Photo: Patrick Smith

Riding a trick of hats from TJ Oshie, the Caps grabbed a 1-0 series lead Thursday night with a 4-3 win over the Penguins in overtime. The game’s pace and intensity was noticeably up a notch over the Caps first round matchup against the Flyers. The Penguins are also obviously a more skilled opponents.

The most important thing is the Caps got the win. But there are things the team can improve upon moving forward. Some of the matchups gave the team fits and there were prolonged periods of the game where the Pens carried the play.

In the end, it was, objectively, a great hockey game and the Caps are up 1-0. Let’s take a look at the numbers 5-on-5 numbers from the game.

• The Pens had the better of the 5-on-5 shot attempts, by the narrow margin of 66-63.
• Via War on Ice, the scoring chances were 29-24, Pens.
• The high-danger scoring chances  also came down in favor of the Pens, 10-9.
• John Carlson led all Caps players with 11 individual shot attempts.
• Carlson was also on the ice for the most Caps shot attempts for (39) and against (27).
• Andre Burakovsky, who had his best game of the playoffs and was one of the best players on the ice, led all Caps skaters with 4 individual scoring chances. He was also tied for second in shot attempts with seven.

Here’s a look at the matchups from Muneeb:

https://twitter.com/muneebalamcu/status/725890629696405505

• A couple things that will be trouble if they continue: The Niskanen-Alzner pairing struggled against the Crosby line and the Orpik-Carlson pairing struggled against the Kessel line.
• Burakovsky’s line absolutely wrecked the Pens’ 4th line.
• The Caps need more from their second line. The second line had good puck possession in the first round without results. Last night, they got dominated in the puck possession game. The Caps path to a series victory is a lot harder if this doesn’t improve.

The Caps and Pens meet again Saturday night. Is there any line matching or strategy you’d think the Caps need to try as they attempt to claim a 2-0 series lead?

Full RMNB Coverage of Game One