
2. “It was just to be a little more physical, stopping on pucks and winning those one-on-one battles, and like we said, skating during the game.”
sense a trend?
Charlie stood on his head last night for the team. If I’m Carbs the only reason he isn’t in net tonight is the back to back. Otherwise, he is my starter until he proves to me that he shouldn’t be.
But, we can’t keep winning games being out shot the way its been going. I didn’t like Kuzy on the first line at the start of the season, and I don’t like it now. It is almost as bad as our PP. What are the common threads, Ovi and Kuzy play both, Willy not so much on PP. Ovi just doesn’t look like himself. Is it age catching up to him? Is he not in game shape? I don’t know. But, the 1st line looked a little better to me when Strome was the 1C. To me, Kuzy is an issue. Talented? Hell yes. Motivated? Not so sure. Team player? Also, not so sure. But, to me, the chemistry is just not there on the 1st line. We have all talked about fixing the PP, but we have more minutes being played 5v5 with this line than we are seeing in the PP. Yes, the PP needs revamping, but so does this line! Do I have an answer on a different 1C? Not really. But, to be honest, I think I am over Kuzy!
You got a big point there. To be fair, Strome didn’t look too good yesterday, either… But generally, he’s been much better on the first line with Ovi and Willy – in most games…
Rich427 is on to something: That “something” isn’t right with Caps Top Six
GMBM has been real adamant about Top Six being insufficient!
Watching GMBM for years, he WILL do something before Trade Deadline rather than hope his new coaching staff will miracle-cure the problem
That’s why you don’t take NAK out of the lineup. Leave the 4th line alone. I’d prefer to see Kuznetsov and Strome switch places, but I can accept this. The 3rd line combo was a really interesting one. Having Mantha and Protas share the same line worked wonders. Combining their size and reach with CMM’s speed and finesse looked like a match made in heaven. Especially since they can move pretty well for guys that big. Loved what I saw out of Protas on the walls. We need more of that puck battling.