Top 3 Capitals studs against Hurricanes
It was a bonkers game and a bonkers win for the Caps on home ice Friday night
In the return of Evgeny Kuznetsov but with Carolina Hurricanes red, the Washington Capitals and their fans got the last laugh. Lots of players stepped up and you can tell in an 7-6 win. Here were the top 3 studs in last night's epic win.
#3 Alex Ovechkin
Alex Ovechkin continues to have us appreciate greatness night after night. His power play goal was his 24th and earlier in the season he was projected to finish at 24 goals. Then as he struggled that number got lower to 16. Now he's at 24 and 48 away from Wayne Gretzky.
Couldn't have made it easier for the #Gr8 pic.twitter.com/nX5C4B9oT4
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 23, 2024
Ovechkin wasn't in his usual office spot but just a bit outside but he was knocking at the doorstep and got the puck at the right split second.
The goal extended Ovechkin's goal streak to four games with six goals as well as 16 in his last 23 games. His PPG marked his first career goal against Pyor Kochetkov, the 175th different goaltender Ovechkin has scored on in his career. Only Jaromir Jagr (178) and Patrick Marleau (177) have scored on more goaltenders in NHL history.
Kochetkov is the sixth new goaltender Ovechkin has scored on this season. He also had scored on Duston Wolf on Monday at Calgary.
#2 Dylan Strome
Dylan Strome would win the game in the bottom of the fifth round of the shootout. It was a good extra point and a 7-6 win for the good guys.
But that shootout goal wasn't all that Strome did last night. He also had primary assists on Ovechkin's power play goal and Sonny Milano's second goal of the night. Strome also had a secondary on another Milano goal.
Strome's efforts in regulation extended his point streak to three games with a goal and four assists for five points. After recording 12 assists through his first 47 games of the season, Strome has now tallied 21 assists in his last 22 games.
27 of Strome's 33 assists this season are primaries and those primary assists lead the Caps. Later on Strome's shootout goal was his first career shootout goal that gave the Caps the win.
Could not have asked for a better time for Stromer to score his FIRST CAREER SHOOTOUT GOAL pic.twitter.com/StA2o7Pp6p
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 23, 2024
Coaches and teammates call Strome "Jordan". Here's why where Strome said something along the lines of "I want the ball. I want to shoot it."
Dylan Strome being called “Jordan” after the game. Here’s why: pic.twitter.com/YdGa842chJ
— Sammi Silber 🏒 (@sammisilber) March 23, 2024
Strome elaborated on his shootout experience to the media, "A lot less pressure when they haven't scored. It's not like if I missed it would've been game over so that (would've) becomes a little bit more stressful but I waited for him to kind of open up."
#1 Sonny Milano
Sonny Milano was simply him with a hat trick performance. He told reporters via Sammi Silber of The Hockey News:
"Yeah, it's definitely pretty special for me. Didn't know if I was ever gonna get that so I'm pretty happy with that, especially in a big game like this."
Milano now has 13 goals and seven assists for 20 points. That's two more goals than he had last season. He has had four points in his last three games. This was a dueling hat trick of a contest with Sebastian Aho getting the hatty for Carolina.
One of Milano's goals was Sportscenter Top 10 worthy:
Carbery on Milano’s highlight goal: “If you’ve followed Sonny Milano he’s been doing that since he was a kid. Youtube videos, the whole deal...From being around him we get a real good view of his hand-eye coordination and what he’s capable of.” #ALLCAPS
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) March 23, 2024
What Carbery is talking about here is Milano's second goal of the night which required hand eye coordination with the puck to bounce it into the net. It's one of those you have to see to believe. Milano has that skillset with the puck in order to get goals like that to happen.
I have a hunch we can see more big goals like this from Milano as the games get bigger and there is still five games to go without Tom Wilson. The Caps are back in action tomorrow afternoon at 12:30 p.m. against the Winnipeg Jets on Monumental Sports Network.
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