Washington Capitals crash the Dallas Stars party 5-0

If I told you that the Washington Capitals were 30th in the league on the power play this season, you would have laughed. The Capital’s power play unit would help spoil Zubov’s jersey retirement by beating the Dallas Stars 5-0. Here is the postgame recap of the Stars vs Capitals game in Dallas.

Dallas Stars vs Washington Capitals: 1st period recap

I think Braden Holtby would like to use his mulligan to restart the first period. This was not how he imagined the first start vs his former team.

The Stars would find themselves in a two goal deficit early in the game. Tom Wilson would score 10 seconds on their first power play to make it 1-0 Capitals. John Carlson would score on their second power play to add another goal for the Capitals. Rick Bowness did not want this to happen to the Stars early.

Tyler Van Riemsdyk would add another goal later in the period to make it 3-0 Capitals. The Stars look like they are at Zubov’s afterparty instead of playing the Capitals. The Stars would get a power play opportunity and they got a lot of good shots on goal, but none of them would go in the net.

At the end of the first period, the Stars trail the Capitals 3-0. The Capitals would lead the shots on goal category 19-14. This is definitely not the way the Stars wanted the first to go. They need some spark at beginning of the second period if they want to get back in the game.

Dallas Stars vs Washington Capitals: 2nd period recap

The Capitals seemed to be the ones coming out of the locker room energized as the Stars still looked lost on the ice. The Stars would go on a 4 minute power play due to Jamie Benn bleeding from the mouth and may have lost some teeth as well. The Stars had some good puck movement on the power play but couldn’t capitalize on it.

The Stars would be 0-3 on the power play for the game midway through the second period. Things would go downhill from the Stars here as Connor McMichael would score to make it 4-0. Nicklas Backstrom would score a bit later into the period to make it 5-0 and really put the game out of reach for the Stars.

The Stars would trail 5-0 going into the second intermission. The Capitals lead the Stars in the shots on goal category 27-22. I would pull Holtby for the 3rd period and give Oettinger some practice.

Dallas Stars vs Washington Capitals: 3rd period recap

Oettinger finally got to play some in this game as Holtby was pulled to start the third period. Nothing really happened in this period. Capitals basically played “playoff Hockey” in this period as they went on to win 5-0. Hopefully, the Stars can get things turned around on home ice quickly.