The Washington Capitals had their seven game winning streak ended by their archnemesis, the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens took down the Caps 5-3 as they finished their chances and the bounces just did not roll the Caps way.
The Caps out-shot the Pens 41 to 30.
- First things first, congratulations are in order as Alex Ovechkin recorded his 1,200th career point with a primary assist on John Carlson‘s power play tally. Ovi’s 653 career goals are the second most by any player when they have reached the 1,200 point plateau. The only goal scorer better was Brett Hull who had 656.
- The Caps had a very bad 1:48 stretch that occurred in the second period where the Pens rattled off three straight goals to take the lead. The rest of the game felt like domination from a Caps POV and with a better ice sheet and some more puck luck, I think you can reverse this scoreline. I have really, really liked how this team has been playing since the trade deadline.
- That very poor two minutes was started by a lazy turnover from Evgeny Kuznetsov, who seemingly had all the time in the world to exit the defensive zone… but did not. Jake Guentzel cashed in immediately on said turnover and the rest was history. Kuzy was on the ice for eight Penguins high danger chances at five-on-five and the Pens had twelve of those total in the game. He’s a defensive liability and really the only thing holding this team back from skyrocketing at the moment.
- To get back on the positive side of things, Jakub Vrana scored two goals to give him his first career 20-goal season and 21 goals total this year. This was Jake’s fourth career multi goal game and his second of this season. The second line overall was outstanding. Nicklas Backstrom at five-on-five posted a 74.1-percent shot attempt percentage, 76.9-percent scoring chance for percentage, 60-percent high danger chance for percentage, and was on the ice for two Caps goals to the Pens zero.
- Nic Dowd weirdly only played a total of 5:18 at five-on-five and 6:46 overall. The next lowest total was Travis Boyd at 8:16.
- Carl Hagelin continues to be awesome and was great in his first return to Pittsburgh’s ice as an opponent since winning two Stanley Cups with them. New contract please, GMBM. I’m already convinced.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Penguins
Headline photo: Joe Sargent
