Capitals maul the Mammoth in physical clash: numbers for the morning after

The Washington Capitals went into the Delta Center and smacked the Utah Mammoth in the mouth, literally and figuratively. After a night of shenanigans, the Caps came away 7-4 victors and made the Mammoth very mad in the process.

If you’re a random Western Conference team, look out. The Capitals will have beef with you.

• This game was an absolute mess, so I don’t think it’s worth really trying to parse through the five-on-five analytics. The Capitals were good for stretches, very bad for stretches, okay for stretches, and ended up scoring seven goals in an incredibly entertaining game. Can’t really complain about any of that. I will take entertaining over mindless boredom in these final few weeks when the games mean very little.
• Alex Ovechkin scored his 34th career hat trick. I went over all the other incredible history behind those three goals in the hat-trick post, so go read it if you haven’t, por favor. Really hope this isn’t the last Ovechkin hat trick we ever see in the NHL, but if it was, I made sure to savor it. I hope you did too.
• The Mammoth tried to beat the Capitals playing Tom Wilson’s game, but the problem is that there is only one Tom Wilson, and he is on the Capitals. Wilson completely rattled the Mammoth, who could not take down the Caps despite getting a boatload of help from some god-awful officiating. Number 43 ended up with a career-high 21 penalty minutes, which is way too much time in the box for him, but it was also worth it. Jack McBain learned to never admire a pass again. Don’t let anyone tell you that hit wasn’t clean as a whistle, because it was.

• Ivan Miroshnichenko recorded his first career multi-goal game, and his second goal was a massive one that really tilted the game in Washington’s favor. Overall, Miroshnichenko ended the night with 9:45 of ice time, two goals, three shots, and one shot block. Hendrix Lapierre also looked good as the center on that line, notching the primary assist on Miro’s first goal.
• Broken record at this point, but Logan Thompson was brilliant again, despite giving up four goals. Thompson made 36 stops on 40 shots faced, and per MoneyPuck, still saved 1.25 more goals than expected. He should be the runaway Vezina Trophy winner at this point, but NHL GMs vote on that award, so it’ll go to someone who makes the playoffs.
• Cole Hutson notched his third career point on Anthony Beauvillier’s power-play goal. I thought Beauvillier was brilliant the whole game, but it was good to see Hutson rocking and rolling in a really tough game for a rookie defenseman. Hutson ended the night with 14:55 of ice time, one assist, and three hits. With him on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals did not concede a single high-danger chance and recorded four of their own.