The Washington Capitals pulled ahead of the Montreal Canadiens in Game 4 via an Andrew Mangiapane goal with 3:37 remaining in the third period. They’d add two more empty-net goals and push the Habs to the brink of elimination with a 5-2 victory.
While Mangiapane received his due praise for beating goaltender Jakub Dobeš with the game-winning shot, the intelligent drop pass from Dylan Strome was not talked about. Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery corrected that after practice on Tuesday when asked what Strome does best when he’s on top of his game.
“What I would say with Stromer is if you watch him play, for the casual fan, he’s not going to wow you with speed, his shot,” Carbery said. “You watch him and go, ‘Okay, well, what does this guy do?’ But if you really watch him, his mind for the game, especially offensively, is so elite. And his ability to find space, find people — probably his best quality he has as a player, is he slows the game down, meaning he can hold onto a puck.
“You saw it the other night on that controlled entry. He knows exactly what he’s doing in that moment. There’s chaos going around. He drags that puck and draws two defenders. Montreal may say: ‘Well, that’s a terrible read by our defensemen. We shouldn’t have duplicated on him.’ That’s Dylan Strome also knowing, ‘If I drag this puck over to the weak-side defenseman, I can bring them both to me and create space for Andrew Mangiapane.’”
As Carbery describes, Strome made a zone entry with control after receiving a great stretch pass from Trevor van Riemsdyk. He then lures defensemen Arber Xhekaj and Kaiden Guhle into a poorly-timed double team, before dropping the puck to a hard-charging Mangiapane, who had forward Christian Dvorak trying to defend both him and Alex Ovechkin.
The assist was Strome’s second point of the game and his seventh (2g, 5a) in the series. Through four games, the 28-year-old center leads the Capitals in playoff scoring and came into Tuesday’s games tied for the third-most points among all NHL players.
Strome also kicked off the scoring in Game 4, driving the net to finish a play started by linemate Anthony Beauvillier. The former third overall draft pick has added goals to his game more and more over the past four seasons, setting a new career high each year. He scored his new best, 29 goals in 82 games, for the Caps this season.
“The one thing maybe that goes a little undercover as well with his goal-scoring is his shot is deceptively very, very good,” Carbery said. “Not one-timer. I’m talking when he gets into scoring situations, not the hardest shot, but very accurate and precise, and can beat NHL goalies where you’re like: ‘That went through him. Wow.’”
Strome had a difficult Game 3 in Montreal, with Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis matching Nick Suzuki’s trio against the Capitals top line. After the Capitals took a 6-3 loss in the game, Carbery did not make any changes to his top six for Game 4, instead trusting Strome and his group to better deal with the assignment.
With Strome on the ice against Suzuki at five-on-five, the Capitals held a 9-1 advantage in shot attempts, a 3-0 advantage in shots on goal, a 5-0 advantage in scoring chances, and a 1-0 advantage in high-danger chances. Strome also scored his goal against the Habs’ top line, and their overall success against them seemingly led to St. Louis going away from the direct matchup for much of the night.
Strome making adjustments to his game has led to success for the Capitals. And it has become a theme of his tenure with the club. With the departure of Nicklas Backstrom from the team due to injury, Strome, more of a sidekick to names like Patrick Kane during his time with the Chicago Blackhawks, has been asked to lead the line for the Caps as the primary playmaker both on the team’s power play and with legendary winger Alex Ovechkin.
“I just feel like he’s the type of guy, since his days in Arizona, Chicago, he just continues to push the envelope and get better and better and better and better,” Carbery said. “People probably think like, ‘When is this going to stop? He had another career year?’ He’s a hockey nerd, loves the game, always trying to get better, always trying to improve his game, always trying to look at ways that he can be one of the elite centermen in this league, and so he’s a very, very motivated guy that just continues to get better.”
Strome may have a new winger on his line for Game 5 against the Canadiens, as Aliaksei Protas is expected to make his long-awaited return to the Capitals’ lineup. Protas played much of the regular season with Strome and Ovechkin. However, Beauvillier will make that a tough decision for the second-year bench boss, as he is second on the team in postseason scoring with five points (1g, 4a).
