The Washington Capitals have earned at least one point in 13 straight games. This latest point collecting came at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers as the Caps downed the Broad Street Bullies 2-1 via shootout.
The Caps out-shot the Flyers 36 to 31 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 50 to 41.
- On pure initial viewing, I didn’t think the Caps looked all that great in periods two and three. The numbers tell a little bit of a different story as the Caps at five-on-five actually more than tripled (11 to 3) the Flyers in scoring chances in the third period and out high-danger chanced them six to zero. I think that likely signals the talent discrepancy between the two teams, as the Caps can look “not good” but still pump out more actual scoring chances than their opposition.
- Braden Holtby was pretty fantastic, stopping 30 of the 31 shots the Flyers sent his way. In November, Holts is now 4-0 with a 2.00 goals against average and a 93.8-percent save percentage.
- John Carlson recorded the primary assist on Brendan Leipsic‘s first period goal. That assist gave Carlson 30 points on the season in 20 games. He’s now on yet another point scoring streak of four games and doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
The Capitals have not lost to a Eastern Conference opponent in regulation this season (8-0-1). They are also now 3-0-1 against Metropolitan Division opponents.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) November 14, 2019
- The fourth line was great and I think created some of the bigger chances in this game for the Caps. This bullet is to mainly state that they gotta get a little more five-on-five ice time than the around 6:55 they got. I don’t think you’ll honestly find a better fourth line in hockey this season than the Leipsic, Nic Dowd, and Garnet Hathaway connection.
- Richard Panik looked very engaged and dangerous in just his second game back from injury. He led the team in shots with six and had four individual scoring chances. The third line of Panik, Lars Eller, and Chandler Stephenson was actually probably the Caps best at five-on-five, as with Stephenson on the ice the team got 64.3-percent of the shot attempts, 83.3-percent of the scoring chances, and 83.3-percent of the high danger chances.
- I also want to mention that Evgeny Kuznetsov looked very strong again, particularly in the third period where he set up several potential game winning opportunities. At five-on-five the Caps saw a plus-six scoring chance differential and a plus-four high danger chance differential with number 92 on the ice. When he’s rolling like he has of late, it’s hard to argue that there is a more dangerous player in the league.
- Radko Gudas got burned for the Flyers only goal, but overall I liked what I saw in his return to Philly. Majorly in the positives when it comes to differential in all the usual stat categories I talk about in these posts. Particularly thought he was noticeable early on in the offensive zone as he was jumping up into the play and making guys miss very effectively.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Flyers
Headline photo: NBCSN
