Between Two Posts: Unpacking Lindgren & Protas' Brilliant Outings In The Capitals' OT Win Over Columbus

On Thursday, the Washington Capitals made their way to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets after a four-day break.

While the Capitals currently lead the league in goals per game, the Blue Jackets are the highest-scoring team on home ice, and no slouch league-wide either, sitting at eighth in goals per game.

Ultimately, what we all got was exactly what you'd expect from two high-scoring teams — a game filled with solid defense and low scoring, capped off by a goaltending duel where both netminders made outstanding saves throughout.

Sarcasm and jokes aside, the Capitals played a stellar defensive game, showing the Columbus crowd why they are also one of the best teams when it comes to goals against.

There are plenty of storylines from last night's game to unpack, so grab your big cup of coffee and let's dig in.

I'd be remiss if I didn't start right off with the absolute goalie clinic Charlie Lindgren and Jet Greaves put on display for the fans. Put simply: both played brilliantly in net, and it was tough that one of them had to lose.

As Sammi mentioned in her takeaways, the first period was slower-paced than the rest of the game.

Washington got off to a bit of a sluggish start, yielding a few chances early to Columbus (although I wouldn't exactly call these chances high-danger). After a few minutes of play, the Capitals found their groove and began putting shots en masse on Greaves, who responded with some excellent saves to keep D.C. off the board.

As the game progressed, both teams began getting their fair share of chances, which meant both goalies would have to be sharp. Lindgren stood tall and matched Greaves' great play with his own.

This stick save speaks for itself:

Fun fact: I made a save just like that and my beer-league team called me 'lucky', but everyone loves when Charlie does it.

Some teams tend to panic in these situations and begin to force chances, which leads to a risk of opening up a counterattack. However, the Capitals never showed a lack of poise or that they were uncomfortable despite the tightness of the game. From the get-go, it was clear this game was going to be a low-scoring affair; It also meant that Washington needed to play mistake-free hockey.

They were able to accomplish this, for the most part. But ultimately...

Ceding power play time to Columbus four times in the second period could have been detrimental to the Capitals, as the Blue Jackets eventually capitalized on a chance with Zach Werenski potting his 10th of the season — and 100th of his career.

In low-scoring games where it's evident that the other team's goalie is as sharp as Greaves was last night, playing mistake-free — and disciplined —hockey is critical to staying in it.

After Jakob Chychrun took a tripping call in the second, an errant stick by Nic Dowd gave Columbus a roughly minute-long 5-on-3 chance. Luckily, the Capitals were able to fend off the CBJ power play, and the rest of the Dowd penalty was nullified by a Werenski tripping call, which gave Washington their only (brief) time on the man advantage.

While that didn't cost Washington, who boats the best road penalty kill in the league, it was another high sticking call on Nic Dowd a short time later that put Columbus back on the power play and led to that aforementioned costly goal against.

Luckily, the Capitals, with their resiliency we've noted previously, kept themselves in the game by simply playing to their strengths, another common theme for this year's group.

They came back in the third and tied it immediately. From there, they tightened things up and played much more disciplined hockey for the remainder of the game.

This all worked out against the Blue Jackets, and all's well that ends well, I suppose. But against a more formidable team, the second period could have been a dagger in the heart for Washington.

This was a topic that I'm sure coach Spencer Carbery addressed after the second period, as Washington came back out with much better play in the third.

They call Aliaksei Protas "Pro" for a reason.

Last night, the Capitals offense was provided entirely by No. 21. After giving up the first goal in the second, Washington came out in the third and immediately tied the game up off a Protas one-timer in the slot, which came from a nifty pass by Pierre-Luc Dubois.

Not satisfied with just one goal, Protas came back in overtime to send Washington home with the win.

With his 10th and 11th goals of the season, Protas is now on pace for 32 goals for the season. He is already having a career-best year and is three points away from matching his career-high point total of 29 from last season.

While Alex Ovechkin's absence isn't something the Capitals want to live with much longer, the extra ice time and confidence have allowed Protas to develop more and make the 2019 third-round pick blossom into another offensive threat on this already-deep team.

This Capitals team has certainly been fun to watch. Even after a rougher game, there are still a lot of positives and a lot to like. It shows that this team has a boatload of potential, and that's definitely a good thing when you only have a couple of bad penalties to nitpick after a win.

Major kudos to Lindgren, who has more than bounced back from a rough start to his season. He looked like a man locked in last night, and the Capitals are in a wonderful spot right now having two goalies who are both on the top of their respective games.

Up next for Washington is a Saturday night matchup at home against a struggling Buffalo Sabres squad, who sit near the bottom of the league in goals against.

While the Sabres are struggling, this is another game in which the Capitals will need to be sharp, as players like Tage Thompson cannot be underestimated. But by playing defensively sharp and disciplined game, Washington should be able to come out of the next one with another W while avoiding a trap game.