Capitals need overtime to finish off the league’s worst: numbers for the morning after

November 7, 2017 11:30 am

The Caps came into Monday night on a two game winning streak with major potential to extend that streak to three. The Arizona Coyotes are the worst team in the league and had their “third” goaltender in net. It still took the Caps an extra frame to down the Coyotes 3-2, but they got the job done in the end.

The Caps finally got on top of a team when it comes to shot attempts, out-attempting the Coyotes 47 to 37 five-on-fve, and they also outshot them 40 to 26.

I don’t want to come off so anti-happiness after a three-game win streak, but doesn’t something just feel missing? The Caps are struggling to get by teams they would have trounced in past years. Roster turnover and injuries are of course a major part of that, but there’s something else that feels off. With that being said, there are still plenty of positives to pull from this game.
The line of Nicklas Backstrom, TJ Oshie, and Jakub Vrana destroyed their matchup with Arizona’s Luke Schenn as well as their defensive match up with Clayton Keller‘s line. These guys can seemingly play with any line thrown at them and often times take the play to star players. Vrana had such a good game that it was incredibly strange to me that he was rewarded with exactly 0 shifts in overtime.
John Carlson was fantastic. Not only did he win the game in overtime after his first goal of the season in 50 shots, but he was on the ice for 11 Caps scoring chances at five-on-five. He’s still playing close to 30 minutes every night and eventually it would be nice if the younger defenders could be entrusted with some of those minutes, but more performances like this one will justify Carlson playing this much.
The Caps had six power-play opportunities and only converted on one of them. It was their first 5v4 goal since playing the Devils in early October, which somehow already feels like a million years ago. It’s not just bad luck hampering their man advantage. The Caps rank in the bottom half of the league in goals for per 60 minutes, scoring chances for per 60 minutes, and high danger chances for in 60 minutes when they’re a man up.
The entirety of the bottom six forward core did not play a lot of this game. Amongst them, Tom Wilson was the only one who played over ten minutes five-on-five and even then he only skated 10:01. Barry Trotz leaned hard on his top six forwards. They excelled, but they cant and should not be expected to shoulder as much of the burden as they did, especially against such an inferior opponent.
Nathan Walker again did not get a jersey tonight. The player that has seemingly taken his spot in the lineup, Liam O’Brien, only played 5:58 of the entire game. This is still baffling and I don’t have an answer for it.
There is not even really a number associated with this other than that I am 100 percent sure that I almost chucked my remote against the wall while watching this live. What on earth is Kuzy doing here: