Poor against Pens: numbers for the morning after

February 24, 2021 7:01 am

The Washington Capitals couldn’t respond to their coach’s urges and fell in a pretty poor effort to their fierce rival the Pittsburgh Penguins. The game ended after a terrible three-on-three overtime period that saw the Pens score the winner and take down the game 3-2.

The Pens outshot the Caps 37 to 22 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 57 to 45.

This was not a pretty one. You aren’t winning many games when you’re outshot by 15. The second period in particular looked like they just gave up on any semblance of team defense and left it up to fate. Just a pretty sloppy and miserable effort that unfortunately feels like is becoming more regular.
The fourth line is just straight-up terrible right now. They cant be played against anyone five-on-five without getting demolished. Something needs to change there. They were on the ice for the only Pens goal at five-on-five and had a minus-four scoring chance differential and minus-three high danger chance differential in nine minutes of ice time together.
Someone that is working this season is Richard Panik. Panik was finally rewarded for his consistent play with a beauty of a goal. With Panik on the ice five-on-five, the Caps saw 62.5-percent of the shot attempts and not a single scoring chance of any note statistically for the Penguins.

Alan May on Peter Laviolette's lines for tonight's game: "There was no chemistry."

— Ian Oland (@ianoland) February 24, 2021

Conor Sheary apparently hates the Pens. He now has six goals in eight games against his former club.
This isn’t a number at all, it’s just a hot take. The Capitals have never not completely sucked at three-on-three overtime. Not one of their coaches that have seen it has found a way for them to not suck at it. It is making me dislike something that should be fun to watch.

Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington