The Washington Capitals looked like the NHL’s best team on Thursday, and—apart from Joey Daccord—the Seattle Kraken didn’t have much of an answer for them, as the Caps rolled to their sixth straight win.

We often hear players and coaches talk about “playing fast,” and the way the Caps performed in this game was a perfect example of that. They were in sync for most of the night, connecting to make difficult passes look easy and capitalizing on Seattle’s many blunders to create breakaways and even some 2-on-0’s.

Meanwhile, Seattle struggled to get anything going in the other direction.

“That was a game against a good team, and we weren’t able to abate their pressure enough to be able to get to our pressure,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “It was a tough-sledding game, for sure.”

Here are three takeaways from the Kraken’s 3-0 loss to the Capitals.

Takeaway #1: Joey deserved better

Even with the fluky goal he allowed to Aliaksei Protas at 4:36 of the second period to break a scoreless tie, Joey Daccord was stellar in this game. Oddly, he was credited with 30 saves on 31 shots—good for a .968 save percentage—but still two goals against because Protas’ marker didn’t count as a shot. Daccord stopped the initial attempt but inadvertently swatted the puck into his own net, so the goal wasn’t recorded as a shot.

D'oh! 1-0 Caps.

Tom Wilson looked offside, but the puck came out of the zone, so the play resets. #SeaKraken couldn't challenge.

Daccord made a great save, then accidentally gloved it into his own net. Protas gets the goal. pic.twitter.com/Cl6bgv77aX

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 24, 2025

Even on that play, where Kraken fans surely wish he had caught the puck cleanly instead of batting it over his shoulder, Daccord had just made one of his many outstanding saves, sliding across to steal a sure goal away from Pierre-Luc Dubois.

Adding insult to injury on the Protas goal, it appeared Tom Wilson played the puck in an offside position seconds earlier. However, since he exited the zone—which resets the play—Seattle couldn’t challenge for offside. The puck only crossed the blue line by about a foot before coming back in, but those are the rules of when a team can and cannot challenge. It would have been swell if the linesman had simply called it correctly.

On the second goal, Daccord made another excellent save after Kaapo Kakko turned the puck over to Ethen Frank at the Caps’ blue line, creating another of many breakaways. Daccord kicked out the initial shot, but Frank, far behind Adam Larsson and Vince Dunn, whacked his rebound past Daccord.

SOMEBODY HELP THE GUY!

Another breakaway behind Dunn and Larsson. Joey makes another big save, but Ethen Frank gets his own rebound and makes it 2-0. #ALLCAPS #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/jZRBLr8r4U

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 24, 2025

“[Joey was] excellent,” Bylsma said. “We’re talking about three breakaways, even the goal against, [another] breakaway. And he makes the save on the first one, doesn’t get the second one. But… you need to have good goaltending against a team like that to stay in the game, and Joey gave it to us.”

This game could have ended with a score in the 6-0 range, but Daccord stood on his head and gave the Kraken a real chance to steal a win against a superior opponent. He deserved more support from his teammates.

Takeaway #2: Two back-breaking plays late in the second

With the way Daccord was playing, it seemed possible Seattle could steal this game. But two critical plays late in the second period crushed those hopes.

First, Frank scored with 1:55 left in the frame, making it 2-0 and sucking much of the energy out of Climate Pledge Arena.

Seattle had a golden opportunity to respond when Oliver Bjorkstrand found himself on a breakaway in the dying seconds of the period. Caps goalie Charlie Lindgren—playing his first game since sustaining an upper-body injury on Jan. 10—stood tall and gloved Bjorkstrand’s shot, keeping the score at 2-0 heading into the third.

“Just a quick shot. I thought it kind of jumped on me,” Bjorkstrand said. “No excuse, though, but it took kind of an odd bounce. I didn’t really get enough on it as I wanted to, but I was just trying to shoot it.”

Late goals and missed opportunities like these can be devastating. A goal from Bjorkstrand might have turned the game around.

Takeaway #3: Kraken got banged up

Chandler Stephenson left the game after blocking a Trevor van Riemsdyk shot with his left glove hand at 10:20 of the second period.

Stephenson briefly returned for two more shifts in the second but didn’t play in the third period. Bylsma later said the center would need “further evaluation.”

Jared McCann also appeared injured in the second, putting little weight on his left leg and wincing in pain on the bench, though he stayed in the game. Eeli Tolvanen was also seen hunched over in pain at one point, adding to a tough night for the Kraken.

Bonus Takeaway: An interesting night for Ovechkin and the Capitals

There were some interesting storylines from the Washington dressing room after this one, including Alex Ovechkin closing within 20 goals of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time career goals record with his late empty-netter. 

“They don’t ask ‘How?,’ they ask ‘How many?’” Protas joked. “You’ve got to score that goal from the defensive zone. With all the accomplishments that he has, he fully deserved that.”

Plus, Martin Fehervery—who had an early goal negated because of a successful offside challenge by the Kraken—got hit in the face by a deflected Vince Dunn slap shot in the second period but returned to play the third. He already had a cut on his cheek, so Fehervery’s face now looks like that of an MMA fighter that just got knocked out in the first round.

Oh, that’s a scary one. Martin Fehervary takes a deflected Vince Dunn slap shot to the face. #ALLCAPS #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/nbBlwXgvbO

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 24, 2025

There were some great quotes from John Carlson and Capitals coach Spencer Carbery about Fehervery. 

Carlson: “He’s had a hell of a run here. Today is one thing, and it’s amazing that anyone would come back after that. But he’s been on a heater with pucks just finding ways to hit him in the worst spots and taking hits that are unnecessary and what have you. And he’s a warrior. He’s been fantastic all year, and certainly, that’s another thing that in the room, guys build off of and rally around, people just laying it on the line for each other.”

Carbery: “It’s a microcosm of what our group and what our guys are all about on this team. He lays it on the line, takes a puck up high, and then he still— he has to go get repairs, his eye looks like it’s a mess, and he comes back out, plays, and he’s still blocking more shots. It’s… yeah… just a complete example of what our group is all about: guys that lay it on and sacrifice for one another, and he embodies that. Marty… the kid’s a warrior.”