Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images

Sometimes you have to thank one guy for getting you a win. Tonight the Capitals can thank one of the best goaltenders in the world, Braden Holtby, for their 2-1 shootout victory over the Edmonton Oilers. 

The Caps might had some good chances, they had a number of high danger attempts and hey, they won the game. But as we’ll see a bit later, they let up way too many high danger attempts and scoring chances. Since we’re already talking about it, lets go ahead and take a look.

Shooting

5v5 Corsi for this game wasn’t even kind of close. The final shot attempts number ended 62-28 for Edmonton. The total attempts for the game were 64-35. Scoring chances ended up 31-20 for the Oilers.

Washington started this game pretty good. They got chances in tight and drew penalties. But 5v5 tonight, Edmonton was in control for most of the game. They took the lead in shot attempts a little more than halfway through the first and never looked back.

The Capitals did get some chances in tight, but a lot of those red dots in close came early in the game. Towards the back end of the first period, the Oilers really started to put the pressure on the Capitals D and Holtby and they never let up.

The expected goals after the first period was .87 to .14 for the Capitals. After a good start, Edmonton finished well, and probably deserved a better result. That number, as you can see, is in all situations. While 5v5, the final number ended up 2.57-1.18.

With shot attempts 62-28, I guess you’d expect this chart looking a little ugly. The only good was Eller. He also posted a good scoring chances for% with 75%, having 6 scoring chances for, while he was on the ice, and just 2 against.

The entire second line had bad games on paper. I thought they looked pretty good honestly, especially T.J. Oshie. They all had rough nights in the SCF% was well all 25% or worse.

I honestly didn’t even see Jay Beagle out there at all vs Edmonton. He was the worst in Corsi and SCF. His scoring chance% was 11%

Faceoffs

Backstrom was very good tonight winning 10 of 12 or 83%. Jay Beagle just had a bad night overall winning only 33% or 5 of 15. Overall the Capitals won 25 of 53, that’s 47%.

Goaltending

Braden Holtby was very good tonight. I’m not sure how many highlight reel saves he made, but he made some key saves. Need proof of that? The Capitals gave up 14 high danger attempts. Not all of those ended up as a shot on goal but I’d guess a good majority of them did and Holtby slammed the door. He was fantastic.

Special Teams

Nothing to mention for special teams. The best thing is that the Capitals did not take a penalty tonight, rare for them. The power play could have made an impact early but failed, and ended up 0/3 on the night.

Another win and that puts the Caps in the top three in the metro division. Obviously a long way to go but it’s nice to see the team in that position. Can they stay there?

By CJ Witt