One reason the Washington Capitals have managed to string together a seven-game point streak is their consistency on the power play.
The Capitals have scored at least one power-play goal in six of the seven games during the streak (4-0-3).
Washington will try to maintain its consistency with the man advantage when it hosts the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night.
“I feel like our power play is one of those (that) it doesn’t matter how it looks, as long as it’s productive, and that’s exactly what our power play is doing right now,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “Sometimes it doesn’t look great, sometimes we’re giving up a breakaway here and there, and we’d like to clean that stuff up, and the entries aren’t on point at times, but when you’re scoring one a night, that’s delivering the goods.”
Washington scored its lone power-play goal against the Nashville Predators on Saturday night to break a scoreless tie near the midway point of the second period. The Capitals eventually won 4-1.
“There’s a lot of teams that have great entries and great control, but can’t find a way to score,” Carbery said. “Our power play has stepped up numerous times over the last stretch.”
Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin sealed the win against Nashville by scoring into an empty net with 59 seconds left. It was his 20th goal of the season and 873rd of his NHL career, moving him within 21 of tying Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career record.
Ovechkin also became the second NHL player in league history to score at least 20 goals in 20 straight seasons, joining Gordie Howe, who hit the mark 22 times.
The Capitals continue to get sensational play from goalie Logan Thompson, who improved to 18-2-3 this season with his own seven-game point streak (6-0-1).
He’ll likely be back in net against the Ducks.
“For now, I’m going to just keep being ready and prepared whenever (Carbery) wants me to go,” Thompson said.
Thompson is familiar with the Ducks after spending the past four seasons in the Pacific Division with the Vegas Golden Knights. He’s 1-2-1 in four starts against Anaheim with a .919 save percentage and 2.10 goals-against average.
John Gibson will likely get the start in goal for the Ducks after Lukas Dostal made 35 saves in a 3-2 overtime win at the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday.
The win came on the heels of back-to-back one-sided losses to the St. Louis Blues and Philadelphia Flyers to open the season-long six-game road trip.
“We had back-to-back clunkers and we talked (Sunday) about just getting back to basics and that always starts with your work habits,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “I thought we worked hard — that was reflected in our blocked shot totals.”
A night after Ducks rookie forward Cutter Gauthier was ruthlessly booed by Philadelphia fans who aren’t happy that he requested a trade from the Flyers organization early last year, Gauthier scored two goals against the Hurricanes, including the first overtime goal of his NHL career.
“Both his goals were scorer’s goals,” Cronin said. “I thought he played well all over the ice. He skated, he competed. I’m sure he’s glad that the Philadelphia games are over and he can focus on the rest of the season now.”
–Field Level Media
