It wasn’t flawless, but it was very, very good. On Friday night, the Capitals went up against one of the fastest and scariest offensive teams of the early NHL season, the New Jersey Devils. Against the Caps they didn’t look that fast and for most of the game, didn’t look that dangerous, offensively. That ended up factoring into a 5-2 win for the Capitals.
Lets not waste anymore time, on to the tables.
The game was close in shot attempts while 5v5. To me, this chart pretty much shows how the game really went. Neither team dominated offensively and the team that did finish on top was the better team. Total shot attempts ended up 52-46 in favor of Washington.
Now look at that chart. That has to be a beautiful sight for Capitals fans. Just a couple of small dots near the Caps net and Braden Holtby and some BIG red dots next to the Devils and Cory Schneider. As you can see that equals to a pretty lopsided expected goals for number with the Capitals nearing six and the Devils under two.
There’s not going to be too much to say in terms of individual Corsi. The game was close in shot attempts and not many guys had great or bad numbers. John Carlson was the only guy that had a great night. After the first period Carlson was at 80% Corsi. After the second he was 70%. He finished over 66%. Carlson had 22 attempts and only 11 against. He played over twenty-seven minutes, letting up just 11 attempts against in 27 minutes, pretty impressive.
Other guys to note:
Nicklas Backstrom: +4
Christian Djoos: +4
T.J. Oshie: +3
Tom Wilson: +1
Jakub Vrana: -3
Evgeny Kuznetsov: -4
Wasn’t a very good night in faceoffs for the Capitals. Overall they won just 27 of 66 draws. I guess if you want to take something good from faceoffs, the Capitals won 11 of 20 defensive zone draws including 3 of 5 while shorthanded.. Those were the only area’s over 50% for the night.
Really the only thing to mention here was Evgeny Kuznetsov’s pitiful 14%. Kuznetsov’s faceoff percentage so far this season is at 41.8. That’s got to come up.
Other takers tonight:
Brett Connolly: 2 of 3
Andre Burakovsky: 2 of 3
Alex Chiasson: 1 of 2
T.J. Oshie: 0 of 4
The Capitals were just flat-out the better team tonight. All you have to do is look at that expected goals for chart and this game is pretty much answered. Neither team had a ton of chances but Washington had a lot more dangerous chances than New Jersey.
Special teams were a pretty big factor tonight. The Capitals went 2-4 on the power play. They actually scored 3 PPG’s, two while on a four-minute power play towards the beginning of the third period that iced the game.
The penalty kill continues to be a little leaky after their hot start. They allowed one PPG on four opportunities.
Holtby tonight, in my eyes was really good. He didn’t have to make any great saves that will end up on a top ten list but he was solid all night. He also made a couple pretty tough saves looks routine.
It was just a really good win tonight. A scary unbeaten Devils team that was scoring goals at will with a ton of speed. Tonight the Capitals shut them down in their house. A great night for the Washington Capitals.
By CJ Witt.
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