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Top 3 Capitals studs against Avalanche

The Washington Capitals earned a big win to kick off their mini trip

By Michael Marzzacco |
Pierre-Luc Dubois, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images
Pierre-Luc Dubois, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images / Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images
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The Washington Capitals earned a 5-2 win over the Colorado Avlanche in convincing and dominating fashion. They held their superstar Nathan MacKinnon to zero points on zero shots. It ended Colorado's three game winning streak. Let's break down the top 3 studs in the win.

#3 Pierre Luc-Dubois

Pierre Luc-Dubois earned the third star of the game with a two assist performance. He would have the helper on Jakub Vrana's power play goal to jumpstart the Capitals to a good night. He also assisted on Jakob Chychrun's wrist shot.

The assist brought PLD's apple total to 10 on the season. After the game Capitals coach Spencer Carbery praised his newcomer's play to Mike Vogel of WashCaps.com:

I thought Dubois was one of our best players tonight. And they had a majority of the matchup against MacKinnon, and he was phenomenal on both sides of the puck. He creates the goal that is the goal of the game, and that is Chychrun's goal. And that is (Dubois) on both ends of the ice. And the entry play, to be able to delay and find some space there, yeah, he was really good tonight.
Spencer Carbery

PLD wasn't just the only standout of the night.

Jakob Chychrun, Washington Capitals
Jakob Chychrun, Washington Capitals / Justin Tafoya/GettyImages

#2 Jakob Chychrun

Jakob Chychrun would score an amazing goal for his fourth of the season that came at 9:21 of th esecond period to make it 4-2 and put the Caps in cruise control. And yes the PLD feed we mentioned from the last slide was that amazing.

Like we can't even pinpoint what's more beautiful. The shot. The man falling down. The crowd in the background like we're in Wasington, D.C. and not Denver, Colorado. All of it is just picturescque. Put it in the Lovre.

Per Capitals PR, Chychrun's four goals rank second among NHL defensmen. He trails only Colorado's Cale Makar who has six. Out of PLD's 10 assists, six of them have been primaries which ranks tied for second on the Caps.

The Caps defense was lights out not just on shutting down Nathan MacKinnon. The Caps held the Avs to a season low 19 shots on Friday night. What makes MacKinnon going scoreless remarkable is he entered the game ranking second in the NHL in shots with 67.

Charlie Lindgren would stop 17 of 19 shots including all five shots he faced in the third period to earn his fourth win of the season and his first career victory against Colorado.

Connor McMichael, Tom Wilson, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images
Connor McMichael, Tom Wilson, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images / Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

#1 Connor McMichael

Connor McMichael continued his hot start to the season with another multi goal game. His first tally came at 7:48 on a nice slap shot up the middle with Tom Wilson and Trevor van Riemdyk providing the feeds.

Right when we thought he couldn't top that, he did. He did so in the form of a filtiy breakaway goal.

It upped McMichael's goal total to a team leading 12th of the season. It came 1:53 in the second period to give the Caps the lead for good. His 11 even strength goals are the most in the NHL and it marked his fourth multi goal performance in 16 games this season. McMichael entered the season with just two multi goal games in his first 155 career games played.

"I kind of just stole the puck," McMichael recounted to Vogs, "and I think it was Manson I saw who was trying to gap up, flat footed, trying to get in the shot lane. So I just faked the shot, and many more whistles than were heard in the first."

The Caps are off on Saturday and will take on the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday at 8 p.m. on the east coast, 5 p.m. pacific.

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