For the Washington Capitals, this season was expected to be about Alex Ovechkin’s chase to surpass Wayne Gretzky for the NHL’s career goal-scoring record.
Instead, it’s turned into so much more.
The Capitals enter Thursday’s road game against the Seattle Kraken in first place in the league’s overall standings with 69 points.
“I don’t really know how to answer that,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said with a chuckle when asked about his team’s record. “We feel good. I mean, we’re happy. The guys should be really proud where we are after (47) games. We’ll just continue to build and continue to grind.”
Offseason additions like forward Pierre-Luc Dubois and defenseman Jakob Chychrun have fit in seamlessly. Dubois is second on the team with 29 assists and Chychrun leads the Caps’ blue liners with 13 goals and 31 points.
Chrychrun and Dubois also ranked second and third on the team, respectively, in plus-minus rating, at plus-19 and plus-17.
“There has to be an expectation that we’re going to win,” Capitals forward Tom Wilson said, according to ESPN. “That’s a culture that’s been built. The new guys came in this year and complemented that.”
Ovechkin entered the season 41 goals behind Gretzky’s record of 894 and is halfway to breaking the mark despite missing 16 games with a broken leg. Ovechkin has 21 goals in 31 games played.
Ovechkin scored the lone goal in a 1-0 overtime victory at Ottawa last Thursday, beating Senators rookie Leevi Merilainen. It was the 179th goaltender Ovechkin has scored upon, breaking Jaromir Jagr’s record.
“Just the accolades and, like, the different parts of this record are going to just be about a 10-page essay,” Carbery said. “You just continue to check boxes on his remarkable career, scoring on different guys and in different buildings and against every team. It’s remarkable what he’s doing.”
This will be the second stop on a five-game Western trip for the Capitals, who won 3-2 on Tuesday in Edmonton. It was Washington’s fifth consecutive victory and extended its points streak to 11 games (8-0-3).
The Kraken have won two in a row since starting a stretch when they play nine of 10 games at home.
They defeated the Los Angeles Kings 4-2 on Saturday behind Jaden Schwartz’s hat trick and beat Buffalo 6-4 in a Monday matinee as Jared McCann had a goal and two assists.
McCann leads the Kraken in scoring with 36 points (14 goals, 22 assists).
“Not just him, but his line (with Shane Wright and Eeli Tolvanen) finding the offense is big,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “We want to be deep through our team, throughout our scoring, and Jared’s a big part of that. … (That goal), those assists were big to see us rounding out 12 guys, any given guy who can add to the scoresheet.”
Chandler Stephenson scored for the fifth time in the past 10 games, defensemen Jamie Oleksiak and Adam Larsson added key goals for the Kraken and goaltender Joey Daccord made 25 saves against the Sabres.
“I think the way we’re playing right now, we’re starting to come into our own, really starting to play together, play as a team, create momentum from every single line,” said forward Matty Beniers as the Kraken chase a Western Conference wild-card playoff berth.
“You see every line contributing, putting in goals. That’s the way we need to play, that’s our style, and we’re starting to find it here.”
–Field Level Media
