The Capitals’ offense is buzzing as their forward lines start to click

This offensive success feels different to Coach Spencer Carbery from what he had seen from his team earlier in the season. The goals aren’t coming from just one player or even just one forward line. The Capitals, who hadn’t scored 12 goals across a three-game span this season until now, are getting contributions from across the lineup.

“We’re starting to gain more confidence,” Carbery said Sunday. “Different guys are scoring. Different lines are starting to generate chemistry. That’s partly a product of this. If you remember in the beginning of the year, our lines changed every single night. Now we’re starting to get into a little bit of a rhythm of four lines that are playing together, that are starting to learn each other’s characteristics. Chemistry’s starting to build.”

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Against Dallas, center Dylan Strome scored twice, center Evgeny Kuznetsov scored once and winger Aliaksei Protas scored once. In the next game, each line produced a goal as Sonny Milano, Anthony Mantha, Tom Wilson and Nicolas Aube-Kubel all found the back of the net — playing on the second, third, first and fourth lines, respectively. And against Chicago, the fourth line scored two more goals, both from center Nic Dowd, while Mantha and Strome each scored again.

Strome leads the Capitals with 11 goals, but Wilson is right behind with nine, while Mantha has seven and three players — Kuznetsov, Connor McMichael and Alex Ovechkin — have five. It’s a sharp contrast to most seasons for Washington, when Ovechkin leads the scoring race by a mile. But while Ovechkin has gotten off to a sluggish start in the scoring department, the Capitals’ other forwards have started to find their footing and provide more scoring depth.

“Obviously, we were struggling to score for quite a while at the beginning of the season,” Strome said. “That’s three games in a row now with four or more. Hopefully, we start to turn the corner and find ways to score and produce. … We just have to keep building on it. It’s fun to score goals, and it’s fun to win.”

After weeks of experimentation, the forward lines have started to settle into place. The third line, with Protas, Mantha and McMichael, was the first to establish real chemistry, and for several games it was Washington’s best line — to the point that Carbery considered splitting the three up, hoping to infuse the other lines with their production and energy. But Carbery kept the trio together, and the other lines have started to catch up.

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The fourth line’s mandate is to be strong defensively; any offense it produces is a bonus. But in the past two games, that line has scored three goals and hasn’t allowed a goal when it has been on the ice, while being tasked with matching up against the opponent’s top two forward lines.

Dowd’s first goal against Chicago was a prototypical fourth-line goal; he jammed in a loose puck from the crease. But his second was a wrist shot from the center of the slot that closely resembled Aube-Kubel’s goal from the night before — the kind of skilled finish more typically associated with players higher in the lineup.

“We take a lot of pride in what we do,” Dowd said. “The three of us are new to each other this year, so we’re still learning and figuring each other out. The emphasis is on playing really good defense, but the irony in that is if you play great defense, you’re going to get offense eventually. I think we’re still learning how to play off each other in the [offensive] zone and capitalize on those opportunities.”

Three strong games don’t equal success over an 82-game season, and there’s still plenty of room for Washington’s offense to improve. The power play remains at the bottom of the NHL, the Capitals have just two goals from defensemen this season — something Carbery said has been “a topic of conversation” — and Ovechkin has yet to get on a roll.

But the Capitals’ confidence with the puck is becoming more evident each game, from the first line to the fourth line, and it’s starting to look like the offense has turned the corner after a slow start.

“You need depth scoring,” Dowd said. “You need to be good on the special teams, and you need to be good on the power play. … We’re going to need contributions from everybody. That’s what makes a very successful team, that night in, night out, offense is coming from four lines and the three [defensive] pairs.”