What promised to be a hard slog for the Caps ended up being
settled in the first 20 minutes of this contest. It started, oddly enough, on a play on which
Alex Ovechkin might have scored, but did not.
Ovechkin fired wide off a faceoff in the Blue’s end as the clock ticked
past the seven-minute mark of the first period. St. Louis managed to clear the errant puck out of the zone, but a
backhand pass by Chris Stewart through the middle was too long for Brenden
Morrow. The puck was corralled by Steve
Oleksy, who sent it up to Nicklas Backstrom.
From the red line, Backstrom bump-passed the puck to Ovechkin flying
past him. Ovechkin sailed in and
launched a slap shot that handcuffed goalie Jaroslav Halak, sneaking under his
right arm to put the Caps ahead, 1-0.
Five minutes later it was Ovechkin again. Marcus Johansson started the play by sliding
to the right wing boards to keep in an attempted clear by T.J. Oshie. Johansson
sent the puck up the wall to Nicklas Backstrom, who wired the puck across to
Karl Alzner at the left point. Alzner
fired the puck on net, and the puck once more appeared to handcuff Halak. The puck popped up and plopped to the ice, and
Ovechkin beat defenseman Ian Cole to it, flipping a backhand past Halak to put
the Caps ahead, 2-0, at 15:41.
Barely three minutes later it was the Caps being rewarded
for gaining the offensive zone with speed.
It started with a defensive zone faceoff win by Jason Chimera to John
Carlson. From behind the Capitals’ net,
Carlson moved the puck up to Joel Ward, who relayed it ahead to Mikhail
Grabovski steaming through the neutral zone.
Grabovski bumped the puck ahead to Jason Chimera at the St. Louis blue
line, who wristed a shot at Halak. With
Halak leaving another rebound, it was Grabovski darting down the slot to flip the loose puck behind Halak to give the Caps a 3-0 lead with 4:19 left in
the period and end Halak’s evening.
St. Louis got one back early in the second period on a power
play when Vladimir Sobotka took advantage of the puck sliding off the end of
Alexander Urbom’s stick, wristing it past goalie Braden Holtby at 5:29 of the
second period. The three-goal lead was
restored just less than four minutes later on a power play for the Caps. Nicklas Backstrom set it up from the right
wing wall, sliding the puck to John Carlson at the top of the offensive
zone. Carlson one timed the puck through
several Blues players and over the left pad of relief goalie Brian Elliott to
make it 4-1 and end the scoring portion of the evening.
Other stuff…
-- The power play goal by John Carlson was the first allowed
by the Blues on the road this season after 15 successful road kills.
-- Alex Ovechkin ended the evening tied with the Blues’
Alexander Steen in goals with 17 after his two-goal effort.
-- This was only the second time this season Steen was held
without a point. In both instances the
Blues lost.
-- Nicklas Backstrom recorded three assists for the third
time this season. He leads the league in
games with three or more assists. He is
the only player with four three-point games this season so far.
-- Alex Ovechkin’s two goal effort was his fourth multi-goal
game of the season, the most multi-goal games in the league so far. In his last 82 games Ovechkin has 60 goals.
-- The three-goal win
was the widest margin of victory over the Blues since the Caps beat them, 4-1,
on October 7, 1995.
-- The 47 shots faced by Braden Holtby tied a career high for
a regular season game set earlier this year against Winnipeg. It is a career high in shots faced in
regulation. His 46 saves is a career
high for a regular season game.
-- Boy, something just is not right with the second
line. Martin Erat, Troy Brouwer, and
Brooks Laich had no points and only two shots on goal for the evening. They are more like a third line at this
point. In fact, the even strength ice
time for the players on the second (35:43) and third line (35:57) were very
close.
-- The Caps were very good on faceoffs in the ends. In the offensive zone they were 10-for-14
(71.4 percent), and in the defensive zone they were 15-for-28 (53.6 percent).
-- The 15:41 in ice time for Jaroslav Halak was his quickest
hook since he gave up three goal on 10 shots in just 7:41 in a 5-3 loss to San
Jose on March 19, 2011.
In the end…
It is not often the Caps get something of a laugher against
a quality opponent. This one qualifies
as their best effort of the season. Not
as satisfying, perhaps, as the 7-0 pasting of Philadelphia to open the month,
but this was a better hockey effort. It
made the final top end numbers somewhat misleasding. For example, there is the anatomy of score effects.
From the drop of the puck until the Caps scored the first goal of the game…
From the drop of the puck until the Caps scored the first goal of the game…
- Shots on goal: St. Louis – 0, Washington 2 (including the first Ovechkin goal)
- Shots blocked: St. Louis – 2, Washington – 4
- Shots missed: St. Louis – 4, Washington – 2
- Total shot attempts: St. Louis— 6, Washington - 8
From the first goal to the Caps’ second goal, it looked like
this…
- Shots on goal: St. Louis – 8, Washington – 2 (including the second Ovechkin goal).
- Shots blocked: St. Louis – 1, Washington – 0.
- Shots missed: St. Louis – 1, Washington – 0.
- Total shot attempts: St. Louis – 10, Washington – 2
From the second Caps goal to their third it looked like this…
- Shots on goal: St. Louis – 2, Washington – 2 (including the Grabovski goal)
- Shots blocked: St. Louis – 2, Washington – 1
- Shots missed: St. Louis – 2, Washington – 1
- Total shot attempts: St. Louis 6, Washington – 4
From 3-0 to game’s end…
- Shots on goal: St. Louis – 37, Washington - 14
- Shots blocked: St. Louis – 17, Washington - 7
- Shots missed: St. Louis – 9, Washington - 14
- Total shot attempts: St. Louis – 63, Washington 35
It was hockey’s equivalent of rope-a-dope. In the larger context of the Caps tendency to
allow a lot of shot attempts, it was one more instance. But under the circumstances, it was not altogether
surprising. And given the way Braden
Holtby has played (10-3-0, 2.25, .937, and one shutout in his last 13
appearances), the outcome was not entirely surprising, either.
The win leaves the Capitals on top of the Metropolitan
Division for the first time in the short history of the new divisional
alignment. That might not last past
tomorrow night, when second-place Pittsburgh hosts Anaheim, but they will be
playing for the division lead when they face the Penguins on Wednesday. It was a good start to a week that might yet
get better.
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