The Washington Capitals started the season with an air-tight
penalty killing unit, but for the second straight game it let the club down as
it gave up all three goals in a 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on
Wednesday night.
First Period
Kris Letang recorded his first point of the season on a
power play early in the first period when, after the Pens worked the puck
around the perimeter, Letang went to the net as Conor Sheary sent the puck to
the net. Off a goal-mouth scramble, the puck squirted out to the uncovered
Letang to the left of goalie Braden Holtby, and he backhanded it over Holtby’s
left pad to make it 1-0, 5:22 into the game.
Second Period
On what would be their fourth power play less than half way
into the game, the Pens struck again. As the power play was winding down,
Patric Hornqvist chipped a loose puck from the top of the paint over a sprawled
Holtby to make it 2-0 at the 8:20 mark of the period. To that point of the
contest the Caps were shorthanded a total of 6:49 of 28:20 of total ice time.
The Caps halved the deficit with a little bit of history.
For the second time this season a rookie making his NHL debut scored his first
career goal. In the last minute of the second period, Lars Eller backhanded a
pass to the right wing circle where Christian Djoos was waiting. Djoos blasted
a one-timer that beat goalie Matt Murray cleanly over the left pad and inside
the post at the 19:20 mark for his first NHL goal to put the Caps on the board.
Third Period
Whatever momentum the Caps might have generated from the
Djoos goal late in the second period, it was ripped away in the first minute of
the third period. On their sixth power play of the game, the Pens made it 3-1 when
Conor Sheary got inside position of Brooks Orpik at the top of the crease and
redirected a Justin Schultz drive past Holtby at the 38-second mark.
The Caps made it interesting mid-way through the period.
Nicklas Backstrom feathered a pass over Kris Letang’s stick to Djoos in the left
wing circle. Djoos calmly slid the puck around Schultz’ skate to Alex Ovechkin
parked at the top of the paint. Ovechkin redirected the puck past Murray’s left
pad, and it was 3-2 at the 12:51 mark. The Caps could not find the equalizer,
though, and the Pens skated off with a 3-2 win to open the 2017-2018 series
between the clubs.
Other stuff…
-- Alex Ovechkin’s eighth goal of the season means he has as
many or more goals than 14 teams in the NHL.
-- Last season, the Caps did not allow an opponent more than
30 shots in a game until Game 9, when the Winnipeg Jets launched 45 shots on
goal in a 6-2 Caps win. With the 36
shots on goal recorded by the Penguins, the Caps have allowed more than 30
shots in each of their first four games.
In each of their last three games, the Caps have been on the short end
of shots on goal by double digits (minus-16 to Montreal, minus-14 to Tampa Bay,
and minus-14 to the Pens).
-- Last season the Caps did not record their third game with
ten or more penalty minutes until Game 14 in a 5-1 loss to the Carolina
Hurricanes. The Caps have been charged
with ten or more penalty minutes in each of their last three games.
-- Last season, the Caps were not held under 30 shots per
game over four consecutive games until Games 12-15. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Caps did not
win any of those games in regulation (1-2-1), their only win a 3-2 overtime win
against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Caps
have been held under 30 shots in each of their first four games this season.
-- Last season, the Caps did not allow three goals in any of
their first four games. They have
allowed three or more in three of their first four games this season.
-- The shot attempts last night were not dominated by
Pittsburgh, although they did have a 57-54 edge in total. The difference was getting shots to the
net. The Pens got 36 of 57 attempts to
the net (63.2 percent), while the Caps got only 22 of 54 (40.7 percent) to the
net.
-- Alex Ovechkin had almost a third of the Caps’ shots on
goal (seven of 22). No one else had more
than two, and of the three players who had two, two were defensemen (Christian
Djoos and John Carlson).
-- Christian Djoos is the first rookie defenseman to record
two or more points in a season (that’s right, in a season, not a game) since the Caps had four blueliners do it in the 2013-2014 season: Alexander Urbom,
Patrick Wey, Connor Carrick, and Nate Schmidt.
Djoos is now the eighth player from the 2012 draft to appear in a single
NHL game. He is the only one-gamer with
two points. We think he's likely to get more work.
-- Nicklas Backstrom had an assist. He has perhaps the quietest six points in
three games you’ll ever see.
-- Matt Niskanen has had an odd pattern to start the
season. He has alternated games with no
penalty minutes (Games 1 and 3) with games of four penalty minutes (Games 2 and
4), and he has all eight of his penalty minutes in his two home games, none in
his two away games.
In the end…
As we said in the prognosto, “it is never a bad thing to
beat the Penguins, but let’s not make too much of it, either.” In that same vein, let’s not make too much of a loss, at least not in
the context of the team to which the Caps lost.
There are troubling signs, though.
The offense so far is “Ovechkin and (insert name of rookie here)” with support
from Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie.
The bottom six forwards and defense have not been heard from much. That lack of bottom half support is reflected
in shot deficits. Ovechkin has more shots on goal (25) than the next three
forwards combined (Oshie, Jakub Vrana, and Brett Connolly). TheCaps are spending too much time killing
penalties. And, of course, they lost
both games to the two teams that just might be the class of the Eastern
Conference.
But it’s early, right?
Yeah, but it can get late pretty quick, too, even for a team with a
2-1-1 record.
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