The Washington Capitals had a nice little road winning streak going before running into the defensive stalwarts that are the Arizona Coyotes and their goaltending. The Coyotes put the clamps on the Caps and came away with a 3-1 home victory.
The Caps out-shot the Coyotes 36 to 30 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 52 to 46.
- The Caps scrounged together a grand total of four high danger chances at five-on-five in this game. Zero in the first, two in the second, and two in third. That’s not good enough. As we know very well, there is no relying on that big time power play this season.
- Braden Holtby was pretty fantastic in the loss, making 27 stops on 29 shots. It’s been really nice to see his recent play uptick severely. I just wish the team in front of him was playing better.
- Alex Ovechkin is still stuck on career goal number 698. He has also been jumped again in goals this season during his recent cold streak by David Pastrnak (42) and Auston Matthews (42). He will apparently never score again.
Carl Hagelin ties the game at 1-1. He now has nine points (4g, 5a) in his last 11 games.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 16, 2020
- It is very clear to me that Radko Gudas and Jonas Siegenthaler do not work together. It’s also very clear to me that I just do not know what the ideal defensive pairing combinations should be. No one on the Caps blueline is playing consistently good enough. They got abused in this game at five-on-five. Gudas had a minus-13 shot attempt differential, minus-five scoring chance differential, and a minus-three high danger chance differential in 11:18 of five-on-five ice.
- This was the Caps first regulation loss to a Pacific Division team this season. They are now 10-1-3 against those foes.
- The Astros cheated to win a World Series and nothing whiny Carlos Correa says will change that.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Coyotes
Headline photo: NBC Sports Washington
