The Washington Capitals hit the five goal mark just ten times throughout all of last year. It took them just one period to hit that mark for the 5th time this season, an avalanche of scoring that began with an Aliaksei Protas goal just 56 seconds in:
Much like their previous outing against the Montreal Canadiens, the Capitals just had zero issue weaving through the Blue Jackets’ defense and peppering Daniil Tarasov, who surrendered 5 goals on Washington’s first seven shots of the game.
Washington was outscored in the second period and found themselves on the negative end of most underlying metrics for this game, but that goes out the window when you dig a hole as deep as the one they buried Columbus in that first period. They took advantage of a team on the second half of a back-to-back, and were able to gradually ease their foot off the gas pedal as they wrapped the bow on a 3-game homestand sweep.