John Carlson of Natick, MA was named the National Hockey League player of the month for October according to Elyse Bailey of russianmachineneverbreaks.com. The Washington Capitals defenseman had seven goals and 16 assists for 23 points in 14 games.
What Carlson was able to achieve a a blueliner in the first month of the 2019-20 National Hockey League regular season was actually quite remarkable. Carlson’s 23 points was the second most points by a defenseman in the month of October in NHL history. Al MacInnis holds the NHL record with 25 points in the 1990-91 season. In 13 games, MacInnis had eight goals and 17 assists for 25 points with the Calgary Flames.
Carlson had three three-point games with the Capitals in October. He had one goal and two assists for three points in a 4-3 Washington win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on October 16. Carlson also had three assists in a 6-5 Washington loss to the Nashville Predators on October 10 and three assists in a 5-2 Capitals win over the New York Rangers on October 18.
Twice Carlson also had two goals in a game. He had two goals in a 5-3 Washington win over the Calgary Flames on October 22 and two more goals in a 4-3 win over Toronto on October 29.
Also in October, Carlson was a +7 with six penalty minutes, seven power play points, two game winning goals and 35 shots on goal. Carlson’s game winning goals came in the Capitals’ wins over the Dallas Stars on October 12 and the Maple Leafs on October 16. In Washington’s 4-1 win over Dallas, Carlson had the game winning goal from Garnet Hathaway of Kennebunkport, ME and Nic Dowd of Huntsville, AL at 7:13 of the second period which put the Capitals up 2-0 at the time. In Washington’s win over Toronto on October 16, Carlson put the Capitals up 4-2 with a power play goal from Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom at 6:25 of the second period.
The Capitals won their first game of November on Friday as they beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-1 on Friday. Carlson was a +2 with one shot on net.
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