Injured yet inspired: numbers for the morning after

January 27, 2021 7:22 am

A couple of children stacked upon each other’s shoulders dressed up in weird blue jerseys, called themselves the Washington Capitals, and then beat the New York Islanders 3-2…in regulation!

The walking wounded Caps outshot the Isles 37 to 34 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 65 to 47.

Well that was bizarre. Normally we’d sentence all stats from a game like this to death by defenestration but the Caps, believe it or not, actually ended up putting together their most complete game of the season. Their first period was masterful on both sides of the puck and without Semyon Varlamov playing out of his mind the Islanders would have been down two or three goals. Then for what seems like the first time since 1997 they got the better of an opposing team in a second period at five-on-five. And then in the third, they kept it competitive while they were double shifting both Nic Dowd and Michael Sgarbossa at center. Intangibles, leadership, guts…call it what you want. I will allow it even in this storied set of posts where words like those are banned.
Gonna start this one off by talking about the Tuesday night hero, Justin Schultz. This dude is playing like he wants to win the Norris Trophy this season and I’m here for the ride. He has four points in his last two games and is sorta-kinda having to also carry his current pairing with Zdeno Chara. With Schultzy on the ice at five-on-five in this one, the Caps scored two goals, got 56.8-percent of the shot attempts, 62.5-percent of the scoring chances, and 83.3-percent (plus-four differential) of the high danger chances.
In the last morning numbers post I mentioned how I wanted to see Daniel Sprong “given an extended look in the lineup” due to his “speed and heavy shot combination”. Sprong casually sniped home his first of the season and in doing so made me look way more intelligent than I really am. This is your reminder that Jakub Vrana is a full year older than Sprong and late bloomers are a thing in the NHL. Sprong scored 14 goals in this league with Anaheim in 47 games as a 21-year-old. Vrana at the same age scored 13 goals in 73 games. I use that comparison as nothing more than a “keep an eye on this” as it’s clear Vrana is a fledging superstar while Sprong still has mountains to climb if he wants to stick in the NHL.

"We've been trying to get more shots on net, regardless of quality" – John Carlson, finally admitting the team is trying to win in the Corsi Hockey League

— RMNB (@russianmachine) January 27, 2021

Vitek Vanecek has made the ridiculously difficult transition to regular starting NHL goaltender as a rookie look almost effortless. You can tell the team has confidence in him and that his own confidence is growing game by game. He extended his point streak in net to five games and is only the second rookie goaltender in franchise history to earn points in his first five career games, joining Jim Carey who had a seven-game streak in the 1994-95 season. Of the 13 goalies that have played in at least five games this season, he ranks third in save percentage (.918), behind only Philipp Grubauer in Colorado (.919) and John Gibson in Anaheim (.948).
Another player that has impressed me to start this season is Richard Panik. Panik only has one point in seven games which is less than ideal but his overall play has been noticeably impactful. With him on the ice at five-on-five this season the Caps are getting over 58-percent of the shot attempts and close to 59-percent of the scoring chances. The Caps PDO in the same situations sits at 95.5 which hopefully shows that his luck will start to even out and some pucks will start getting behind opposing goaltenders.
Less detail on this shoutout but I thought Conor Sheary and Trevor van Riemsdyk were also excellent and gave the Caps a nice jump with their speed. Brenden Dillon was as steady as ever and that entire Nic Dowd line is playing some really tough minutes and playing them far better than I ever expected.
The Caps are now 4-0-3 through their first seven games and lead the East Division by two points over the Boston Bruins who have a game in hand. This is only the second time in franchise history that they have earned at least a point in their opening seven games. The first was in 2011-12 when they went 7-0 to start that season.
Let us also send healing vibes to both Lars Eller and Nicklas Backstrom who left this game with injuries. That Komarov hit was ridiculously dirty and something I hope the Caps respond to Thursday.