The Caps headed to Florida coming off their very first consecutive losses of the season and needing to get back in the win column. They didn’t necessarily play poorly in their two losses, so it was good to see them not get down and continue to play good hockey – great hockey, in fact, and maybe their best game in a month.
The most important play of the game was, unsurprisingly, the eventual game-winning goal by Jakob Chychrun, which was scored while the Caps were on a 5-on-3 advantage. There’s no stat to prove this but the general rule of thumb is that if you don’t score on a 5-on-3 (at least when it’s a lengthy one), it’s harder to win the game, as it can deflate the team that doesn’t score and pumps up the team that kills it.
The Caps had almost a full 90 seconds of the 5-on-3 and it got off to a rough start. For some reason, despite having more open ice, the Caps had a hard time getting into the zone and they were stuffed a couple of times on entry. So the first minute or so was a little rough – but with less than 30 seconds remaining in that two-man advantage, they finally made it work.
Dylan Strome started the play off by feeding the puck to Chychrun at the blue line. With big-bodied Pierre-Luc Dubois standing right in front of the goalie providing a screen, goaltender Spencer Knight tried to look around Dubois on the right side – and that’s when Chychrun struck. Just as Knight peeked right, Chychrun used his heavy, quick snap shot to wire the puck on the left side, putting the Caps up 2-1 early in the third.
The Caps have struggled to score in recent games and were being held to one goal to this point, so they did what you’re supposed to do in that situation and simplified their game. Sometimes the play you need isn’t necessarily pretty; put a big body in front of the goalie and rip a shot by the screen. It worked, and it was a huge goal.