Photo: X/@Capitals
The Washington Capitals played another solid back-half of a back-to-back slate. After coming off a dominant 4-0 win over their division rivals in the New York Rangers, the Capitals played a strong road game to finish out the weekend.While their 4-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday was not as lopsided as Saturday’s win, it was a big two points.
Both Chicago and Washington were coming off the first half of their own back-to-back sets and it showed in the first 20 minutes of play. Each squad was a little sluggish and couldn’t find their legs immediately. The Blackhawks started to tilt the ice at the end of the first period, and eventually got on the board first.
“It wasn’t looking good early. Like we were okay, but you could just tell we were fighting it a little bit. So that’s where you see the mental fortitude of our group to sort of dig in there,” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said after the game. “We go down, and then a couple guys made massive plays offensively to really give us some life and get our bench going.”
However, the Caps buckled down and started to play their game, which led to four unanswered goals on the board. The Capitals are now 4-0-0 in the final games of back-to-backs. More importantly, they are third in the Metropolitan Division with 31 points.
Here is what stood out.
Anthony Mantha Heater; Second Line Remains Effective
Anthony Mantha’s resurgence shows how well he has meshed with the Capitals’ bench boss. The 29-year-old scored his second goal in as many games and is now up to seven on the season. He also has six points (four goals, two assists) in his last seven games.
The Quebec native has found terrific chemistry with Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas.
What makes them successful is how hard they are on pucks. They always seem to come away with pucks in the corners. When they do get the puck, they use their skill to create scoring chances.
“I thought they did a great job of getting through the neutral zone with speed all night,” Dylan Strome said. “It felt like whenever we were hemmed in, they did a great job of getting through the middle.”
But with Mantha in particular, he is the guy that is the finisher. He has been getting to the right place at the right time and putting himself in position to score.
His tying tally on Sunday was because he used his speed to knife between two Blackhawks blueliners and put himself in position to receive a pass from McMichael.
he’s the MANtha pic.twitter.com/Zw0BQv7zRr
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) December 11, 2023
Fourth Line Resurgence
The fourth line of Beck Malenstyn, Nic Dowd and Nicolas Aube-Kubel had been ineffective over the last few games on both ends of the puck. The trio is meant to play physical and play sound in the defensive zone, however they haven’t been faring on the defensive side of the puck prior to Friday’s win over New York.
For the second consecutive night, the fourth line got on the scoresheet not once, but twice. Dowd scored two goals, his first being the eventual game-winner, and Aube-Kubel now has points in his last two.
“I think those are just kind of cherries on top. We take a lot of pride in what we do. And I think the three of us are new to each other this year, right? So we’re still learning and figuring each other out and I think the emphasis is on playing really good defense. But the irony is that if you play great defense, you’re gonna get offense eventually,” Dowd said. “I think we’re still learning how to play off each other in the o-zone and capitalize on those opportunities. So it happened tonight, which was nice.”
After taking two penalties in the game, Malenstyn made up for it by tallying an assist on each of Dowd’s goals.
Early Penalties and Self-Inflicted Wounds; Darcy Kuemper Sharp Early
The Capitals got themselves in some early penalty trouble, taking two tripping penalties in the first. Though they came away unscathed, it gave the Hawks life for the remainder of the first period and put the Caps on their heels.
“We had some self-inflicted scenarios where we were just putting ourselves in really, really tough spots, whether it was d-zone turnovers or whether it was our set in our lines, or next line up on a track and now they’re hemmed in the defensive zone,” Carbery said. “But like I said, the mental part of it of us being able to flip that and get that goal.”
Darcy Kuemper had to come up with some big saves to keep it a scoreless game in the first. This was Kuemper’s first start since allowing three goals on five shots against the Arizona Coyotes, a game in which the Caps were blown out 6-0. He was solid in his return with 32 saves on 34 shots. He faced three high danger scoring chances in the first period.
“I just obviously wanted to get back in there but take the time to kind of assess what’s been going on,” Kuemper said. “Sometimes when it goes that poorly like that game in Arizona, it’s not great but you can use it the right way and really kind of look at the big picture. I just wanted to get back to the basics. So that’s what I’ve been working on the last little bit, and it was nice to go out and finally play.”
Notable Numbers and Observations
- John Carlson looks good defensively. He has been harder on pucks and has been very good with his stick.
- The Caps PK was 6-for-6, but the man-advantage was 0-for-3.
- The Caps had 32 PIMS in the game. Primarily due to the two 10 minute misconducts at the end of the game handed out to T.J. Oshie and Tom Wilson
- Washington struggled in the faceoff circle winning just 39.6% of its draws
- Each team blocked 15 shots
The Caps won’t be in action until Dec. 14, when they travel to the city of brotherly love to take on the high-flying Philadelphia Flyers.
By Jacob Cheris