Behind Dylan Strome’s first hat trick as a Capital and a sturdy performance in net from Charlie Lindgren, the Caps skated off with an impressive 3-1 victory over the Islanders in New York on Tuesday night at UBS Arena.
With the hat trick, Strome is up to 29 goals on the season, a career best. He also surpassed the 80-point plateau and becomes the first player not drafted by the Caps to have an 80-point season for Washington since Adam Oates had 82 (13 goals, 69 assists) in 2000-01.
Lindgren’s Tuesday night victory is his 20th of the season, a milestone he has now reached in consecutive seasons. For the first time in franchise history, the Caps have a 30-win goalie (Logan Thompson (31-6-6) and a 20-win goalie in the same season; it’s the third time in franchise history the Caps have had two goalies with 20 or more victories in the same season.
Perhaps as important as those milestones was Washington’s overall 60-minute team effort; the Caps turned in a strong overall performance both offensively and defensively. And despite playing without two of their top six defensemen – John Carlson and Jakob Chychrun sat out for maintenance reasons – the Caps were much sharper and more connected from the start.
“I thought it had a lot of similarities to the Columbus game [on Sunday, a 4-1 loss in which the Caps played well] from the way that we looked,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery, “from the way that we looked, our 5-on-5 game early in the game, good road [game], and got all the lines involved. But it was just a solid, solid 60 minutes from our group.”
Early in the game, the Caps were mostly in New York ice creating, and only a dazzling stop from Ilya Sorokin on Anthony Beauvillier prevented the Caps from jumping out to a 1-0 lead before the game’s first television timeout.
Instead, they jumped out to that 1-0 lead seconds after that first television timeout, and on their first power play of the game. From the point, Strome let a shot fly, and it caromed off New York defenseman Ryan Pulock and in at 8:15 of the first period.
Before the midpoint of the second period, Strome struck again to make it a 2-0 Washington lead. Operating from Wayne Gretzky’s office behind the New York net, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin issued a perfect feed to the front for Strome, who whipped it home at 7:52 of the middle period.
Lindgren saw a big chunk of his workload on a couple of strong offensive zone shifts from the Islanders late in the second period; he made seven stops in a span of just 45 seconds of playing time, including a deflection and a couple shots from in tight.
“For a while there, there wasn’t a ton of shots,” says Lindgren. “And then there was a flurry there in the second. Sometimes those are good though; it gets you into the game.”
New York’s Hudson Fasching spoiled Lindgren’s shutout bid with 8:24 left in the game when he curled off the left half wall and put a shot toward the net that found purchase behind Lindgren after deflecting off the tangle of sticks and bodies in front, cutting the Caps’ lead to 2-1.
After the Isles pulled Sorokin for an extra attacker – requiring Lindgren to make a couple more late stops – Tom Wilson set up Strome for an empty-net goal to fill the hat trick with 1:11 left on the clock.
“It’s nice,” says Strome of the hat trick and the milestones. “It’s a lot of great players I get to play with. I’ve been playing with [Ovechkin] most of the season, and obviously the season that [Aliaksei Protas] has had. And I play with guys like Willie and [Connor McMichael] and [P-L Dubois]. The whole team has been chipping in, and I feel like we’ve done it the whole year.”
Kudos go out to both Alex Alexeyev and Dylan McIlrath, the two defensemen who stepped on for Carlson and Chychrun. Both Alexeyev and McIlrath have earned the lasting respect o their teammates and the coaching staff for their tireless work ethic and absolute professionalism throughout a season in which Washington’s top six defensemen remained both healthy and effective for a 60-game span.
Pressed into service on Tuesday night, both answered the bell and played well.
“I want to harp on just the guys in front of me and how well they did tonight,” says Lindgren. “Alexeyev and McIlrath, those guys are warriors for what they've done all year long, putting the work in, in the dark when no one else is watching, and not playing a lot of minutes. And they both come out and they're just steady Eddie out there, and they deserve a ton of credit for just how good of teammates they've been this year.”
And finally, at game’s end, the Caps again put on a classy display, waiting on the ice to shake the hand of veteran Isles winger Matt Martin. The soon-to-be 36-year-old winger is in the last season of is contract, and he might have been playing his final game in front of the home crowd tonight.
A fan favorite for a long time in these parts, Martin got emotional when asked about his future this morning, and he was celebrated by the Islanders fans during the game’s final television timeout in the third period.
Martin played his 986th career NHL game tonight, and the local media named him the game’s No. 1 star. Here’s to hoping Martin clicks the odometer over to 1,000 somewhere in the League next season.
