Two costly Kraken errors give Capitals their first win on road trip out west:

The Washington Capitals made their way into Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday night looking to find the first win on their five-game road trip out west after unsuccessful tries in Winnipeg and Edmonton. Would the return to action in the US prove positive or continue the not-so-good feelings onto Vancouver?

TJ Oshie opened the scoring after he was the beneficiary of some bizarre goaltending from Joey Daccord as the netminder cleared the puck directly into Oshie’s lap and into the goal. Oliver Bjorkstrand tied the game early in the third with a power play strike.

Andre Burakovsky gifted Connor McMichael a breakaway and the young center potted the chance to restore the Capitals’ lead.

Capitals beat Kraken 2-1!

• The first period was “low event” as Joe B called it. I don’t have to be as nice as Joe B so I’ll just call it horrifically boring. Neither team wanted to make a mistake and that led to just a whole ton of stick battles along the boards and point shots getting blocked. Not great for a 10 pm ET start time.
• One of the lone bright spots in the first twenty minutes was yet again everyone’s favorite Russian child, Ivan Miroshnichenko. Miro threw a big hit in the offensive zone and battled hard for the puck in all of his shifts. I’ve started to perk up when I see him on the ice as it usually means good things for the Capitals lately.
• Was anyone else sorta shocked to hear that Andre Burakovsky only had three goals in 31 games this season coming into the night’s action? Would you be more or less surprised to hear that he just turned 29 years old last month? The time has flown.

Iceburgh is already interviewing suspects. https://t.co/O1cJpNgEtv pic.twitter.com/lCFAy1rxDW

— D.F. (@dfpendrys) March 14, 2024

• The Capitals definitely took hold of the second period and played the majority of it in the offensive zone. Tom Wilson drew a suspicious penalty by holding Brian Dumoulin’s stick between his legs and of course, the Capitals capitalized on that. Well played first 40 minutes especially considering no rest and the performance from the night before.
• TJ Oshie was the capitalizer as he scored against what is technically his hometown team. The Washington native put pressure on Joey Daccord and was rewarded with a goal that you’ll more often see in soccer as Daccord accidentally used Oshie’s body as a backboard with a failed clearance. You’ll take those every single game.
• Tonight’s trivia question on the broadcast got me thinking about what other “off the board” jersey numbers have been used multiple times in Capitals franchise history. Four players have worn number 51. Those four players have a combined 136 games for the Capitals and 130 of them belong to enforcer Stephen Peat. Peat is also the only one with an NHL goal as he tallied eight in his career. The other three are Doug Doull (2006), Louis Robitaille (2006), and Timo…