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Friday night, the Caps played a snoozefest and beat the Devils 1-0 in OT. While TJ Oshie was out with the flu, John Carlson returned to the lineup and scored the OTGWG. Game highlights include and are limited to the aforementioned goal and Jason Chimera playing a hearty round of Duck, Duck, Goose.
The Caps’ play as of late has raised some eyebrows. As they head into the playoffs, one area of concern is their possession numbers. Tonight, the Caps posted a very solid 60 percent of the shot attempts. Granted, they played the Devils, whose 46.1 shot attempt percentage ranks second-to-last in the NHL.
Ultimately, the Caps were on the right side of 5v5 shot attempts, 39-26. Here’s the 5v5 shot attempt chart:
After two periods of outshooting the Devils (yay, strong starts!) the Caps themselves were outshot 11-5 at 5v5 in the third. The 2:17 played in OT were uneventful, although the Caps bested the Devils in shots, 2-1.
Evgeny Kuznetsov had the highest 5v5 shot-attempt differential at plus-8.
Jay Beagle had the lowest shot-attempt differential at minus-2. He was the only Caps player with a negative differential.
Alex Ovechkin led the Caps with 7 5v5 shot attempts.
Dmitry Orlov, Marcus Johansson, Mike Richards, Tom Wilson, and Jay Beagle were in a five-way tie for the lead in individual scoring chances at 5v5 with 2. Note: individual scoring chances here are as defined by War on Ice.
Matt Niskanen led all Caps skaters in ice time with 24:14. Other numbers of note: Ovechkin clocked 22:02, while Carlson played 19:27 in his first game since February 24.
All stats are courtesy of War on Ice and HockeyStats.ca.
For no good reason, let’s end this with a Pete Yorn album cover.
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