Ovechkin gets 497th career goal, Capitals beat Islanders 4-1

Alex Ovechkin moved closer to a major milestone, Braden Holtby kept up his stellar play and the Washington Capitals kept rolling.

Ovi also hold the Capitals records for career goals, assists and points scored.

Washington is 19-0-2 in the last 21 games in which Holtby has appeared. When opponents figured out how to slow him down to 32 and 38 goals in back-to-back seasons, he and the Capitals adjusted.

It will be the first of four games that these two teams will play over the course of the next three months of the season. After the teams met in a bruising seven-game first-round postseason series a year ago, the Capitals said they expected a playoff atmosphere, and Washington again was victorious. He dropped it to Ovechkin, and the 30-year-old Russian wristed a shot past Halak from the right faceoff circle.

This one went through Halak’s pads and made it 2-0. He took a pass from Ryan Strome in the high slot and fired a wrist shot past Holtby for his 14th of the season. “Good for the fans and it’s fun games when we play”.

“We had a good start, that was the key”, Backstrom said.

After 40 games, the New York Islanders have shown that they might have what it takes to become a Stanley Cup contender, and a big home win tomorrow will go a long way in making that statement. But now it seems like a lot of us have gotten a good sense of that.

Ovechkin had a chance for No. 498 about 9 minutes into the second, but the puck clanged off the crossbar.

Ovechkin’s goal, his 497th in the league and 22nd this season, helped his Capitals earn a 4-1 victory in Brooklyn, NY.

“It was real big, Schmidt’s goal there after the big kill”, Capitals coach Barry Trotz said.

“For us, I don’t think we saw how maybe this would work”, said Tavares, who was named Wednesday to his third consecutive All-Star Game.

The Washington Capitals hope to remain red hot after winning eight of their last 10 games.

“You see him get goals in front of the net five-on-five, you see him get backhand goals, you see him get tip goals, ” Oates said.

“I thought I could score every night”. Halak has a knack for playing far, far better against the Capitals than with them, so hopefully the Washington offense can find ways to the back of the net. The team is in the midst of a five game road trip, which will end this Saturday when the Rangers host the Capitals downtown at Madison Square Garden. Marcus Johansson won an offensive-zone draw, skated around the net and fed Jason Chimera at the goal line. In his 11th season with the Caps, he is part of select group of six players to reach the 50 goal mark in a season six times. The Los Angeles Kings bought out the final five years of Richards’ contract June 29, 12 days after he was stopped at the Canadian/U.S. border and found to be in possession of OxyContin….

Thomas Greiss started the five games Halak missed and will be the backup Thursday. Once they got on the ice, they again flashed the moves that have made them the league’s top team. Washington center Zach Sill was suspended for two games for boarding Boston’s Adam McQuaid on Tuesday night.