The Capitals tied the game early in the middle frame with a goal from Jakub Vrana (4) at 3:26 of the second period. TJ Oshie (6) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (3) had the helpers. But the Penguins would quickly re-take the lead with a goal from Bryan Rust (5) at 6:44 of the middle frame and stretch their lead to 4-2 with a goal from Jake Guentzel at 10:44 of the second period. It was the Penguins first two-goal lead of the season. Nicklas Backstrom (7) would cut the Penguins lead to 4-3 at 17:49 with assists from Alex Ovechkin (8) and John Carlson (8). It was Backstrom’s 250th career goal in the NHL. The period would end with the Penguins leading 4-3.
LIVE STATS
SCORING
Jakub Vrana
V for Valentine’s Day 😊 pic.twitter.com/y26YgonQyz
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 14, 2021
Bryan Rust
Bryan Rust is feeling the love today. ❤️
Hat Trick watch has begun… #LetsGoPens
📺: NBC
💻: https://t.co/7MqP7IpgM1 pic.twitter.com/H5IiSZIRiP— NHL on NBC Sports (@NHLonNBCSports) February 14, 2021
Jake Guentzel
For goodness JAKE the @penguins offense is buzzin’ today. 🚨#LetsGoPens | #WSHvsPIT pic.twitter.com/vhMHvZUl8h
— NHL on NBC Sports (@NHLonNBCSports) February 14, 2021
Nicklas Backstrom
Our Swede-heart! pic.twitter.com/FTzFrpxJMl
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 14, 2021
BASIC STATS
(Stats from NHL.com)
SHOTS
(Stats from Natural Stat Trick – 5v5)
EXPECTED GOALS
(Stats from MoneyPuck.com – 5v5)
CAPITALS DEFENSE – FIRST 12 GAMES
Earlier this week we did 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
