Did Alex Ovechkin score? Heck yeah, he did. He did it twice!
Plus: Outside the obvious two-goal game by Alex Ovechkin, I think the biggest plus is the Caps coming into a game where they were very tired (played the previous night, was their third game in four days, and four games in six days), against a team they don’t play all that well against (3-5 since 2020 and 11-13 since 2009) and coming out with a strong 6-2 win is only a plus. It wasn’t a dominant win (score aside) but this is a game great teams win under the circumstances.
Minus: Nothing puts a damper on a great win like the possibility of losing Ovechkin to injury. He took an incidental knee-on-knee about halfway through the third period, stayed down and then needed a little help to get off the ice. After taking a little test twirl he decided to head down the tunnel and his night was over. Put your praying caps on and push all good vibes towards Ovechkin right now.
Key Moment: There isn’t one particular moment that stood out for the Caps win but killing all penalties in a game is good, killing seven of them just makes it very impressive. The Caps had to kill four of them alone in the first period, including almost half a minute five-on-three. The game could have quickly got away from the Caps after going down one early, but the penalty kill came up huge and didn’t allow a goal.
Our Three Stars:
*** Dylan Strome (1G, 1A)
** Brandon Duhaime (1G, 1A)
* Alexander Ovechkin (2G)