The Washington Capitals enter December red-hot with four straight wins despite losing Alex Ovechkin to injury.
For those solely focused on Ovechkin’s pursuit of 894 goals, one will have to settle for the Caps’ rise to the top of the Eastern Conference standings.
Record: 17-6-1, good enough for first place in the Metropolitan Division (one point ahead of New Jersey and two ahead of Carolina). Looking at the big picture they’re nine points ahead of the first team out of the playoff pack (Tampa Bay).
Rankings: First (4.21 goals per game) in scoring and tied for eighth (2.88) in goals against, 12th (22.7%) on the power play (after being 32nd earlier in the month) and fourth (83.3%) on the penalty kill.
Diamonds Direct Iceman: Dylan Strome tallied five goals with 16 assists over 14 games. And to prove he’s not just a product of being on Alex Ovechkin’s line, he’s posted two goals with four assists since Ovechkin went on the shelf. Strome’s 26 assists are third-most in the NHL and he’s tied for fifth in points (34).
Hot Sticks and Cold Pads: Connor McMichael netted nine goals with five assists in November and is within shouting distance of passing career marks set last year (14 goals with 10 assists, 18-15 last winter).
Aliaksei Protas (5-7 this month, 8-13 on the season) is also off to a strong start as is John Carlson (1-10 and 3-16). Netminder Logan Thompson went 6-1-1 with a goals-against average of 2.24 including a win over his former team: the Vegas Golden Knights.
Ovi Odometer: Alex Ovechkin, before the injury, had scored a league-high 15 goals, and his 868 career goals stand 26 shy of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL mark. He was on pace to score 68 goals this season. Ovechkin is already a week-plus into his four-to-six-week prognosis, and if one splits the difference, he stands to return on Dec. 28 after missing 16 total games.
That would give him 46 left in the regular season (if he plays all of them and one thinks he might get a rest day here and there coming back). Let’s say there are four of those sprinkled over the final four months of the season. His 26 goals over 42 games require a 50-goal for the full-season pace.
Of course, this could get scrubbed if he takes longer to return (remember John Carlson’s December injury two winters ago).
Matchup of the Month: On Friday, Dec. 20, Carolina comes to Capital One Arena. The Hurricanes begin the month two points behind the Caps and Washington lost there 4-2 in November. There are some who are still sore five-plus years after a seven-game first-round series loss in the 2019 playoffs.
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