Pathetic team performance in Tampa: numbers for the morning after

October 10, 2017 8:35 am

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.

One of the major story-lines coming into Monday night’s action was that Alex Ovechkin and his back-to-back hat tricks were heading towards a struggling Tampa defense. Instead of continuing that success, Ovechkin and his first line friends put forth the worst effort of the night when it came to forwards. Jakub Vrana (-15), Evgeny Kuznetsov (-14), and Ovechkin (-16) were a severe defensive liability that bled shot attempts.
Taylor Chorney and Aaron Ness are a complete and utter mess. Both were absolutely pummeled by shot attempts, Chorney was roasted by Nikita Kucherov for the game tying goal, and Peter made the point in the recap that Ness now has eight penalty minutes in three games, playing less than 40 minutes in that span. This is an unplayable pair in the worst possible way. I know some of you will agree with me when I say that we’d much rather suffer through the growing pains of watching any of the six young defensemen (Djoos, Bowey, Johansen, Siegenthaler, Williams, Lewington) spread between Washington and Hershey than have to sit through another period of Chorness.

Why were both Ness and Chorney 30 feet away from the net? pic.twitter.com/z8WCtQ6GL3

— Ian Oland (@ianoland) October 10, 2017

In the midst of general incompetence, somehow the entire line consisting of Nicklas Backstrom (+3), TJ Oshie (+1), and Andre Burakovsky (+1) was able to come out of Tampa with a positive shot attempt differential. At first I thought that maybe meant they had been underused at even strength, but it turns out they played the most minutes of all forwards in that regard. Perhaps they should be leaned on even more — or maybe the other top two lines just need to pull their heads out of the sand.
Oshie now has three goals in three games. For all of those math geniuses out there, that’s an 82 goal pace, which is much higher than the 33 goals he scored last season. Many of us at RMNB, in our Patreon-exclusive season predictions, were skeptical of Oshie even touching 30 goals this season due to his inflated shooting percentage from last year. I’m already beginning to turn around on that due to just how potent he can be on the power play with Kuznetsov and Backstrom feeding him. Stick taps as well to Backstrom, who passed Bob Carpenter for 8th place on the Capitals all-time goal scoring list.
The fourth line consisting of Nathan Walker (plus-3), Devante Smith-Pelly (even), and Jay Beagle (minus-1) was another sort of bright spot in a sea of darkness. The line kept their heads above water in shot attempts in the limited even strength minutes they were given. I for one have been impressed with how competent Smith-Pelly has looked considering he did not come into town with rave reviews.
Stamkos was on the ice for 29 Lightning shot attempts and only 11 Capitals shot attempts at 5-on-5. That is the direct opposite of the formula you need to beat the Lightning. I think there is an issue not only with the quality of play in the past five periods of hockey, but also with the coaching staff not getting the right match ups. Chorney should never be defending Kucherov one-on-one.
This game was very poor for the Caps. The Lightning ended up with 65% of the total shot attempts taken 5 on 5. For the second game in a row the Caps absolutely tanked after taking a lead to the first intermission. They have been out-shot 22 to 8 and out-attempted 38 to 19 at 5-on-5 during those last two second periods. It is obviously way too early to be doom and glooming, but this team needs some sort of jump with the Pens coming to town on Wednesday.