Livescore
Alex Ovechkin has seven goals in 15 games since returning from his broken leg after the Washington Capitals’ holiday break.
That’s a 40-goal pace, which is tremendous. But with just 32 games left in Washington’s regular season, The Great 8 must pick it up if he’s going to break Wayne Gretzky’s goal-scoring record before the end of the year.
Saturday night in Vancouver, the Capitals’ captain did everything he could to get a little closer to 895. Ovechkin fired seven of his team’s 33 shots for the night on Kevin Lankinen, played the full two minutes of both Washington power plays, and stayed on for the final 1:29 as his team tried to find an equalizer before settling for a 2-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.
“I think we had pretty good chances,” said Ovechkin after the game. “Obviously, the goalie played well. At the end, we just missed execution. But it was a good battle. We fight to the end and unfortunately, we didn’t get points.”
We’re only a few days away from the end of January, but Saturday marked the first time in 2025 that the Capitals didn’t get points on a game night. Their 12-game streak, the longest in the NHL so far this season, was snapped at 9-0-3, dating back to Dec. 31. The loss was also Washington’s first of any type in seven games.
Lankinen had an outstanding night, making 32 saves. But Charlie Lindgren deserves some credit at the other end, too. Playing consecutive games for the first time this season after picking up a shutout in Seattle on Thursday, Lindgren gave his team an extended chance to tie with a spectacular play with 1:20 left on the clock, reversing course to snag a long-range empty-net try from Phil Di Giuseppe.
“I saw us kind of turn it over there right when he was heading to the bench, and got a little nervous,” said teammate Connor McMichael. “He made a really good heads-up play to get back in the net and, obviously, sprawl out to make that save.
“I’m not shocked. Chucky makes a lot of great saves like that.”
McMichael picked up the secondary assist on Washington’s only goal on Saturday. It came late in the third period when Pierre-Luc Dubois and Aliaksei Protas made Lankinen’s life difficult at the net front as Capitals coach Spencer Carbery juggled his lines to try to generate some offense.
“We’re just trying to find a way to get something there and provide a spark,” Carbery said. “I thought they did do that and I thought our whole team — the third period was solid. We carried play and they’re protecting the lead, so a little bit is a reflection of the score, but I thought we did a lot of good things. We were, way more, in and around the net and threatening there. Making Lankinen’s life, at least, a little bit more difficult, and he had to make some quality saves.”
Even with the loss, the Capitals still sit first in the overall NHL standings, and have a comfortable seven-point cushion over the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference. But while Ovechkin’s goal chase has mesmerized the hockey world, his team’s overall production has taken a dip even as it has continued to collect points.
Over the full season, Washington ranks third in offense, averaging 3.49 goals a game. But since Jan. 11, the Capitals have scored just 19 times in seven games — well below the league average.
The power play has gone 2-for-14 and they’ve mustered just 13 goals at 5-on-5, ranking in the bottom half of the league during that span.
But Washington has also surrendered just six goals in those seven games. Until Saturday, airtight defense and spectacular crease-keeping from both Lindgren and Logan Thompson kept the points piling up.
In Vancouver, they got ‘goalied’ like they’ve done to so many other teams. And Canucks captain Quinn Hughes delivered yet another sublime performance, scoring both goals for his team with traffic in front of Lindgren.
“You’ll look at Quinn Hughes, and everybody will talk about how great he is, and he is great,” Carbery said. “I’m not taking anything away from him. He creates those two goals. But for me, those goals are (Linus) Karlsson and (Elias) Pettersson. Scored those goals because they just anchored themselves right on top of Chucky, and he couldn’t see the puck. It’s a great shot by Hughes, but those two guys are willing to go to the net, and we just weren’t.”
Up next, the Capitals will continue their five-game road trip in Calgary on Tuesday, where Stampede City native Logan Thompson is expected to start in net after a two-game break.
Washington will be catching the Flames tired. They’ll be playing their third game in four nights when they return to the Saddledome after a back-to-back set on Saturday in Minnesota and Sunday in Winnipeg.
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