Peerless: Where does this rank in playoff game efforts for
the Caps?
Fearless: I’m not sure this one ranks “top-five” in worst
evers. There was that 5-0 loss to the
Rangers in 2013. The 2-0 Game 7 loss to
Pittsburgh in Game 7 in 2017. The 3-0 loss to the Penguins in Game 7 in
1995. The…
Cheerless: We get the
point.
Fearless: And those were shutouts in Games 7 of a
series. The point is that the Caps have
come up flatter in more desperate situations when you would think effort would
be at a maximum. That is not to excuse
what happened last night. In some
respects it was a “top-five” poor effort.
The big thing was the shots on goal.
The Caps harp a lot on “quality over quantity” when it comes to such
things, but Petr Mrazek is a goalie who has faced more than 30 shots in a postseason
game only three times in his career, including Game 2 of this series, and he
lost two of them. But in the four games before
last night in which he played the full contest and faced fewer than 20 shots,
he had a shutout and allowed one goal in another. The Caps had a record of 8-14 before last
night in games in which they recorded fewer than 20 shots. It is no surprise that they lost.
Cheerless: It might
not have been the weakest effort ever, but one shot in 40:20 of ice time from
the first period to the third period?
The Caps had five shots on goal in the last minute of the third
period. Without those, they would have
had 13 shots on goal, the second-lowest shot total for a Caps team in playoff
history (they had 11 shots on goal in Game 4 of their conference semifinal
against Ottawa in 1998 – the Caps won that game, 2-0). And, the silence was loud. As Peerless pointed out last night, “five
Caps did not have a shot attempt – Nick Jensen, Jakub Vrana, Chandler
Stephenson, Lars Eller, and Nic Dowd.
Four others – Matt Niskanen, Christian Djoos, T.J. Oshie, and Brett
Connolly – had one shot attempt.” The
flip side of that is that three players – Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and
John Carlson – accounted for ten of the 18 shots and 23 of the 43 shot
attempts. Shoot, the Caps had more hits
(34) than shot attempts (33).
Peerless: The fight.
Alex Ovechkin and Andrei Svechnikov squared off in the first
period. They had been going at one
another with love taps for much of the period, and then Svechnikov appeared to
be the one who asked for the escalation in hostilities. Sometimes fights have an inspirational
effect. Did it?
Feerless: I don’t
think…
Cheerless: How come he always gets to go first? He’s always…
Feerless: Perhaps because it takes you a half hour to form a
coherent sentence.
Cheerless: Oh, yeah?
Feerless: Good comeback.
Cheerless: Why you…. You wanna go?
Feerless: Any time…
Peerless: OK, guys. Thanks for the dinner theater version of
“How a Hockey Fight Starts.” Can we get
back on track? You go first, Cheerless.
Cheerless: I forgot what I was gonna say… Oh, yeah… Well, it
did, just not the way the Caps would have liked. This was a pretty typical Caps road
game until the fight, almost 11 minutes into the period. They were down a goal, but the shot attempts
were even, and folks always say that on the road, try to keep things close
early, and don’t let the fans into the game.
In the last nine minutes of the period after the fight, Carolina
out-shot the Caps, 7-2, and out-attempted them, 11-6. Carolina didn’t score over the remainder of
the period, but they did have momentum that the Caps seemed to have in the
first five minutes. They did not give it
back.
Fearless: I think it certainly did, but in a subtle
way. Cheerless almost got there with his
mention of momentum. The turning point
might have been less than two minutes after the fight when Jordan Staal was
sent off on an interference penalty. One
of, if not their best penalty killer, off the ice in a one-goal game, it might
have been a chance for the Caps to build off Ovechkin winning the fight. But the Caps’ top power play scorer was in
the box as a result of the fight, and the power play looked awful, a couple of
shots from defensemen and a couple of misses.
And it was Carolina who grabbed the momentum thereafter.
Peerless: To which we can segue into the special teams. Washington scored on their first two power
plays of this series, back in the first period of Game 1. They have been shut out on ten power play
chances since. After facing it for seven
games, four in the regular season and three in the postseason, has Carolina
figured out the Caps’ power play? If they have, what can Washington do about
it?
Fearless: It is hard
to say. Since they scored two goals those
first two power plays, the Caps have no goals on 15 shots on eight power
plays. They have four of those shots
from Alex Ovechkin, four from John Carlson, two each from Nicklas Backstrom,
T.J. Oshie, and Matt Niskanen. Lars
Eller has the other. So, while one might
quibble over whether it matters that Evgeny Kuznetsov does not have a power
play shot on goal over those last eight power plays (any, in fact, in this
series), the Caps have spread things around fairly well in terms of
shooters. But it just looks slow, or at
least slower than when it is clicking.
Passes are made neither timely nor crisply. Is that system, or is it execution? Perhaps it is opportunity. Through three games in the first round last
season, Washington was 6-for-17 against Columbus (35.3 percent). They are 2-for-12 through three games in this
series (16.7 percent).
Cheerless: I ain’t an “x’s and o’s” guy...
Fearless: I thought those were the only two letters of the
alphabet you knew…
Cheerless: haw-haw…fuh-nee.
As I was saying, I ain’t an “x’s and o’s” guy, but maybe the Caps are
just stale. But here is a weird
fact. Petr Mrazek played in his first
postseason game in 2015. In five postseasons
starting with that one, Mrazek is second in save percentage against power plays
among 23 goalies having played in at least ten games (.923). Only Cam Talbot has been better (.926). The thing with him is, though, when he has
been bad, he has been awful. It just has
not happened often. In 14 postseason
games played, Mrazek has been perfect facing power plays 11 times. The other three times he allowed a total of
six power play goals on 16 shots. He has
been something of a home cooking guy defending power plays. He allowed three goals on ten shots in a 2016
postseason game against Tampa Bay, but in five other playoff games he played on
home ice, including Monday’s game against the Caps, he has keep the net empty,
stopping a total of 23 shots in those five games. The Caps haven’t lacked much for chances,
their 12 power plays tied with St. Louis for seventh-most among the 16 playoff
teams. But more opportunities couldn’t
hurt, if only to make Mrazek work more for his success. And that means forcing play more than they
did against Carolina on Monday, where the Hurricanes dictated pace and flow.
In the end…
Let us not make too much of one game. Yes, it stunk on toast. It was the biggest negative goal differential
for the Caps in a playoff game (minus-5) since that 5-0 loss to the Rangers in
Game 7 in 2013, the only times in the Ovechkin era that the Caps were as bad as
minus-5 in a playoff game goal differential.
But it was one game. What the
Caps could do without is the drama of Game 3 – the fight, the Canes getting
sucking it up even while short two forwards, the dead power play – and just
play a nice, boring, put ‘em to sleep road game in Game 4. It was a key for the Caps in tying a league
record for postseason wins on the road last year (ten). Do that, and they will return to Washington
in a position to end the series.
