The Capitals were in sunny, humid Tampa to meet a Steven Stamkos-led Lightning squad that had struggled defensively in two games against their in-state rival Florida Panthers. The Lightning would not be the team that struggled defensively in this one though, as they downed the Caps 4-3 in overtime.
The Caps were thoroughly outplayed in pretty much every aspect of the game except for a few great power plays that resulted in goals and quality scoring chances. The scoreline definitely does not tell the whole story of this one as it took a herculean effort from Philipp Grubauer to keep it close and earn a standings point. The Caps were out-attempted by 33 and out-shot by 12 at even strength.
Grubauer did all that he could to salvage something from this all-around bad team performance. The German netminder made 36 stops on 40 shots, many of those shots coming from close to his crease triggered by Tampa’s main offensive weapons. He made 16 of those stops in the third period alone and faced a Tampa power play that sent six shots his way in quick succession during a two minute minor. The Caps are very fortunate to have one of the better kept secrets in the league as their back up.
Why were both Ness and Chorney 30 feet away from the net? pic.twitter.com/z8WCtQ6GL3
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) October 10, 2017
Numbers thanks to Hockeystats.ca and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Photo: Patrick McDermott
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