The Washington Capitals served notice to the rest of the NHL Saturday night that they are a team that will go four lines deep and then some when the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin.
With team captain Alex Ovechkin out of the lineup because of an upper-body injury (his first missed game because of injury this year), his replacement, 24-year-old Daniel Sprong, scored two goals.
T.J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Garnet Hathaway, and Nic Dowd also scored to beat the New York Islanders 6-3.
The win puts Washington (31-13-4 66 points) back into first place over Pittsburgh after the Penguins temporarily overtook them earlier in the day with a 4-2 win over New Jersey.
Before and after the game, players talked about the need for the entire roster to contribute with Ovechkin sidelined.
“If we’re missing the player like Alex, we have to step up. It’s tough playing without him, and I think that’s why we need that game today,” Kuznetsov said after the game.
“I think we have a good start today. We kind of played not the best hockey last game in the first period, so today we focus on that, and we generate some chances early in the game, and that give us momentum,” he said.
Sprong was particularly effective. He took Ovechkin’s place on a line with Tom Wilson and Kuznetsov and scored twice.
His first goal came at the 14:46 mark of the second period. After taking an early 2-0 lead in the first period, Washington saw the Islanders come back and tie the game early in the second. Nic Dowd’s goal gave the Caps the lead again, 3-2 at the 12:21 mark. Sprong took a pass from Kuznetsov and beat New York goalie Ilya Sorokin.
“Kuzy is an unbelievable player to play with,” Sprong said after the game. “I had a chance to play with him when Vrana was here. We had some good looks, but with Willy on the other side, I thought our line created chances from the start, and Kuzy made too beautiful plays.”
After the Islanders cut the Caps lead to 4-3 in the third period, Kuznetsov added to his two assists with his 9th goal of the year at the 7:35 mark of the third period. Sprong then added his second of the game to make the final score 6-3.
Head coach Peter Laviolette was pleased with the play up and down the lineup. However, he kept it low-key after the game saying having Sprong take Ovechkin’s place on the Kuznetsov line was more a case keeping the rest of the line up consistent.
“We had put Spornger up there because I just didn’t disrupt anywhere else,” Laviolette said. “He’s a goal scorer. He should play in a top-six position because of his skillset, so instead of messing the lines up where I really like the way we played. I just thought it would be simple to move him into that spot.”
The win was necessary for several reasons. Not only was it the second in two games against a potential playoff opponent, but it also comes as the Capitals start a brutal end of the season schedule.
Every game the Capitals play between now and the end of the regular season is against teams either in a playoff spot or just outside the division’s top four.
“Going down the last ten games, we talked about who we have to play, who we’re going to have to play in the playoffs. There are big games that are coming up with this team. I’m sure it’ll give us a handful,” Laviolette said. “Pittsburgh is coming up. Boston is coming up. Those are the games you want to play going into the playoffs. You want to play that style of hockey. You want to have it mean something.”
“I think I’m happy with the way the schedule is set up for us,” Kuznetsov said. “These games you’ve been waiting for, and you want to play these teams that don’t give you a lot, and it’s always fun to have that type of challenge.”