Thursday night the Caps started off a three-game homestand by shutting out the New Jersey Devils 1-0. This game was an utter snooze-fest, with Braden Holtby’s league-leading eighth shutout only requiring that he block 15 pucks. But despite the slow pace, the Capitals passed yet another milestone, with their franchise record 14th straight home win. Jakub Vrana also scored his second NHL goal.
This was the fewest shots on goal that the Caps have given up in any game this year, but it was far from the fewest shot attempts. Somehow the Devils actually out-attempted the Capitals 34 to 32 at five-on-five, while the Caps were ahead 59 to 50 in all situation.
Key Stats
- Braden Holtby is now leading all major goalie stats. Recently we wrote about how Holtby and Devan Dubnyk were neck-and-neck in the race for the Vezina trophy. We also pointed out that Dubnyk’s performance was trending down while Holtby was heating up. Well, with eight shutouts, a .942 save percentage at five-on-five, and a 1.91 goals-against average, Holtby now statistically leads the way in the Vezina race. Dubnyk still has a slight edge in all-situation save percentage.
- The Alex Ovechkin line had the toughest deployments. Coach Barry Trotz had last change, and he matched up his lines power-vs-power. The Ovechkin line had five defensive zone starts, the most on the team, and the forward they shared the ice with the most was Devils superstar Taylor Hall. Matt Niskanen and Dmitry Orlov also had similarly tough deployments.
- The John Carlson and Karl Alzner pairing played the shutdown role. We’ve speculated about how the defensive pairings would shake out since acquiring Kevin Shattenkirk, and with all defensemen back in the lineup it was “Carlzner” who was tasked with shutting down Taylor Hall. They didn’t fare too well, as Alzner was minus-five in shot attempts and Carlson was minus-one. That said, they did keep Hall off the board, and he was only a plus-four on the night at five-on-five.
Unsung Hero of the Game
Matt Niskanen gets it for this game. Just recently back from injury he had the most ice time of any Caps skater at five-on-five, and he ended the evening plus-four in shot attempts, plus-five in shots on goal, and plus four in scoring chances (all at five-on-five). And all of that was despite only getting two starts in the offensive zone.
Trend to Watch
Recently we wrote about how Ovechkin has been showing his age. This trend has continued, and other than a very recent uptick, Ovechkin’s 15-game personal shot attempt rate is near a season minimum. That said, his overall on-ice possession numbers (the share of shot attempts that are in the Caps’ favor while Ovi is playing) have been improving. Overall, while Ovechkin may not be producing as much offensive individually, it still appears as though he is effective while on the ice. Here are visualizations of both trends, courtesy of Corisca.Hockey.
Ovi 15-game individual shot attempts per 60 minutes:
Ovi 15-game on-ice shots-for percentage:
Full Coverage of Caps vs Devils
Stats courtesy of NaturalStatTrick and Corisca.Hockey.
Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI.
