Shambolic second period: numbers for the morning after

February 12, 2018 8:31 am

The Washington Capitals salvaged a point from a 5-4 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings in a game that most thought was over after a horrendous second period from the DC home team. Not a good performance.

The Red Wings out-shot the Capitals 29 to 27 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 48 to 33.

The title of this post is the big story here. Ian put together a nice post on the second period, but here are just the highlights. The Caps were out-attempted at all strengths 30 to 5 (14.3 percent), out-attempted at even strength 24 to 5 (16.7 percent), out-chanced (scoring chances) 16 to 1 (5.9 percent), out-shot (shots on goal) 17 to 2, and lit up for 2 goals in 9 seconds and 3 goals in 2:56. That’s literally the worst period I can remember in the last ten years.
I am one of many that usually asks for the third line to receive more ice time. They got a little more of it in this one and basically threw it straight into a bonfire. They got hammered the entire game, were themselves very bad, but I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that they were line that spent the most time with the pairing of Brooks Orpik (6:16) and Madison Bowey (5:49).
Hey here’s a couple positives. Evgeny Kuznetsov is now on a seven game point streak and Alex Ovechkin‘s 33rd goal still has him atop the league.
Brett Connolly has seven goals this year in the third period. That’s pretty clutch.
A potential trade deadline target, Mike Green had a nice game for the Red Wings. The Wings got over 56 percent of the shot attempts and scoring chances at five-on-five when he was on the ice.
4:16 AM. The time right now as I’m up to watch Switzerland and Japan play some women’s Olympic hockey. These Asian Olympics are destroying sleep schedules everywhere.