Washington Capitals: Top 3 studs against the Flyers

#2 Alex Ovechkin

The Caps entered the second period trailing 1-0. Alex Ovechkin would ignite Washington’s rally by getting the Caps on the board at 15:11 for his eighth goal of the season and 714th of his career. With the goal, Ovechkin now needs four more to pass Phil Esposito (717 goals) for the sixth most in NHL history.

The goal was also Ovechkin’s 363rd road goal, surpassing Steve Yzerman (362) for sole possession of the second most road goals in NHL history. This was an important goal for Ovechkin to score as it would get his team out of a funk from Friday night’s debacle.

The Caps were not only faced with adversity from a loss on the scoreboard but a loss in the lineup as Tom Wilson is serving his seven game suspension. Head coach Peter Laviolette talked after the game via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post (subscription required):

"“This is a veteran team that’s won a lot of games. We knew we didn’t play well in Boston. . . . I thought just the skating and the compete level were much better in the second and third periods, and it’s always tough when you don’t have a guy like Tom in there, but I thought they responded good to all of it.”"