In Washington, DC, the Capitals scored twice in each period and brushed aside a disengaged Chicago Blackhawks club, 6-1 on Thursday night. 
John Carlson scored in his return the Caps lineup, his strike gave them a 5-0 lead in the third period.
“Obviously, I wasn’t expecting to play a perfect game, no one ever does, but it was nice to be back under fire,” Carlson said.
Carlson missed 42 recovering from a skull injury.
“We missed him,” Washington goalie Darcy Kuemper said. “In my position, definitely missed him out there. We’ve been watching all the hard work he’s been putting in to get back. To see someone go through something so scary and then make a comeback like that, and then have that performance, was pretty special.”
Kuemper made 27 saves in the win.
“I think as a team we played a good game,” Carlson said. “It’s nice to get some jump, get some real nice plays by everyone tonight. And I think any time you come back, you want to win, that’s the most important thing. So yeah, I’m excited.”
The Capitals moved to 34-31-8.
Washington took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Conor Sheary and Anthony Mantha.
“I think we started chasing them a bit,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. “It was in the second period they scored early, and then we got a power play and we really kind of got off routine and we started chasing them around. Even on the power play, they hemmed us pretty good there with their two penalty-killers working hard.”
Chasing is being generous, the Blackhawks simply followed the Caps around the cie for 60 minutes.
Chicago dropped to 24-41-6 off their third straight loss.
“I think we need to tighten up and simplify our game a little bit,” Chicago defenseman Jarred Tinordi said. “We’re kind of circling too much and kind of giving pucks away when I think the way we had success earlier was just more of a north-south game.”
Iver the three0game slide, the Blackhawks have been outscored 15-3.
“It’s definitely tough right now,” Chicago forward Tyler Johnson said. “It’s a little embarrassing. We have to play a lot better. We’re not sticking to our structure, not sticking to our system and kind of just out there right now, and we’ve got to compete and play a lot harder for each other.”
Nikita Zaitsev scored a so-what goal for Chicago in the third to make the count 5-1 for the Caps.
“I thought the special teams were really good,” Washington coach Peter Laviolette said. “There [were] some back-to-back-to-back kills there early on in the game where the penalty kill had to step up and do the job, so I thought that they were good. It’s nice to have [Kuemper] healthy and back. It’s nice to have [Carlson] healthy and back.”
Nic Dowd and Nicklas Backstrom pushed the lead out to 4-0 with their strikes in the middle frame.
Alex Ovechkin scored late in the third period for the 6-1 final.
Anton Khudobin made 22 saves in the Chicago loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.