The Washington Capitals opened the 2019 part of their season with quite the stinker. In their 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues, the Caps gave up four unanswered goals and displayed general inability to defend their net.

The Caps were out-shot 42 to 25 and out-attempted at five-on-five 67 to 40.

• The Caps gave up in this game right after they finished the first period strong. For the rest of the game the Blues out-attempted them at five-on-five 44 to 18 and out-shot them 33 to 12. The third period was a pure massacre of chances for the Blues as well, out scoring chancing the Caps 14 to 6 and out high danger chancing them 7 to 1. Bad.
• Alex Ovechkin became only the second player in NHL history to start his career with 14 straight 30-plus goal seasons. GOAT.
• Ovi is also going to break his career long streak of games played (203) when he gets into the action tomorrow night. Unfortunately, this streak will more than likely be ended by his all star game suspension. Garbage rule.
• The third line was decent I guess? They’re the only players on the Caps that stayed around even in the three big statistical five-on-five categories that I always mention.
• The Capitals have not won in regulation in Dallas since October 17, 1995. I was less than a week old. They play in Dallas tomorrow night.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Blues

Headline photo: Joe Puetz