The Washington Capitals have staved off utter humiliation with an effort that they should be proud of. The 3-2 victory ensures that this first-round series will at least have to go five games.
The Caps outshot the Isles 29 to 26 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 48 to 27.
- I would love nothing more for this team to make my previous three posts look like the most reactionary trash of all time and this game was one step towards doing so. It didn’t start out in the right direction, but the last 50 or so minutes was the best this team has looked since before the pandemic. They gave the Isles absolutely no offense to speak of in both the second and third periods, out-chancing them at five-on-five 16 to 3 over that spell of play.
- The number of teams in NHL history to come back from a 3-1 series deficit is 29. The most recent being the San Jose Sharks just last year over the Vegas Golden Knights. Some of you may be very familiar with the concept as the Caps have been involved in three series just like that since 2009. Beating the Rangers after being down 3-1 in 2009, the 2010 series that we do not speak of, and then losing to the Rangers after being up 3-1 in 2015.
- One thing that still did not get better is the Caps lack of discipline. They put the Isles on another five power plays and are lucky that their penalty kill has been their only constantly good thing this entire season. I thought there were penalties from Dillon, Wilson, Ovechkin, and Hathaway that were all highly avoidable.
- We need to talk about Lars Eller and the Caps second line (TJ Oshie, Jakub Vrana). Lord have mercy they absolutely blew any and all opposition out of the water. With Eller on the ice at five-on-five, the Caps got 20 shot attempts to the Islanders one, nine shots to the Islanders none, 10 scoring chances to the Islanders none, and two high danger chances to the Islanders none.
29 teams in NHL history have overcome 3-1 holes in a playoff series.
Most recent: SJS over VGK (2019)
Caps have been involved in the most of any team with seven of those. Three since 2009.
2009: WSH (4) – NYR (3)
2010: MTL (4) – WSH (3)
2015: NYR (4) – WSH (3)— Chris Cerullo (@CJC_95) August 19, 2020
- Braden Holtby was not going to go out like that. Holts finally had the defense in front of him decide to show up to a hockey game this summer and let us all pray that, that now spurs him on to become the dominant postseason beast that we know he can be. The Caps will likely need him to steal a game if they want to climb out of the horrible situation they have put themselves in. With this win, he has become only the 21st goaltender in NHL history to record 50 career playoff wins and the first in Caps franchise history to reach that mark.
- Alex Ovechkin is the greatest goal scorer of all time. Preseason, regular season, postseason, international play, in a video game, playing soccer, frisbee golf, etc. The Great Eight put home two in this game, including the vital game-winner, to give him 69 career playoff goals. That’s a nice total and it’s made even nicer by the fact that it puts him ahead of Sidney Crosby and Gordie Howe for sole possession of 18th place on the league’s all-time playoff goal-scoring list.
- I have not been kind to Evgeny Kuznetsov in these playoffs and his play until this game has truthfully not been deserving of anything better. The guy shaved his head bald and all of the sudden became 2018 playoffs Kuzy for about a good 40 minutes. The Caps created a team-high 11 scoring chances with him on the ice at five-on-five and his line really held down the fort defensively after another very shaky start in the first period.
- For some reason a 3-1 series hole feels a lot less impossible to climb out of than a 3-0 series hole (especially considering the stats I provided earlier in this post)…if that makes any sense at all. The Washington Nationals lived by the “Go 1-0 today” motto all the way to a World Series victory last October and it’s time for the Caps to steal that and at least put up a fight for more than one game. Turn this thing around and then maybe (this is the biggest maybe I will ever maybe in my entire life) reevaluate some of the changes we spoke about in previous posts based on if they can somehow become the fifth team in history to escape the previously noted 3-0 series hole.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Islanders
Screenshot: NBCSN
