Bounced back: numbers for the morning after

February 20, 2018 8:23 am

Needing two points to keep pace with their rival Pittsburgh Penguins atop the Metropolitan Division and after taking a 7-1 beatdown at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks, the Washington Capitals took down the Buffalo Sabres 3-2. Pause the riots temporarily.

The Sabres out-shot the Caps 34 to 30, but the Caps took the edge in five-on-five shot attempts 52 to 47.

This first bullet has nothing to do with the game, but I’ve noticed that a lot of Blackhawks fans on social media seem a little disappointed to lose Michal Kempny. They seem to think he could have blossomed if given a bigger role and consistent playing time. I think it’s always a good sign when fans of a team are a little reluctant to lose a player in a trade and it definitely looks like he was probably underutilized and could be a successful piece.

And nice production rate at 5v5 too – always somewhat underused in Chi. pic.twitter.com/jGRHuHdIy5

— Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) February 19, 2018

Kempny is the logo in the top-right here. pic.twitter.com/PFHFg7GQUl

— Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) February 19, 2018

I think I’m finally fully buying into Alex Ovechkin‘s goal number 600 watch. His league leading 35th goal of the season has him now only seven markers away from the big round number.
Through two periods the Buffalo Sabres at five-on-five only sent 23 shot attempts and 16 shots towards Philipp Grubauer‘s net. In the third period alone at five-on-five they had 24 shot attempts and 13 shots. They also had 18 scoring chances for and seven high danger chances for in the third at five-on-five. The turtling did not burn the Capitals this time, but it’s still happening and it’s still intensely aggravating.
After going without one in his last game, Ovechkin recorded a shot attempt within the first minute of this game. He ended the night with eight overall and his aforementioned goal. That’s more like it.
I would have liked to see the third line play more down the stretch as both Brett Connolly (10:16) and Andre Burakovsky (10:33) were a little light on ice time comparative to the rest of their mates. I thought Burakovsky especially was very good for large parts of the game.
Brooks Orpik and Madison Bowey got the most sheltered zone starts of the defensive pairings (72.7 percent in the offensive zone) and yet were still easily the least effective of the bunch. The first Buffalo goal was a mess on their part, Orpik made some scary turnovers very late in the third, and was a passenger on the Sabres second goal. Lets all hope Kempny is the savior the boys need.
Grubauer probably deserved a shutout, but the Caps basically decided to let him handle large stretches of the third period on his own. He still made 32 saves on 34 shots.
Garrett Roe from Northern Virginia (Vienna) scored Team USA’s fourth goal in their 5-1 win in a knockout game against Team Slovakia. Way to be Garrett!