POSTGAME NOTEBOOK - Caps 2, Kings 0

California Stars - Playing their fifth game in five cities in a span of seven nights - and with a cross-continent flight mixed in - the Caps showed no signs of fatigue in the waning minutes of their contest with the Kings in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. The game was a tangle of tall grass and sludge and other obstacles, with both sides mucking through the ill-tempered affair seeking the advantage, and neither side able to do so until it was almost over.

Finally, with 3:30 left in regulation, Garnet Hathaway parked himself at the post and got just enough of a sublime John Carlson feed for the puck to pop up and flutter over the goal line for a 1-0 Washington lead.
Soon after, Hathaway closed the sale with an empty-netter from his own blueline, giving the Caps a 2-0 victory and Ilya Samsonov his second shutout of the season.
The victory extended the Caps' point streak to six straight games (5-0-1) while halting the Kings' own streak at eight (7-0-1).
For most of the night, Hathaway was playing his usual irritable style of game, rankling the collective feathers of the opposition, getting into their collective kitchen and making himself a snack. Put on a line with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Daniel Sprong - the first time we can recall seeing that exact combination - the trio worked with Carlson to manufacture the game-winning goal, giving Washington its 10th win of the season.
It's great to see Hathaway lighting the lamp with regularity when the Caps are banged up and need offense from anyone and everyone, but he never strays far from his core identity as an irritant who routinely finishes his checks and is a bear on the forecheck.
"I think that is a big part of my game," says Hathaway. "I can look back and say, 'Hey, did I get the chances I wanted to? Was I creating the offense? Was I good in the [defensive] zone?' I think especially with my line - the lines I've been playing with - once you're fundamentally sound in the D zone, it will create opportunities.
"I think that's where I was early on. I don't think I was playing as well as I am now. And whether that's the bounces that are going in or - I think it's the extra stuff within the whistles, and trying to be hard to play against. Maybe it's coincidence, maybe it's not. Maybe I'm working hard and becoming lucky at the same time."
Washington flew to the coast on Monday and dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to the Ducks in Anaheim on Tuesday before Wednesday's win in Los Angeles. Now they'll have the luxury of a Thursday off before departing for San Jose on Friday. The Caps close out a rugged stretch of seven games in seven cities in 11 nights this weekend when they face the Sharks on Saturday and the nascent Seattle Kraken on Sunday.
One last thing here, this is the first time in more than 28 years that the Caps are being tasked with five games in five nights in seven cities. They went 4-1-0 from Oct. 24-30, 1993, playing all five games on the road. This time around, they're 4-0-1 with two sets of back-to-backs on the road sandwiched around a home game against Pittsburgh.
Stop Stop Stop - Samsonov turned in his best performance of the young season, stopping all 34 shots to earn his second shutout of the season and the fifth of his NHL career. Both Laviolette and Caps GM Brian MacLellan have noted the need and the importance for both of Washington's young goaltenders - Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek - to display some growth and improvement this season.
In the wake of his shutout over the Kings, Samsonov was asked about consistency and how he goes about finding it.
"A lot of work, with [goaltending coach] Scotty [Murray], with [other] coaches too, and talking," says Samsonov. "This was an important game for me. I think I have to change my next page, because my start of the season is not too great. I will believe I will be better."
The defense was also stellar in front of Samsonov, combining to block 16 shots and frequently displaying good sticks and disrupting seam passes and east-west attempts in the Washington end.
"It was tight checking out there and there wasn't much room either way," says Caps defenseman Justin Schultz. "I think our guys did a great job. Maybe we weren't the freshest, but we were structured and we did the right things to give ourselves a chance to win."
Jim Bedard was the first Washington goalie to blank the Kings, doing so at the Capital Centre on Jan. 4, 1978. Dave Parro, Al Jensen, Braden Holtby and Philipp Grubauer have all whitewashed Los Angeles since, but all did so in Washington. Samsonov is the first Caps goalie to shutout the Kings in L.A.
Samsonov's shutout was the third for the Caps this season in the team's first 17 games, the first time Washington has achieved that feat since October of 1998, when it recorded three shutouts in the first nine games of the ill-fated 1998-99 season, a 1-0 whitewash of Anaheim on opening night (Oct. 10) followed by a 1-0 shutout in Buffalo on Oct. 23 and a 0-0 deadlock in Calgary on Oct. 30. Olie Kolzig authored the first two of those shutouts and Rick Tabaracci was in net for the scoreless tie with the Flames.
Hath Away - With his second two-goal game in less than a week - both of them achieved on the road - Hathaway has chipped in offensively at a most opportune time, while Washington is missing five key forwards from its lineup.
Goals on the road can be harder to come by, and they can have more value to a team because of match-ups and other factors. With his five goals this season, Hathaway is tied for third on the team. He has scored four of his goals on the road, tied with Alex Ovechkin for the team lead this season.
Over the course of his NHL career, Hathaway has scored 23 of his 36 career goals (64 percent) on the road.
By The Numbers -Carlson led the Caps with 23:06 in ice time … Ovechkin led the Caps with six shots on net and nine shot attempts … Hathaway led Washington with six hits … Trevor van Riemsdyk blocked six shots to lead the team.