NHL Rink Wrap: Carlson leads Capitals; Golden Knights winning streak ends

John Carlson played his best game of the season on Wednesday night in the Washington Capitals’ 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. His night included two goals, two assists, a key defensive play late in the game to help secure the win, and he also had two additional goals waved off (one goal because of an offside review, and a potential empty net goal because of a penalty). He was everywhere for the Capitals. He had a hand in every single one of their goals in the win.

Alex Ovechkin gets one goal closer to Wayne Gretzky and also records his 1,400th career point.

Trevor Zegras skilling it up again for the Anaheim Ducks, even though it was not enough against the Calgary Flames.

Robert Thomas is one of the game’s most underrated players and he scored a beauty of a goal here against the Seattle Kraken.

Golden Knights winning streak ends

The Vegas Golden Knights have little margin for error right now in their playoff pursuit, but the one thing they do have going in their favor is a schedule that is loaded with non-playoff teams the rest of the way. That included Wednesday’s opponent, the Vancouverr Canucks. It did not matter as the Golden Knights’ were on the losing end of an ugly 5-1 decision, snapping what had been a five-game winning streak. The Golden Knights remain one point out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference, trailing the Dallas Stars for the second Wild Card spot. Dallas does have three games in hand. That is why Vegas has no margin for error.

Lightning struggling against playoff teams

The big takeaway from Tampa Bay’s 4-3 loss to the Capitals on Wednesday is that they lost to another playoff team. Since the start of Marcy the Lightning have lost seven of their eight games against playoff teams, with the