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Caps expel their San Jose demons: numbers for the morning after

By Chris Cerullo

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December 5, 2017 11:47 am

The San Jose Sharks are normally a boogeyman team for the Washington Capitals, especially when the two teams play in our nation’s capital. Monday night, instead of turtling, the Capitals knifed up the Sharks, defeating them 4-1.

The Capitals outshot the Sharks 29 to 25, but were out-attempted at five-on-five 46 to 40.

  • This win was the first for the Caps at home against the Sharks since October 15 of 2009. Semyon Varlamov got credit for the victory after coming in relief for an injured Jose Theodore. Alex Ovechkin had the game-winning goal assisted by Mike Knuble and Brendan Morrison. Before that victory you would have to go back to February 20, 1999 for the next Caps win at home over the Sharks. Two goals from Sergei Gonchar were enough to earn the W in that game. Since that night in 1999, the Caps are 4-22 against the Sharks.
  • Ovechkin’s breakaway goal was the 578th tally of his illustrious career giving him sole possession of 20th place on the all-time goal scoring list, passing Mark Recchi. It also made him the first player in the NHL this year to tally 20 goals. His 20th goal of the season gave him 20th place all-time. That’s fun.

  • It was a “vintage” effort from the Caps captain who now has seven goals in his last six games. He led the team’s forwards in shot attempt percentage (71.4 percent), scoring chances for percentage (72.7 percent), and high danger chance for percentage (83.3 percent). I think “vintage” is a little unfair to use at this stage to describe Ovechkin. Dude has just been really, really good for extended stretches of this season. His past ten games especially have been thoroughly dominant.

    • Philipp Grubauer was fantastic in his second victory of the season stopping 24 of the 25 shots he faced. That’s the type of performance from the German backup netminder that the Caps got used to last season. Grubauer in his small sample of games played last year was one of the better goaltenders in the entire league. If both him and Braden Holtby get hot, watch out NHL.

    Braden Holtby’s hug for @philippgrubauer31 after the game. 🤗

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    • Christian Djoos has pretty much sealed a place near the top of my favorite Caps players list this season. He is still not playing enough five-on-five (10:30) in my eyes, but the Caps continuously dominate play when he’s on the ice. In this game, only Ovechkin had a better shot attempt percentage than Djoos’ 63.2 percent. A young, intelligent, good skating, offensively savvy, puck mover like Djoos checks a lot of boxes when you’re looking at an ideal defensemen for today’s NHL.
    • Congratulations are in order for Travis Boyd. Monday night, Boyd played his first game in the NHL after being drafted in 2011. He had a rather inconspicuous game, playing the least amount of minutes on the team (9:10) and recording one shot on goal. Before missing Hershey’s last game to make his way to DC, Boyd had played in 176 straight games for the Bears. That is the longest current streak in the AHL.

    Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, Hockeystats.ca, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.

    Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Sharks

    Headline photo: Patrick Smith

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