The Washington Capitals and Columbus Blue Jackets matched up in an enthralling, fast paced, crisp hockey match that had to use an extra period to decide a winner. Sike, this game was boring as all heck, and the Caps just slid by enough to earn a point in the 2-1 overtime loss.
The Caps out-shot the Jackets 33 to 22 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 52 to 44.
- There aren’t many counting stats from this one so I’m going to use this first bullet to complain. Why does Georgetown get to play at Capital One? Why do they need to be playing at Capital One? Is even half the arena filled for their games? At least make sure to schedule literally none of their home games on days the Caps are playing. It has a noticeable effect on the ice sheet, every. single. time. I love college basketball, but yeesh.
- The Caps played similarly to how the Bruins played against them the other day. More shot volume than the Blooj, but less high danger chances and far less odd man rushes or breakaways. Said high danger chances ended 11 to 7 in favor of Columbus.
- Pheonix Copley earned NBCSWA’s player of the game award after only stopping eight pucks in the game. That about sums this one up.
- Speaking of which, lets all hope Braden Holtby is fine and ready to go Monday night for the Blues. If he isn’t the Caps do have a wealth of goaltending options in their organization, starting with Copley. Vitek Vanecek is an AHL all star as well and Ilya Samsonov is coming off of a 3-0 shutout victory for the Bears in a stretch of games where he has played much better than he started the season.
- Lets get this straight. Was that a slashing penalty on Nicky? Yes. Were the refs not calling absolutely anything for the entirety of the third period-plus? Yes. Is it a joke that the trail official was the one to raise his arm on the play? Yes. We’re all good on this.
- Caps power play is still an utter mess. I give up on mentioning this as seemingly nothing is changing.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Blue Jackets
Headline photo: Rob Carr
