Thursday night in New Jersey the Capitals re-found their footing, with a 5-2 road win against the Devils. The game produced some nice highlights, with Brooks Orpik doing his best impression of an immovable object against Taylor Hall and a couple pretty breakaway goals. But the best news of all? Daniel Winnik will keep his beard.
Stats-wise at five-on-five, it was evenly played. The possession battle was basically a tie (43-40 Devils at five-on-five), but the Caps edged out a few more shots on net. Factor in the significant PP time and the Caps outshot the Devils 36-29.
Key Statistics
- This was the seventh game of the season in which the Caps scored at least two PP goals, and the third time this month. They performed that feat 13 times last season. The Caps are now 12th in the league in PP efficiency at a respectable 20.7 percent.
- Holtby put up a 0.962 save percentage at five-on-five, and a 0.931 overall on the night. He is now second in league in five-on-five save percentage behind only Vezina frontrunner Devan Dubnyk. Overall Holtby is top-five in every key goalie category.
- Ovi may have done well to get the scoring started, but the top line did not have their best outing. Ovechkin, Jay Beagle, and Nick Backstrom were each at least a minus-10 in shot attempts at five-on-five.
Unsung Hero of the Game
Chandler Stephenson. Tom Wilson, Marcus Johansson, and Brooks Orpik all had solid all-around games in every category, but the call-up gets the kudos this time. Stephenson played 10 even strength minutes and saw five defensive zone starts. During that deployment, he didn’t see the Devils’ best but came out on top in every main statistical category. He was plus-five in shot attempts and plus-three in scoring chances. He also had two shots of his own and six whole seconds registered on the PP.
Trend to Watch
We mentioned the Caps PP above, and they have been on an upswing in shot production of late. Over the previous 10-game stretch they produced 107 shot attempts per 60 minutes, the most since early on in the season. This is in comparison to the 78 shot attempts per 60 that they allow on the PK.
Other than a brief stretch that differential has been positive, and let’s hope it stays that way.
Full Coverage of Devils vs Caps
Stats courtesy of NaturalStatTrick, Corsica and Hockey-Reference.
Headline Photo by Andy Marlin/NHLI via Getty Images.
