NHL Game Recap: Washington Capitals Secure First Season Win over Vegas Golden Knights

The Washington Capitals took a decisive 4-2 victory last night as the Vegas Golden Knights visited them at Capital One Arena. The team’s impressive five-on-five play and dominant second period helped them to secure the win and notch two points early in the season. The second period saw the home team create 16 scoring chances and 10 high-danger chances at even strength. Additionally, they scored three goals in a 3:07 stretch, effectively putting the Golden Knights’ defense on high alert for the rest of the night.

The man himself, Alex Ovechkin, continued to prove himself as a dominant force on ice even in his 19th season in the National Hockey League. Ovi tallied two assists on the night, adding to his long list of impressive stats–700 career assists. He is one of six players in NHL history with over 700 assists and 700 goals.

Newcomers were the story of the night for the Washington Capitals, with six new additions suiting up, plus Jakub Vrana’s return. In his first official shot on goal back with the Capitals, forward Jakub Vrana scored in the first period, proving that scratching Sonny Milano in favor of Vrana was a beneficial move for the team. Newcomer Andrew Mangiapane tallied an assist on that goal, his first point with Washington.

Defenseman Jakob Chychrun also got his name on the scoreboard in the second period. He was paired with longtime Caps defenseman John Carlson, and the pair helped create some of the longest periods of possession in the zone. Their numbers together were also impressive– one goal, one assist, 13 individual shot attempts, and seven individual scoring chances. “It feels great,” Chychrun said about his first goal with the team. “It was a good play by Dowder (Nic Dowd) and it always feels good to get your first. It was exciting for me. The boys have been great, and it’s nice to be able to contribute in a game that we really wanted to win.”

The team debuted a brand-new fourth line consisting of Brandon Duhaime, Nic Dowd, and Taylor Raddysh. Duhaime and Raddysh are among the new adds to the team. They made a huge impact throughout their time on ice: at five-on-five, the line out-chanced the Golden Knights 12-1 and dominated in high-danger chances 5-0. Considering the trio only earned one offensive-zone start, the numbers speak for themselves.

Goaltender Logan Thompson secured his first win against his former team by saving 24 of 26 shots, 0.61 more saves than expected. Head Coach Spencer Carbery praised Thompson’s performance post-game: “[Thompson’s game was] phenomenal, especially when it got to 4-2,” he said. “Because we got a little helter-skelter, made two pretty big mistakes on that face-off, the o-zone face-off…so we need to correct those, but he stepped up big time.”

With a stacked lineup of players in their first season with the Capitals, there are likely to be growing pains as lines are shifted and new players adjust to a different style of coaching, play, and teamwork than they are used to. However, if the team can continue to perform like they did on Tuesday night, the season is looking bright for the boys in Washington. “When you’re contributing in positive ways,” said Carbery of the newcomers, “whether it’s points, hits, penalty kills, whatever, those things, they just help you feel like, ‘I’m contributing to the group,’ and it just makes you feel more comfortable.” When the new (and hopefully improved) Capitals team really begins to click and find their groove in a handful of weeks, I am confident it will be smooth sailing for 2024-2025.