Caps first fall: numbers for the morning after

May 16, 2018 5:38 am

On a day where the DC sky was full of actual lightning, the Washington Capitals net was full of Tampa Bay Lightning goals as the hometown boys fell 4-2 in Game Three. The Capitals now hold a 2-1 series lead, making Thursday’s game so very important.

The Capitals out-shot the Lightning 38 to 23 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 42 to 37.

Game Three was Barry Trotz‘ 54th career playoff game in charge of the Caps, which is the new franchise record.
Trotz preached discipline in the locker room after the Capitals’ Game Two win in Tampa Bay, but his players were anything but disciplined during Game Three. The Lightning pounced on their power play opportunities, scoring two goals up a man. That trend cannot continue.
Although the Caps got another goal from Brett Connolly, only really one of their lines was working at even strength and that was the first line. I thought the trio could have scored three or four times on Tuesday night, but Andrei Vasilevskiy and some poor finishing limited them to only Evgeny Kuznetsov‘s extra attacker goal.

Since 2005/06, 219 NHLers have taken 9 shots in a game.
Only 105 have done it multiple times.
Only 28 have done it 5+ times.
Only 7 have done it 10+ times.
Only 1 player has done it 20+ times.
Tonight was Alex Ovechkin's 65th time. pic.twitter.com/aBP8ol34D1

— Jeff Veillette (@JeffVeillette) May 16, 2018

Anton Stralman should totally be suspended a game for his clear boarding of Tom Wilson. Time to spin the wheel of the Department of Player Safety and see where his punishment might land. I think it could range from absolutely nothing other than the penalty called on ice to maybe even a two game suspension.
Lastly, don’t panic. The Capitals played fine in this game, it’s just that fine is not good enough in the Eastern Conference Finals against a team as good as the Tampa Bay Lightning. The power play and penalty kill need to regroup, some of the over-passing needs to be cut out, they need to finish their prime chances, Braden Holtby needs to be a little bit better, and Capital One Arena needs to stop holding concerts the day before a playoff game. The ice was horrendous, somehow worse than Tampa Bay’s.