Takeaways: Dog Days Are Over As Duhaime & Thompson Help Capitals Get Back To Identity In Win Over Ducks
WASHINGTON — The dog days are over for the Washington Capitals, who got back to their game on Tuesday after a few weeks of trading off wins and losses.
Brandon Duhaime had a goal and assist and Logan Thompson stood tall for the shutout to help the Capitals to a huge 3-0 win on Caps Canine Night. It's the first time they've won back-to-back games since late December.
Here are all the takeaways from the victory.
Capitals Find Their Spark At 5-on-5 Thanks To Bottom-6 & Defense, Frank Steps Up Again
Of late, the Capitals have struggled to generate much at 5-on-5, and have also been heavily outshot. That changed on Tuesday against Anaheim, as Washington found its spark at even strength and, for the first time in three games, managed at least 20 shots.
A lot of the thanks, though, goes to the bottom-6 and the defense.
Washington opened the scoring when Brandon Duhaime, driving to the front of the net, deflected a rebound bid from Jakob Chychrun past John Gibson. It marked Duhaime's fifth of the season, and Chychrun now has 22 points in his last 24 games overall.
Then, later in the period, John Carlson called his own number off a turnover to make it 2-0. It marked his fourth goal of the season, though he's had three called off for goaltender interference.
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Ethen Frank would make it 3-0 in the second, sniping home a feed from Pierre-Luc Dubois on a 2-on-1. Frank has been exactly what the third line has needed, as it finally got into a rhythm.
The goal marked his second in as many games, and he now has a point in each of his first three NHL games.
Logan Thompson Stands Tall, Strome Steps Up On Backcheck
With Charlie Lindgren going on the IR, the Capitals said they wanted to see Logan Thompson take the reins in net and show he can be a starter, and he did just that with another strong showing on Tuesday.
Making consecutive starts for just the second time this season, Thompson stopped all 18 shots against for his first shutout in D.C. as he advanced to 19-2-3. It's his fifth career shutout and the team's first shutout of the year.
Meanwhile, Dylan Strome led a solid defensive showing for Washington, making several key blocks and plays to keep the puck out of harm's way as the team limited Anaheim's stars to just 18 shots and kept the team off the board.
Top-6 Looks Better After Shake-Up
Washington made some tweaks to the top 6 amid ongoing struggles to generate high-quality chances, as Pierre-Luc Dubois went to work with Alex Ovechkin and Aliaksei Protas while Dylan Strome skated with Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson.
Both of those lines looked to be finding more chemistry with each other as the game went on, as each line got a handful of grade-A chances while opportunities and zone time increased significantly.
