Wow, now that was something. Like Peter said in the recap, the Washington Capitals were “almost perfect” in their 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals. I’ll take “almost”, because being almost perfect for an entire playoff run probably still wins you the Stanley Cup.
The Caps out-shot the Lightning 32 to 21 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 47 to 41.
- Michal Kempny opened the scoring with his first career playoff goal. The goal marked the 10th time in 13 games this postseason that the Capitals have struck first. Speaking of Kempny, the Czech defenseman spent most of his five-on-five ice time against Brayden Point‘s line and thoroughly dominated them. Kempny finished with a 57.6 percent five-on-five shot attempt percentage as well as a 55.6 percent five-on-five scoring chance for percentage. Guy was fantastic.
- The Caps found success on their man advantage in Game One, continuing the trend that started all the way back against Columbus. The team leads the NHL in postseason power play scoring with 15 goals (franchise record) and have scored at least one power play goal in 11 of their 13 postseason games. Winnipeg is the next closest Conference Final competitor with only eight.
- Alex Ovechkin‘s first period goal was the 55th of his career in the playoffs, which took him past Nicklas Lidstrom, Rick MacLeish, and Steve Thomas for sole possession of 44th all time in NHL playoff goal scoring.
- Ovi’s line saw the return from suspension of Tom Wilson and oh boy, Tommy Top Line did not wait very long to restore the line to it’s previous state. Evgeny Kuznetsov and his running mates were flying the entire game. Kuznetsov himself led all forwards in five-on-five shot attempt percentage (69.6 percent).
- Good things happen when Lars Eller, Jakub Vrana, and TJ Oshie are on the ice together. The trio when deployed at five-on-five, earned 10 scoring chances to the Lightning’s two and four high danger chances to the Lightning’s zero.
- One game sample and all, but the numbers the Caps put up at five-on-five (get tired of hearing about five-on-five yet?) in Game One when you adjust for score and venue are bonkers. They gathered 60.7 percent of the shot attempts, 68.6 percent of the shots on goal, 66.9 percent of the scoring chances, and 73.9 percent of the high danger chances.
- Here’s another chart that tells you a little more about what kind of offense both teams generated:
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, Hockeystats.ca, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.
Full RMNB Coverage of Game One
Headline Photo: Bruce Bennett
