Capitals: Top 3 heroes against the Islanders
We’ve been talking plenty about Saturday’s impressive Washington Capitals comeback win over the New York Islanders. Here’s one more.
The Washington Capitals comeback was incredible but was it the biggest comeback of the season. Back in October, the team took on the Vancouver Canucks on the road and overcame a 5-1 deficit only to win it in the shootout round. Pretty cool, right?
Well there was also a game earlier this month that looked like the Washington Capitals were going to drop. Against the San Jose Sharks at Capital One Arena, the Capitals trailed by two goals with under a minute to go.
Making matters worse, the Sharks had just scored an empty net goal. But that didn’t stop Jakub Vrana or T.J. Oshie from scoring 32 seconds apart to force overtime. Lars Eller won it.
Then there was this past Saturday. This game was more significant given a divisional game against the former bench boss.
The Capitals were down 4-1 in a hostile environment. Instead of packing things up, the Caps rallied with five unanswered goals to stun the Isles with a regulation win.
6-4 was the final score and there were several players that impacted the game. Here is our top 3 heroes.
Carl Hagelin
The Capitals came out in the third period ready to play and the first sign of life for the Capitals in that final period came on his goal to start the comeback. It was the third goal of the season and he’s scored in two straight games. It begs the question, has Carl Hagelin begun to heat up?
Hagelin glided towards the net and caught a slick pass from Richard Panik for the finish at 2:33. He finished with 17 shifts, a 33.3shot percentage on three shots in 12:15 of ice time.
https://twitter.com/Capitals/status/1218626627862556672
A deeper dive into the advanced stats show Hagelin had a Corsi For percentage of 45 percent. Not bad. Three goals looks bad on the surface but Hagelin has had a good season thus far when it comes to advanced stats.
His Corsi For percentage so far is at 54.36 percent, his Fenwick For percentage is at 52.82 percent and his High Danger Chances for is at 45.11.
I think Carl Hagelin has started to heat up on the offensive side of things even though he’s more of a defensive oriented player and an important part of the penalty kill. It’ll be interesting to see if he continues his upward trend after break
Jakub Vrana
Jakub Vrana makes this list for scoring what turned out to be the game-winning goal. It came late in the third period at 17:40 and it was brilliant.
Jake the 🐍with the steal at the blue line takes it to the house! #CapsIsles pic.twitter.com/Sqcdl2jHtB
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 18, 2020
In an intense battle for the puck in the neutral zone and a tussle that involved T.J. Oshie, Vrana joined the party by stealing the puck, skating down a few steps and firing it past New York Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov.
Per WashingtonCaps.com’s Mike Vogel in his Postgame Notebook, it was Vrana’s fifth game-winning goal of the season. He trails John Carlson by one for the team lead in that category.
Vogel expanded more on Vrana’s recent play:
Washington’s No. 13 now has 13 game-winners for his NHL career, and he is in the midst of a hot run of his own, one that is being overshadowed some by Ovechkin’s exploits. Vrana has seven goals in his last eight games. With 22 goals on the season, Vrana is only two shy of matching his single-season career high of 24, established last season.
Vrana is on pace for 36 goals on the season and there’s already talk around town that he could reach 40. That would be significant for a young player loaded with potential that hasn’t found his ceiling yet.
Alex Ovechkin
I feel like in these series Alex Ovechkin is always listed as the top player. Sometimes we can’t help it, he outdoes himself night after night. He was the MVP of the game with another hat trick for the second straight game. He now has eight goals in his last three games heading into the break.
Ovechkin used his speed to get past two defenders to the Caps on the board, taking a long pass from his buddy Nicklas Backstrom and finishing with a breakaway.
Ovechkin’s second goal came during the five-goal comeback in the third period. It was a curl and drag move that was backhanded in as the great eight fell down. His third goal was an empty net goal to seal the 6-4 win.
https://twitter.com/Capitals/status/1218676067197751297
But the reason why Ovechkin is listed here isn’t just for his hat trick. After the games when the team wins, a player of the game from the previous game hands off a Washington Nationals batting helmet to who they think is player of the game and they can’t reward themselves.
Of course Ovechkin had it after his hat trick against the New Jersey Devils on home ice but his choice was struggling netminder Braden Holtby after another rough outing where he allowed four goals on 22 shots and was taken out of the game in the third period.
Ovechkin said after the game, per Vogel, “Without your saves, we wouldn’t have had a chance.”
That says more about Ovechkin as a person and a team captain than it does as a player. This team is very close knit and the rest of the league should be scared.
Related Story. Alex Ovechkin dominates as MVP against Islanders. light
That’ll do it for another top 3 players series. Have a good All Star break Caps fans.