The Washington Capitals returned home from their extended road trip and took down the New York Rangers in overtime 6-5. It wasn’t necessarily pretty, but a win is a win.
The Caps out-shot the Rangers 35 to 31.
- I titled this post as such because the Caps were the better team overall in each period of play from this game (at all strengths). Were they “that” much better than a very bad Rangers team? No, but I’ll take just “better” at this point. I still think the team’s defensive zone coverage at five-on-five can be an utter, ridiculous mess in moments and it is so very inconsistent on not only a game by game basis, but also a period by period basis, or even shift by shift basis. If you want to compare the numbers from the last game to this game that I mentioned in the last numbers post, the Caps actually won the five-on-five scoring chance battle 23 to 20 and evened out with the Rangers in high danger chances 12 to 12. You can see that pretty clearly displayed on the heat map.
- Great game from the fourth line, who I’d like to see maybe steal another minute or two of ice time going forward. Carl Hagelin was really good in his Capital One Arena debut, setting the pace for the team at five-on-five in shot attempt percentage (76.5-percent), scoring chance for percentage (77.8-percent), and high danger chance for percentage (80-percent) in his 8:46 of ice time in that context.
- Might as well mention Nick Jensen who also made his home debut with the Caps, playing 14:16 at all strengths. I really hope the plan going forward is to play him with Christian Djoos and that this spell with Brooks Orpik is just to get Jensen accustomed to the team’s scheme. Otherwise, in my honest opinion, that trade makes more than a little less sense and will have a lesser impact. Jensen was okay in his first start with the club and it’s probably gonna take him some time to get used to not only the new system, but also a lot less ice time.
15 of the 18 Capitals skaters that played today recorded a point. Nicklas Backstrom led the team with two points (2g).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 24, 2019
- With an assist on Michal Kempny‘s goal, Andre Burakovsky now has three points in his last four games. This could be relevant to potential goings on later today, but I am personally of the opinion that Andre’s situation will wait to be figured out in the offseason. Kid’s been playing much, much better of late.
- Tom Wilson has continued to extend his new career high in goals, as he tallied his 17th of the season in just his 44th game played. If he hadn’t been reckless in the preseason and if Ryan Reaves wasn’t an idiot, he’d be on a 31-goal, 57-point pace over a full 82-game season.
- Who’s ready for today’s trade nonsense around the league?
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Rangers
Headline photo: Patrick McDermott
