Breaking down Washington Capitals best and worst periods so far

The Washington Capitals are coming off a West Coast mini road trip three game sweep. Let's further break down the good and the bad as Alex Ovechkin will be out week to week with a lower body injury.

Best Periods

Last night the Caps scored six goals in a game for the sixth time this season, which is the second most instances among all teams behind only the Winnipeg Jets with seven. The Caps had only five six goal games last season.

Alex Ovechkin continued his NHL dominance and scored two more goals. The Caps penalty kill went 7 for 7 on the night and Charlie Lindgren made some clutch saves. Logan Thompson is hot too as his record is 8-0-1 after the Caps acquired him on NHL Draft weekend in Vegas from the Golden Knights.

Thompson got a warm reception from the Vegas crowd, sprinkled in with a sea of red from the Caps fans who made the trip and Spencer Carbery noticed, saying this after the win to Mike Vogel of WashCaps.com:

It was first class, that video tribute to Logan. I'm just happy for him and proud of him, go beat his former team twice and play the way he did tonight, and grind through that and battle, and arguably be the difference in the second half of that game.

Worst periods

Obviosuly the injuries to T.J. Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom were expected. Losing Sonny Milano wasn't good. Now losing Ovechkin week to week with a lower body injury will give the Capitals their biggest challenge yet of the season. What made the injury worse is Ovi did so after he scored twice and had a hat trick in Vegas the night prior.

Before the injury per NHL Stats, Ovechkin became the first player age 39 or older in NHL history to be the League's first skater to 15 goals in a season. Prior to Ovechkin, the oldest player to reach 15 goals first was Frank Mahovlich, who was 33 years old and 304 days old scoring his 15 goal in the 14th game of the season for the Montreal Canadiens against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 10, 1971.

The Caps power play is ranked 23rd in the league with a success rate of 16.4 percent. That's an average of 4.33 goals for per game and 2.33 goals against. Losing Ovechkin will be a blow to the power play as he's led the team with four goals. That'll mean guys like Tom Wilson, John Carlson, Connor McMichael, and Dylan Strome will have to step up more.