WASHINGTON, DC – Nicklas Backstrom scored two power play goals as the Washington Capitals rolled past the Winnipeg Jets, 5-1, Thursday night at the Verizon Center in Washington. Backstrom also had an assist to give him three points for the night, which tied him with Chicago’s Patrick Kane for the NHL lead in scoring with 63 points. Backstrom is the NHL leader in assists with 45.
“I’m going to bang that drum again. He’s as complete a player as you’re going to find in 
this league. I was astonished that he’s never played in an All-Star game. I was astonished that he never gets any votes for a Selke [Trophy]. I’m astonished that he doesn’t get a lot more recognition,” said Washington head coach Barry Trotz.
Backstrom’s first goal at 13:07 of the second period came with the Capitals up, 2-1. Mike Green and Alex Ovechkin worked the puck along the right side of the Winnipeg zone before feeding Backstrom. He skated in from the point to the top of the circle before he shot through Ondrej Pavelec’s pads in off his skates.
Backstrom’s second goal at 15:47 of the second period came on a four-on-one opportunity that resulted from a bad Winnipeg shift change on the penalty kill. The Capitals scored on a delayed too many men on the ice penalty on Winnipeg.
“There needs to be an iso-cam on him at all times because he does things that kind of make us shake our head on the bench. He has been doing everything that we need him to do, making plays, putting pucks in the net, which is awesome to see for him, and solid defensively. You just feel confidence when he’s breaking the puck up. You can tell, I like to see him do well,” said Washington defenseman Karl Alzner.
Troy Brouwer put the finishing touch with 6:27 left in the game with an unassisted shorthanded empty net goal as the Jets pulled Pavelec in desperation for a 6-on-4 power play.
“I thought we managed the game really well. In the third period, you’re up 4-1, you could easily forget detail, and you could forget a lot of stuff. We managed the game. We just kept playing, and it gets really frustrating for the other team. Everybody was doing their job, and when you’re doing your job and there’s no cheat in your game you get a lot done as a group of 20 every night,” said Trotz.
John Carlson opened the scoring on the power play at 14:10 of the first period after a Mark Scheifele tripping penalty, the first of five such penalties Winnipeg took tonight. Brouwer won the faceoff, and then Marcus Johansson worked the puck from the right circle to Backstrom at the side boards. Backstrom fed Carlson at the point, who unleashed his slap shot past Pavelec.
Alex Ovechkin made it 2-0 with his NHL-leading 38th goal at 18:35 of the first period. Braden Holtby came out of his net to play the puck to Matt Niskanen. Niskanen relayed the puck to Karl Alzner along the boards at his own blue line. Alzner pushed the puck up the boards to Ovechkin at the Winnipeg blue line, where he beat Jacob Trouba. Ovechkin then eluded Mark Stuart when Stuart and a chasing Trouba challenged Ovechkin in the crease before he beat Pavelec.
Winnipeg’s only goal came at even strength, when Toby Enstrom’s shot from the point deflected off Alzner’s skate through both Bryan Little and Niskanen standing in front of Holtby. The goal was initially credited to Michael Frolik because the official scorer thought Frolik might have gotten his stick on the puck when it hit Alzner’s skate.
The Capitals power play, the second-rated unit in the NHL, went 3 for 5 tonight.
“We made it a point; we stopped being physical. We took five tripping penalties. I’ve never seen that; that’s a first for any team I’ve ever seen. Either we’ve got really heavy sticks or we were behind it [and] we were behind it on a couple of them. We just weren’t very good [tonight]…,” said Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice.
“We knew it was good going in; that was a tough stretch there. We need to do a better job of staying out of the box…I think there’s things that happen where we were just uncharacteristic of what we’ve been doing. Like I said, they have a really good power play. We gave up a four-on-one on one so that’s pretty uncharacteristic of what we do,” said Winnipeg forward Andrew Ladd.
Holtby stopped 19 of 20 shots faced for the Capitals. Pavelec stopped 28 out of 32 shots faced for the Jets.
The Capitals won their third straight game. ”It gives us confidence. We haven’t won four in a row this year, so that’s something we should look for as a challenge this weekend. We are going to play two really good teams,” said Backstrom.
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