Plus: Aside from what else is gonna be mentioned here, the penalty kill came up huge for the Caps. They held Calgary to 1 / 5 on the power play, including a third period that saw them kill 3 penalties in a row with the game tied.
Minus: Getting outshot 13-0 to start the game isn’t ideal.
Key Moment: With 11 minutes left in the second, Darcy Kuemper robbed Elias Lindholm. Less than a minute later, Connor McMichael scored his first of the year, turning what would’ve been a 3-1 lead for Calgary into a 2-2 tie that stood for the rest of regulation.
Caps Player of the Game: I want to give props to Matthew Phillips for burning his old team twice, but Darcy Kuemper withstood a disastrous first period from the rest of the Caps and gave them an opportunity to come back, which they took advantage of in the second.
Final Thoughts: A 180° turn from Saturday’s effort that saw the Capitals get caved in initially. Once they turned the difficulty sliders down, they began to look a lot more like the team we saw in the first period of the last game. Back-to-back Jekyll and Hyde performances from a team still figuring things out in the early goings of this season.