Photo by Scott Audette/NHLI via Getty Images
It was another bad night for the Washington Capitals in the stats department. The difference between tonight’s game and the game vs Montreal the other night was the Capitals were not able to hold onto their lead.
Washington was able to jump out to a 2-0 and 3-1 leads before getting badly outplayed in the third period, allowing the Lightning to tie the game and win it in overtime.
How bad did they get outplayed?
The game finished 33-60 while 5v5, the total number of attempts for the game, was 83-48. Power play differential didn’t play a part in this game as Tampa Bay had 5 power plays and Washington had 4.
Tampa Bay also (or obviously) won the scoring chances battle 31-20.
All of the guys you see with a positive number up there were the only ones Washington had with a positive number. There were a lot of Caps with a poor numbers after tonight’s game. Here’s some other guys performance.
Dmitri Orlov & Alex Chiasson: -10
Taylor Chorney: -11
Evgeny Kuznetsov: -14
Eighteen skaters were dressed for the Capitals and nine of them were -10 or worse in shot attempts vs Tampa Bay. Only four of the skaters had a positive number. Devante Smith-Pelly finished the game even at 50%.
Faceoffs were kind of up and down tonight. Eller was really good, Backstrom was good but two of the four were bad.
Something to note, the Capitals were 17-41 at faceoffs in the attacking and defensive zone combined.
DZone faceoffs: 10-24, 42%
OZone faceoffs: 7-17, 41%
Jay Beagle was 2-8 in the Dzone, Evgeny Kuznetsov was 1-5 in the offensive zone.
Other guys to take faceoffs: Oshie was 3-5, Burakovsky was 2-2 and Chiasson was 1-2.
Philipp Grubauer was really good tonight. Particularly in the third period, where he saved 16 shots alone. He also came up huge in the third on a penalty kill where the Capitals were pinned in their own zone for the entire 2 minute kill. Without him the Caps probably lose this game by a lot more than one goal and in overtime.
I’m not going to call this a trend, but this has happened two games in a row. The Capitals get a couple goal lead and either sit back or are forced back, then lose the possession game by a hefty margin. Luckily against Montreal the Capitals got 4 then 6 and were able to play great defense.
But Tampa Bay is a better offensive team and the lead wasn’t as big. Sure enough the Lightning fought back and ended up winning in overtime.
It’s not a trend yet but we’ll see if the Caps are a hot starting team before faltering later in games.
By CJ Witt
Burky needs to be better… Didnt see Conno tonight. Ness cant play at this level… Grubbies skill is too much to play every 4th game.. Willie back will help. OT penalty was a bad call.
Not only Burkie, but bottom two lines need to do something. We knew that would be our question mark on offense, and so far, not much to talk about.
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