In an all too familiar fashion the Washington Capitals dropped Game One of their second round series to the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 at Capital One Arena. The Caps at one point held a two goal lead with 17 minutes left in regulation.
The Caps out-shot the Pens 34 to 25 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 64 to 46.
- This game started really promising with a goal from Evgeny Kuznetsov only 17 seconds into the first period. His goal is the second fastest postseason goal scored in Capitals history. Mike Gartner holds the record with a strike 15 seconds in against the New York Islanders on April 8, 1987.
- Alex Ovechkin is the first player in Caps franchise history to record 100 career playoff points with the team. It should be so, so much more.
- The Penguins scored all three of their third period goals in less than five minutes. Safe to say that was one of the more depressing five minutes of my entire life.
- Braden Holtby stopped 22 of the Pens 25 shots. I thought Holts was absolutely superhuman through 40 minutes, but the team really needed a save or two on the goals he gave up in the third. Quick succession goals like that are game killers, especially if they seem stoppable.
- The Caps received basically 20 seconds of power play time in this game compared to a Pens unit that at least got one full man advantage in. With that said, I find it very hard to blame the officiating in this one, outside of that ridiculous too many men on the ice non-call.
- Brooks Orpik led all Caps players in five-on-five shot attempt percentage (76 percent) and scoring chance for percentage (77.8 percent). Orpik and his partner Christian Djoos surprisingly had their best on-ice results when deployed aginst Sidney Crosby‘s line.
- The Penguins could see the return to their lineup of 129 regular season points if both Evgeni Malkin and Carl Hagelin suit up for Game Two on Sunday. I feel like this loss stings even more due to that.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, Hockeystats.ca, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.
Full RMNB Coverage of Game One
Headline Photo: Bruce Bennett
