Between Two Posts: Unpacking The Capitals' Gritty 2-1 Win Over The Canucks & Pinpointing Recent Struggles For D.C.

Pierre-Luc Dubois powered the Capitals to a key win amid the team's current struggles.

Coming off a shootout loss and in the midst of a bit of a slump, the Washington Capitals managed to do what good teams do; find ways to win, this time with a 2-1 OT victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

Sammi recently discussed the Capitals struggles at length, which I highly recommend you check out.

The real question that is starting to form is: Was the first half the season all a fluke? Should Capitals fans commence with panic mode?

First, let's take a deep breath, then let's dig into the weeds of last night's game and see if we have to start raising alarms on the Capitals' season.

The man they call "PLD" was a bit of a question mark after being acquired by Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan this past summer, but his play this season has put all doubt to rest.

While he has not put up massive goal totals this season, he ranks second on the team with 26 assists and third in overall scoring with 33 points through 41 games. He also has points in 10 of his last 11 and leads all forwards in scoring since Nov. 21. His defensive play has also spoken volumes.

Last night, Dubois was the sole provider of Capitals offense. In the first period, the 26-year-old knocked down an airborne puck and backhanded home his sixth of the season, earning us all free McNuggets in the process.

Later, in overtime, Dubois took a pass from Aliaksei Protas — who had drawn all three Canucks players to him in the corner — in tight and beat Kevin Lankinen over the stick to win the game for Washington. The move itself is a masterclass by PLD in patience with the puck:

Dubois has been a consistent positive for Washington all season, and especially amid the recent slump the team is working through. He can find passing lanes and get the puck to the net, and he has been driving the play on the second line all year long, to boot, while also helping shut down other team's top performers.

I'm not even sure what to say about the second period, except that we should all be glad it ended.

The Capitals should also be glad Logan Thompson is also a brick-wall, because the Canucks were hellbent on going into the third up by at least seven, as Vancouver outshot D.C. 21-4 in the second.

Thankfully, Thompson stood on his head all night, and the Canucks only managed one goal — a backdoor rebound from Conor Garland on the power play — in the second.

Looking at the advanced stats paints a picture of an almost non-existent Capitals team in the middle frame.

The Canucks simply fired on all cylinders in the second, with 11 high-danger scoring chances compared to D.C.'s four, and a Corsi-for rating of 63.27 percent to Washington's 36.73 percent. Overall, Vancouver managed 21 shots on 31 shot attempts.

I had to go back and re-watch the extended highlights of the second period just to make sure I wasn't crazy, but it was the Logan Thompson show for almost the entirety of the period.

My take? The Capitals owe LT a nice bottle of something expensive and a steak dinner after last night.

One common theme I've mentioned over the last few weeks has been that despite the Capitals' struggles, they're still finding ways to win.

Which is what good teams do. Good teams do not fold, but instead push through adversity to get wins. And Washington continues to put wins on the board even when they have extended stretches of poor play.

Sammi noted in her breakdown from Tuesday of the Capitals' struggles that every team sees ebbs and flows through a season, and this year's team is not immune to this.

Some of these concerns should work themselves out as time goes on, and the lack of chemistry on the top line for instance should theoretically iron itself out as Alex Ovechkin finds his groove and gets fully back into the swing of things.

And looking at the bigger picture, Washington has a lot of talent on this roster with several players putting up career-best numbers.

Younger talents like Aliaksei Protas are developing into true scoring threats. All the while, Tom Wilson has become not only a dynamic power forward and major goal scoer, but also a true locker room leader.

And the defensive corps of John Carlson, Jakob Chychrun, Rasmus Sandin and more have combined for the third-most points in the league among defensemen.

But there are certainly concerns here.

The power play took a step back on Wednesday, and over the course of the night, the Capitals have fallen into bad habits and low-energy play lately at times. Combined with the lack of 5-on-5 scoring and the aforementioned chemistry issues, and these are all things that have Capitals' fans biting their nails a bit.

All that said, there's one person that assuages all of the worries for me, and that's Spencer Carbery. Carbery has shown himself in his relatively young coaching career to be a man who can work through problems and fine-tune things as needed. 

He has a notable attention to detail as well. So if any man can find the solutions to these issues, I believe Carbery is the one. And with the veteran leadership of Ovechkin, Wilson and Carlson, this team will find its way out of this slump.

And again, good teams find ways to win, and that's exactly what the Capitals are doing, and even if they aren't winning, they have points in five straight games.

That said, I'm not worried, and you shouldn't be either. While history is full of teams that start off strong and fall apart later in the season, this year's Washington Capitals are a strong, resilient bunch.

The Capitals host the surging Montreal Canadiens on Friday. While the Habs are still rebuilding, they've been playing strong of late, going 8-2 in their last 10 and climbing out of the basement of the Eastern Conference.

A slumping team against a surging team isn't a great recipe for success, but Washington is (on paper anyway) a stronger team than Montreal.

D.C. has bested Montreal in each of the other two meetings they've had so far. This is an excellent opportunity for Washington to find their footing again and get back to playing like the strong team we all know they truly are.