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Caps grab shootout win vs. Isles, break five-game skid

Washington Capitals v New York Islanders

at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on April 5, 2014 in Uniondale, New York.

Bruce Bennett

The Washington Capitals grabbed a much-needed win on Saturday, beating the New York Islanders 4-3 via a shootout.

This victory gives the Capitals 83 standings points with four games remaining on their schedule, ending a five-game losing streak in the process.

It’s not all positive numbers for a Capitals team that might benefit from so much attention being heaped on Alex Ovechkin’s plus/minus rating, which rests at -35 after an even rating on Saturday.

For one thing, the playoff-desperate Capitals saw the Islanders carry shot advantages in every period until overtime. The Isles ultimately out-shot the Capitals 38-29 on Saturday, but Braden Holtby managed to keep the Caps in the game and grab a big win.

It’s also interesting to see how often Washington has entered the “skills competition” this season. The Caps are now 10-10 in shootouts in 2013-14; as of this writing, the San Jose Sharks are the only team who’ve entered a comparable amount of shootouts with 17 (10-7).

Washington was on the right end of it today, anyway, as Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the shootout-winner:

The Capitals travel to St. Louis on Tuesday and Carolina on Thursday before finishing their schedule with home games against Chicago (April 11) and Tampa Bay (April 13).

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins