The Capitals opened their new campaign with a 5-4 shootout victory against the Ottawa Senators last night, marked notably by an Alex Ovechkin hat trick. Although Ovechkin may have stolen the headlines, his linemate Jakub Vrana and the rest of the top six forward core were also brilliant.
Despite the one goal margin and the game heading to extra time, the Capitals were in control possession wise. They out-attempted the Sens 49 to 39 at five-on-five.
This Caps team is more top heavy than teams of recent past, and they will likely lean on those players heavily this season, just as they did Thursday night in Ottawa. The entire top six owned their defensive matchups, but notably Vrana ended the night plus-11 in five-on-five shot attempts, leading the team. The rookie forward also led all Caps forwards in five-on-five time-on-ice (16:52), was second in individual shot attempts (6) and tallied two assists. All of that and he’s probably still trying to find a place to live!
- Amid all of this talk about the top six forwards, don’t forget Dmitry Orlov and Matt Niskanen. These two form one of the best defensive pairings in the entire league. They faced the worst zone start percentage 5v5 (30%) of any defensemen playing on either team and still heavily controlled shot attempts (66%).
- The line made up of Nicklas Backstrom, TJ Oshie and Andre Burakovsky did not show up on the score sheet like Ovechkin’s line, but they were just as dominant at even strength. Burakovsky led the team in shot attempt percentage (71%) and not one of the three dropped below 65%.
- Brooks Orpik‘s average time-on-ice last season was 17:47. He played close to 25 minutes last night. In his age 37 season it looks like Orpik is not only going to be facing tougher competition on the second pairing, but also will have to shoulder a marked increase of play time.
- Devante Smith-Pelly made a costly error leading to a Senators goal and was generally poor along with his other two 4th line friends, Jay Beagle and Tyler Graovac. On most occasions I think Smith-Pelly would make way for Nathan Walker in the home opener, but he was part of a penalty kill that successfully killed 5 power plays. With Graovac playing less than 7 minutes, he figures to be the one forced out of the lineup if Barry Trotz decides to let the boy from Straya make his debut Saturday night.
- Aaron Ness (11:12 TOI) took two minor penalties and his pairing with Taylor Chorney (12:41) looked sketchy at best. Trotz seemed to notice this as well, as the two played half as many minutes as the rest of the defensive core.
- The Penguins lost 10-1 to the Blackhawks. Ha.
Numbers thanks to Hockeystats.ca and Pat Holden. Photo: Jana Chytilova
