I Washington Wednesday, the Capitals built a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes and never looked back on their way to a 6-2 thrashing of the Chicago Blackhawks.
Alex Ovechkin had a goal and four points in the win.
“I think our line right now feels very good,” Ovechkin said. “We have lots of minutes. When you have [those] minutes, you just enjoy the time and enjoy [playing]. Especially against a great team, you have a tough matchup, and when you beat them the feeling is 
unbelievable.”
Nicklas Backstrom, Tom Wilson (two goals), Brett Connolly, and Evgeny Kuznetsov also scored for the Caps.
For Backstrom, it was his first goal in 21 games.
“It’s nice to score, but I haven’t really been thinking about it too much,” Backstrom said. “The last two or three games we’ve been winning. But as a hockey player, you always want to score, right?”
The Caps pushed their record to 17-11-1.
“I thought they came out with a pretty good focus. I thought they played quick and they played heavy, and they sort of took the game over,” Caps head coach Barry Trotz said after the win. “They were really good. Nicky got the first one, and I don’t think there was anyone on our bench who wasn’t happy he got it. It’s got to be a sense of relief. That line carried us tonight.”
Braden Holtby made 37 saves to pick up the win.
“Any time you can jump on them at the start, get a couple of goals, it’s a benefit,” Holtby said. “I thought really in the end that was the difference in the game, that we got those first three. But after that, there’s some work to be done.”
It was Chicago’s fifth straight loss.
“It’s a different story every night,” Chicago’s Duncan Keith said. “Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us.”
Lance Bouma and Jonathan Toews scored for the Hawks.
[WATCH:Â All Blackhawks vs. Capitals highlights]
Anton Forsberg got the start for Chicago but got the hook after the Caps’ fourth goal.
“We let their top guys do what they wanted to do with the puck early on in the game,” Toews said. “And when we get down, they just seem to feed off it and feed off their own offense and it kept coming.”
J.F. Berube mopped up as best he could and made 12 saves.
“Not happy about tonight’s game. You can be misled by the shot clock or maybe it looked like we had some looks there,” Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville said after the dismal effort from his team. “The quality of our chances, the volume of our shots hit [Holtby] right in the chest with no chance of getting a second opportunity whether there was some people at the net or not. It was almost like we gave the puck to them just by putting it at the net.”
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