POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 2, Rangers 1

Déjà vu All Over Again - If you watched the end of Friday's Caps-Rangers game at Capital One Arena and it felt as though you'd seen that movie before, maybe it's because you did.

On Friday night against the Rangers, the Caps were down a goal late in a low-scoring contest and had been unable to generate much in the way of offense all night long. Heading into the final seven minutes of the game, they had mustered just two shots on net in the previous 24-plus minutes of the game, both of them from defensemen. Of Washington's total of 13 shots on net to that point of the game, only six had come off the sticks of forwards. And only two of those six shots from the forward corps were from inside of 30 feet away. Both of those came in the first six minutes of the first period.
With seven minutes left in the third and Washington trailing 1-0, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin had been held without a shot on net in four attempts; three missed the mark and one was blocked.
Quite suddenly, Ovechkin scored twice in a span of 3:09 to give the Caps a 2-1 lead, and Washington won the game - its seventh straight - by that same score. Ovechkin's goals were virtually identical: a Washington forward gained the zone on the right side, curled off and fed a late-arriving defenseman at center point. That defenseman in turn fed his blueline partner for a one-timer from the left circle, and Ovechkin buried the rebound.

Ovechkin is on a bit of a tear right now; he has scored in each of his last five games and has seven goals in his last seven. Friday marked the 147th multi-goal game of Ovechkin's career, tying him with Gordie Howe for the fourth-most in NHL history.
"We had some breakdowns, but overall we liked the way we played for the most part," says Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba. "We had a couple of rebounds in front the last five minutes, so it's tough to lose that way. But I don't think we're looking at it that way, I think we're looking at we played pretty well for 55 minutes of that game."
Okay, so that's the basic story line of Friday night's game against the Rangers.
Now, here are the first few paragraphs from our game recap of a Feb. 4, 2020 game against the Los Angeles Kings at Capital One Arena:
For the better part of the evening, Tuesday's Caps-Kings contest at Capital One Arena was a bit of a snooze-fest, a game likely to spike concourse coffee sales. But with just over six minutes left, Alex Ovechkin literally took over and put a whole new coat of red paint on the game.
When it was over, the Caps were 4-2 winners as Ovechkin notched a natural hat trick, scoring three goals in a span of just 4 minutes and 24 seconds on a night in which he was held without a shot on net for the first 53 minutes of the game.
The Kings had been stymying more than just Ovechkin up to that juncture. His first goal was just the fifth shot on net of the night from one of Washington's top six forwards, and it was the first of those five to come from inside of 25 feet away.
"We played a good game," laments Kings defenseman Drew Doughty. "Obviously there are ups and downs throughout the game, and they dominated a few times and we dominated a few times. But to shut down the best scorer in our generation by a mile for 55 minutes, and then let him get three in the last five minutes or whatever the minutes were, it's really frustrating."
With 14 goals - and three hat tricks - in his last seven games, Ovechkin is hotter than the sun right now, but without the harmful UVA rays.
You have seen this movie before - right down to the postgame quotes from the opposition - but it's well worth watching over and over again.
We say it all the time, but we here in the D.C. area have been so fortunate to witness the feats of greatness - some of them seemingly arising from nothing and at the most unlikely times - and the extraordinary on-ice exploits from Ovechkin for the last decade and a half. Continue to enjoy and savor while you still can.
Stop, Stop, Stop - Caps goaltender Vitek Vanecek turned in yet another strong performance in Friday's win over the Rangers. Vanecek stopped 32 of 33 shots on the night; only Artemi Panarin's power-play shot from the left dot late in the first slipped past him, and he nearly stopped that one, too.
Vanecek made key stops on Brendan Smith and Trouba in the first and another huge save on Ryan Strome in the second.
Friday's performance followed Vanecek's first career shutout on Monday night in Buffalo, a 23 save outing that leaves him with 55 saves on 56 shots in his last two starts. Over a longer haul, Vanecek is 8-2-1 in his last 11 starts with a 2.06 GAA and a .923 save pct.
"He almost had the one that went in," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of Vanecek. "That was a tough one. There was two other real tough ones [in the first period]. And then he gave us a steady performance after that, so I thought he was really sharp. But our goaltending has been real good lately, and it's given us a chance to win games. And that was a perfect example of giving us a chance to win a game."

Climbing The Ladder - Caps defenseman John Carlson picked up an assist on Ovechkin's second goal of the game, the 393rd assist of his NHL career. With that helper, Carlson moves past Hockey Hall of Famer Mike Gartner for sole possession of fourth place on Washington's all-time assists ledger. Next up on that list is third-place Michal Pivonka (418).
Carlson has 14 points (two goals, 12 assists) in his last 14 games.
Heat Wave - Evgeny Kuznetsov earned a helper on Ovechkin's first goal, extending his team leading point streak to six straight games (one goal, six assist). Kuznetsov is two games shy of matching his career-best point streak of eight, which he has achieved twice. The most recent instance was from Nov. 30-Dec. 15, 2018 (10 assists).
We Will Be Strong - The Caps have not yielded an even strength goal in a week, a span of three-plus games. Washington has allowed only two goals in its last three games, both of them on the power play. The last 5-on-5 goal scored against the Capitals was last Saturday night in Philadelphia when Nolan Patrick scored at 5:47 of the second period. Since then, Washington has played a total of 214 minutes and 13 seconds of hockey without yielding a goal at even strength.
Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears were on the road on Friday night, facing the Binghamton Devils at RWJ Barnabas Health Hockey House. Hershey roared out to a 4-1 lead in the second period but ultimately suffered a 6-5 setback at the hands of the Devils.
After the Devils grabbed an early 1-0 lead, Matt Moulson tied the game for the Bears with his third goal of the season at 7:39 of the first, getting help from Shane Gersich and Will Graber.
At 2:33 of an eventful second period, Paul LaDue scored his first goal as a member of the Bears, a power-play tally that lifted Hershey to a 2-1 lead, Martin Fehervary and Kody Clark assisting. Garrett Pilon scored his third of the season at 12:35 with Graber and Mike Sgarbossa on the assists, and Joe Snively notched his third from Fehervary and Sgarbossa to give Hershey its' 4- 1 lead at 15:29 of the second.
That proved to be the high-water mark of the night for the Bears, who went on to surrender the game's next five goals, including three of them in a span of 3 minutes and 11 seconds between Snively's goal and the end of the second period.
The two teams entered the third deadlocked at 4-4, but the Devils scored twice to take a 6-4 lead before Clark scored a power-play goal - his fifth of the season - from Pilon and Cameron Schilling at 15:05 of the third, accounting for the 6-5 final.
Pheonix Copley stopped 16 of the 22 shots he faced in the Hershey nets, falling to 2-2-1-0 on the season. Hershey falls to 7-4-2-0 on the season, and the Bears will be back in action on Sunday afternoon when they host the Devils at Giant Center.
By The Numbers - Carlson led the Caps with 23:24 in ice time … Ovechkin, Justin Schultz, Nick Jensen and Conor Sheary each had two shots on net to lead the Caps … Ovechkin led Washington with seven shot attempts … Carlson and Nic Dowd each blocked two shots to lead the Caps … Dowd won 14 of 17 face-offs (82 percent) and T.J. Oshie won all four of his draws in the game.