The Washington Capitals matched up with the team that many believe could be the best in the East Division and took them down in a spirited, shootout effort 2-1. This was some pretty fantastic hockey from the road warring Caps.
The Caps outshot the Bruins 28 to 19 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 41 to 36.
- That was a very, very well played game and that fills me with a whole lot of hope because the Caps were playing this well against worse teams than the Bruins…and then they did it against the Bruins. So that’s good. It’s one game, but that’s good. When you adjust for score and venue at five-on-five the Caps saw 54.5-percent of the shot attempts, 60-percent of the scoring chances, and 58.5-percent of the high danger chances go in the right direction. Keeping any opponent to just 19 shots, especially when you consider none of those 19 shots came from incredibly dangerous areas while also firing almost 30 of your own is a winning formula.
- Lars Eller is on a four-game point streak and scored the tying goal in this one to earn the Caps their very deserved chance to win the game in overtime and the shootout. Tiger-Horse-Moose has nine points in his last ten games.
- Vitek Vanecek, man. He’s playing in front of a pretty ideal situation for a rookie goaltender at the moment but he’s still coming up big when he’s called upon and has been a lifesaver for a team that had him third on the goaltender depth chart after their offseason. Since the back-to-back games in February that saw the Caps give up seven goals to the Flyers and six to the Penguins, Vitek ranks fifth in the NHL when it comes to five-on-five save percentage (95.2-percent).
Since Feb. 16 Vitek Vanecek is 5-1-1 with a 1.84 goals against average and a .928 save percentage. During that span, he ranks tied for first in the NHL in wins, third in goals against average and sixth in save percentage among goaltenders with at least five games played.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) March 4, 2021
- Another fantastic night for the Justin Schultz and Dmitry Orlov pairing. With Orlov on the ice at five-on-five the Caps had a 58.6-percent shot attempt percentage (plus-five differential), a 77.8-percent scoring chance for percentage (plus-five differential), and didn’t give up a single Boston high danger chance (plus-one differential).
- There is an Alex Ovechkin goal deluge incoming if you just look at what he’s been doing shot and chance-wise in this recent stretch of games. In this game alone, Ovi had 16 individual shot attempts, nine individual scoring chances, and two individual high danger chances. That sort of night usually leads to at least two goals for the Great Eight. Darn you, Tuukka Rask.
- Jakub Vrana ended up with the shootout winner after his slick move beat Rask to kick the whole thing off for the Caps. V is now three-for-six in shootouts in his career and in my opinion, should staple himself firmly in the Caps first three options for the skills competition.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
RMNB Coverage of Caps at Bruins
Screenshot courtesy of NBCSN
