The Washington Capitals entered Friday night’s action looking to string together victories against in division foes as they took on the Columbus Blue Jackets in some more Metro on Metro crime. This time the end result was less favorable to the red clad bunch, they fell 2-1.
The Blue Jackets out-shot the Capitals 36 to 34 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 53 to 52.
- A lot of the current narrative surrounding the Caps right now is trying to find someone to fit on the top line next to Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov while Tom Wilson is still suspended. So, who should play on the first line? More like who could play on the first line at the moment. The dynamic Russian duo had another miserable night at five-on-five as they were far and away the team’s worst when it comes to all of those fancy numbers we look at every morning. Kuznetsov posted a minus-15 shot attempt differential, a minus-11 scoring chance differential, and a minus-9 high danger chance differential. In my opinion, it’s past time for Kuzy and Ovi to date other people for a good chunk of games. It’s not the third wheel’s problem.
- The Caps played a stellar first period at even strength. They created 30 shot attempts, 15 shots on net, 19 scoring chances, and eight high danger chances in the first frame alone. Now, Chris why do the end totals look so equal then? Well, the Caps second period was atrocious. Just reverse all of that differential goodness and basically reset this one for the third.
- Jonas Siegenthaler made his NHL debut after injuries to both Brooks Orpik and John Carlson forced the Caps into some recruitment from the AHL’s Hershey Bears. Siegenthaler played the least of call Caps defensemen (12:13) and I don’t think he looked out of place whatsoever. His “fancy” stats from the game don’t look so hot, but the Caps coaching staff also found a way to make the debuting rookie the worst off on the team when it comes to defensemen zone starts (37.5-percent offensive zone faceoff percentage).
- As you could probably tell, the bottom six carried the load in this one. Jakub Vrana is someone who stood out to me in a great way once again this season. Travis Boyd is another. Vrana’s numbers from this game basically look the opposite of Kuznetsov’s and that’s a very weird thing to say in a positive manner. Get it together, 92.
- Braden Holtby and Sergei Bobrovsky were both very, very good. It’s telling that in the first and second periods that whichever team utterly dominated the even strength play still came away with nothing on the scoresheet.
- Going into Friday night’s action, the Capitals were converting on the power play at a stupidly good 34-percent. The Blue Jackets were doing the opposite with their paltry 11.9-percent unit. The Caps then went 1-for-5 on the man advantage in this one, while the Blue Jackets went 2-for-3. That’s the game right there folks.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Blue Jackets
Headline photo: Patrick McDermott
