The Washington Capitals, in the first game of their Californian road trip laid an egg against the Anaheim waterfowl, falling 4-0. If this is any indication of how this western swing is going to go, us fans are in for a long week.
The Caps out-shot the Ducks 36 to 18 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 64 to 44.
- The first and most obvious talking point from this game is goaltending. John Gibson stopped all 36 shots he faced. Braden Holtby let in three goals on nine shots. Philipp Grubauer stopped all eight shots he faced.
- The Caps by the numbers alone, without any context, look to have been pretty unlucky to get such a non-competitive result, but this game was really over after the Ducks went up by two. The third period “dominance” was driven by score effects and makes the overall game look better for the Caps.
- Alex Ovechkin had ten individual shot attempts, seven individual scoring chances, and four individual high danger chances. He usually scores when he has a game like that. He didn’t and is still stuck on career goal #598.
- As Peter said in the recap, Holtby has now been pulled seven times this season and four times since February began. The Caps have now also been shutout four times this season.
- The Caps need more from their entire bottom six and TJ Oshie. A trade was probably necessary to have fixed the fourth line, but the third line has also gone dry of late.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, Hockeystats.ca, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Ducks
Featured image: Sean M. Haffey
