"They were overplaying [Alex Ovechkin] for the first three power plays, I think," recounts Niskanen. "Just a little rotation where I was able to get a pretty good look from the middle of the ice and then the last couple of kills they switched it again and got more aggressive.
"That group of four [regulars on the Caps' top power play unit] that I was with tonight, they're really good at reading what the other team is doing, and they can adjust quickly without even talking about it. So I'm just trying to get up to speed with what they're doing."
But minutes after they completed their only successful penalty-killing mission of the night, Orlov went to the box. The Caps lost a board battle behind their own net, and Niskanen lost his stick in the process. The puck came around to Duclair, who popped a shot in from virtually no angle, shooting from the goal line down low, off the left post.
The Jackets came into the contest with the league's worst ranked power play, but that unit got well at Washington's expense on Friday night. The Caps' penalty killers are now at 72.2% on the season, ranking 27th in the NHL. Washington has allowed multiple power-play goals in four of its 15 games this season, and has been nicked for at least one in 11 of 15 contests.
"As we are getting closer to 20 games, you get to have a true analysis of what things are going on," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "Special teams was a big part of tonight's game, and they were able to score one more power-play goal than us, and that decided the game."