The Washington Capitals were supposed to be the well-composed and well-rested team in their Sunday afternoon game against the Seattle Kraken, but that’s not how it played out. The Caps had to scrape by for the most of the day – until Connor McMichael became the hero.
Shane Wright got a crackerjack of an assist from Andre Burakovsky, the lone goal of the first period. Marty Fehervary got an excellent setup from Aliaksei Protas to tie it early in the second, then Washington nabbed a temporary lead when Dylan Strome commanded the offensive zone, but Jordan Eberle’s rush goal with Chandler Stephenson restored the tie after forty minutes.
With five minutes left in regulation, Connor McMichael tipped John Carlson’s shot to give the Caps a late lead. With Seattle’s net empty, Alex Ovechkin scored on a long-distance backhander.
Caps win!
- Anthony Beauvillier made his debut and fit in great on the fourth line. There were lots of problems with the Caps’ puck possession on Sunday, but least so in his brief minutes.
- Aliaksei Protas made another “whoa, where did he come from?” plays, dropping a pass to Martin Fehervary. He’s a continuing revelation. He can make me appreciate even a drop pass.
- With the secondary assist on that goal, player-of-the-game Connor McMichael earned his 100th NHL point. With the game winner he made it 101. And he was wearing a microphone when the strangest thing happened. The officials called a Too Many Men penalty – on the other team.
- The Caps were outshot 24 attempts to 10 during five-on-five play in the first period – one of their worst of the season. They got progressively better as the game wore on, but progressively better than 29-percent possession can still be bad.
- In his 500th game, Dylan Strome sunk his 19th goal of the season, looking confident in the offensive zone in a way we haven’t seen enough of lately.
- Did you know Andre Burakovsky is 30 years old? Feels wrong. Feels like should have been capped at 24. Peter Pan situation.
- Six and a half minutes into the third period, the game erupted into a line brawl. Some of it was really nasty, resulting in ten players in the box and Brandon Duhaime getting ejected.
Big angry scrum here—refs had trouble separating everyone pic.twitter.com/50hBsSD7EY
— Katie Adler (@katieEadler) March 9, 2025
- Now I don’t usually do this, but let’s do some nested bullets. Here’s every offender and victim on that play:
- Tye Kartye roughing against Brandon Duhaime
- Tom Wilson roughing against Josh Mahura
- John Hayden roughing against Brandon Duhaime
- Josh Mahura holding against Tom Wilson
- Brandon Montour roughing against John Carlson
- Pierre-Luc Dubois roughing against Mikey Eyssimont
- John Carlson roughing against Brandon Montour
- Trevor van Riemsdyk roughing against John Hayden
- Mikey Eyssimont roughing against Pierre-Luc Dubois
- John Hayden misconduct against Brandon Duhaime
- Brandon Duhaime roughing against John Hayden
- Brandon Duhaime roughing against John Hayden
- Brandon Duhaime misconduct against John Hayden
- If the Caps were the team behind the Stephenson-to-Eberle goal, I’d be raving about the play. But because it happened against the Caps, I’m not so much praising the playmaking and finesse. Mostly I’m cranky that Matt Roy and Brandon Duhaime couldn’t get a stick or body on it.
- Alex Ovechkin is now single digits away from Wayne Gretzky. The empty-netter was a weird one: a backhander from outside the zone that he barely had a second to organize.
#joebsuitofthenight of the mid-afternoon pic.twitter.com/SVRH192JCv
— RMNB (@rmnb) March 9, 2025
After 64 games, the 2024-25 Washington Capitals have more points, 92, than the 2023-24 Washington Capitals got in 82 games (91). It’s special.
The Caps will now begin their last long roadtrip of the season, starting with late-night hellgames in LA and Anaheim. Those games are generally the least-watched, but with Ovechkin on the cusp and the Caps nearing playoff-lock status, there’s a lot of reasons to tune in.