The Capitals got off on the right foot in the first
period. Just over two minutes into the
contest, Stanislav Galiev intercepted a pass up the wall by Alex Killorn in the
Tampa Bay zone and circled from out of the corner to the right of Lightning
goalie Ben Bishop. Galiev saw an opening
from the edge of the faceoff circle and fired the puck at the net. The puck looked headed wide on the short
side, but it rode up on Jay Beagle at the side of the net and hit him in the face. The puck dropped to Beagle’s feet and from
below the goal line he batted the puck off of Bishop’s backside and into the
net to give the Caps a 1-0 lead just 2:09 into the game.
That goal was the only scoring for the next 31 minutes. Just after the 11-minute mark of the second
period, Evgeny Kuznetsov worked some magic.
There was a lot that went on as the play unfolded. It started with John Carlson from between the
hash marks firing a puck that went wide to Bishop’s right and skittered around
the corner. Andrej Sustr tried to move
the puck off the wall to the middle, but the pass was picked off by Carlson,
who turned and directed another attempt at the Lightning net. And then something very odd happened.
Ryan Callahan blocked Carlson’s shot, and the puck bounced
to Kuznetsov, who grabbed it and started circling toward the net. For some odd reason, Callahan laid out,
perhaps trying to deny a cross-ice pass (or maybe he just fell), and then Anton
Stralman spun from his knees (what he was doing there was a bit of a mystery)
and tried to swipe the puck off Kuznetsov’s stick as he was going by. It looked as if Callahan and Stralman, laid
out on the ice end-to-end, were trying to create some sort of human chain gang.
While this was going on, Kuznetsov curled to the net as if
he was going to try to loop around and come out the other side for a shot. Bishop might have been thinking the same
thing, because he looked to cheat just a touch off the near post. It was enough for Kuznetsov to pull the puck
to his forehand just as he was crossing below the goal line, bring the puck
back across the ling, and tuck it just inside the post and gently over the goal
line to give the Caps a 2-0 lead that they would carry into the third period.
The 2-0 lead proved to be, if not the most dangerous lead in
hockey, then the most treacherous. Tampa
Bay made things interesting in the third period when, on their third power play
of the game, Nikita Kucherov one-timed a puck past goalie Braden Holtby to cut the
Caps’ lead in half.
That would be all the scoring for either team, though, as
Holtby stood tall and ensured the back of his net would be left undisturbed for
the remainder of the contest, the Caps skating off with a 2-1 win.
Other stuff…
-- 31-0-4. That is
the Caps’ record in the last 35 games in which Jay Beagle recorded a
point. Beegsy is happy…
-- Reasonable people will take winning and playing poorly
over playing well and losing 100 times out of 100. But the Caps were demolished in possession
numbers in this game. For the game, Tampa
Bay out-attempted the Caps by a 62-37 margin at 5-on-5. That’s a 37.4 Corsi-for percentage. For the uninitiated in Corsi, that’s not
good. Even slathering on some
score-adjusted sauce doesn’t make it much more palatable (41.4). And while the third period was really bad
(23-7 shot attempt advantage for the Lightning), it was not as if it was a case
of good numbers in the first period (20-13, Lightning) or the second period
(19-17, Lightning) being replaced by prevent defense (numbers from war-on-ice.com).
- Tampa Bay came into
this game among the leaders in games in which they allowed opponents two or
fewer goals (fifth in the league). They
also happened to be among the leaders in games in which they scored two or
fewer goals (fourth). They added to
their totals on both sides of the ledger.
It was the tenth game this season for the Lighting in which both they
and their opponents scored two or fewer goals.
-- Speaking of two or fewer goals, the two goals scored by
the Caps makes it nine times in their last 15 games that they have been held to
two or fewer in the hockey portion of the contest.
-- The Capitals are now 8-0-0 following losses, outscoring
opponents by a 28-12 margin.
-- This comeback from a loss in the previous game went
against type in one respect. Before
tonight, the Caps faced four shorthanded situations in a game following a loss
just once in seven occurrences (the killed three of four in a 5-2 win over the
Philadelphia Flyers on November 12th). They faced four such situations in this game,
also killing three of four.
-- Of the four minor penalties leading to Tampa Bay power
plays, three were the result of tripping calls.
Matt Niskanen was caught twice cashing in frequent flyer miles for a
trip.
-- How many games do the Caps win when Alex Ovechkin records
just one shot on goal. Well, this would
make it two this year. The other was in
a 3-2 win in Montreal against the Canadiens on December 3rd. And how many times has Alex Ovechkin been
held to one shot on goal this season? …two.
-- Braden Holtby is a lousy guest. He comes into your place, drinks all your
beer, eats all your snacks, leaves crumbs in the seat cushions. And wins games, too. With this performance, Holtby’s road record
is now 7-2-1, 1.99, .929. Only once in
ten road games has he allowed more than two goals, a 5-2 loss to the New York
Rangers on November 3rd.
-- Andre Burakovsky had a difficult night. He banged a shot off the crossbar and a pipe
in the first period, then he got just two shifts in the third period (none in
the last 8:43). More hard lessons to be
learned.
In the end…
The Capitals are relying a bit too much on their goaltender
to bail them out of games. Philipp
Grubauer is not yet polished enough at this level to do it regularly, and he
was unable to steal a win against the Florida Panthers when the Caps’ offense
(and defense for that matter) wasn’t working well. Braden Holtby is sufficiently accomplished to
steal games, but it is not something on which the Caps will want to depend so
much over the course of a long season with 54 games yet to play in the regular
season. The skaters have to do more in
the other end – not just scoring, which certainly would be welcome, but in
tilting the ice to the offensive end with better possession numbers.
Still, this is a team that plays with a consistency of
performance (scoring, wins and losses) that is rather remarkable as deep into
the season as they are. By this time
last season, through 28 games, the Caps had already recorded four instances of
two or more consecutive losses, including a five-game losing streak. This is a team that is now 52-22-8 over its last 82 games. The Capitals will be tested, though, as they head
to Pittsburgh for the last contest of the three-game road trip and the Penguins
under their new head coach. If this
season’s history is a guide, they will hardly be fazed.
