The Capitals would open the scoring with a power play goal from Evgeny Kuznetsov (2) at 5:18 of the first frame. The Penguins tied the game with a goal from Bryan Rust (4) at 10:29 of the first period. The Penguins quickly took their first lead 32 seconds later with a goal from Brandon Tanev at 11:01 of the middle frame. The period would end with the Penguins leading 2-1.
LIVE STATS
SCORING
Evgeny Kuznetsov
Kuzy making our hearts flutter pic.twitter.com/cfwDG1mtf9
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 14, 2021
Bryan Rust
OK, now that is some pretty passing! 😮@penguins | #LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/L1lZpYPQRm
— NHL on NBC Sports (@NHLonNBCSports) February 14, 2021
Brandon Tanev
ANOTHA ONE!#LetsGoPens again. 🚨
📺: NBC
💻: https://t.co/7MqP7IpgM1 pic.twitter.com/hpkQRGo7Fq— NHL on NBC Sports (@NHLonNBCSports) February 14, 2021
GENERAL STATS
(Stats from NHL.com)
SHOTS
(Stats from Natural Stat Trick)
EXPECTED GOALS
(Stats from MoneyPuck.com)
CAPITALS DEFENSE – FIRST 12 GAMES
Earlier this week we posted a breakdown of stats for each Capitals defenseman (full post here). A component to of the analysis looked at the Capitals possession and shot metrics for each of the Capitals defenseman.
The following evaluation metric captures on-ice goal differentials (GF – yellow, GA – green), the ‘scoring chances for’ percentage (Scf% – blue) and the ‘expected goals’ percentage (xGF% – orange) for each of the Capitals defenders. [Click to enlarge]
The glaring issue is fairly evident. Justin Schultz is the only Capitals defenseman above the 50% (even) mark in scoring chances and expected goals. This is further verified by the team’s overall possession and expected goals percentages that currently rank in the bottom fifth of the league.
FIRST 6 GAMES VERSUS LAST 6 GAMES
Also earlier this week we posted an analysis comparing the Capitals first six games versus their last six games (full article here.)
Through the first six games of the season, the Caps took a 61.54% share of goals scored during five on five play, ultimately meaning they were outscoring their competition by a decent margin. Conversely, through the last six games, the Capitals have fallen quite short of that mark, scoring only 45.45% of the goals at five on five play. This is a huge and simple difference.
One of the most notable trends here is the difference in ‘high danger chances for’ and ‘high danger goals for’. Interestingly enough, the Capitals weren’t very good at suppressing ‘high danger chances against’ in the first six games, but have done a much better job at producing more high danger chances than allowed in the last six.
By Jon Sorensen
