The Washington Capitals have kicked off the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs in the win column. It sure wasn’t an easy one but the boys powered through adversity for the millionth time this season to Earn (capitalized for effect) a 3-2 overtime victory. Game. On.
The Caps outshot the Bruins 32 to 26 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 55 to 52.
- Hoo boy, so we’re really doing this thing again, eh? I absolutely loved the effort the Caps put forth to grind the mess out of that game and come up with the huge statement win in overtime. Outside of a bad stretch in the second where Boston’s top line (we’ll get into more specifics about them later) was dominating their shifts, I thought the Caps were the better team. The officiating was complete garbage really only against the Caps, their starting netminder went down in the first period, a few dudes are still clearly banged up, and they found a gosh darn way to still win. Gutsy.
- Tom Wilson opened the scoring in the 2021 playoffs and for the time being is joint top scorer in those same playoffs with TJ Oshie at two points each. I’m putting this bullet in just because of course he did that and will hopefully continue to do that. Playoff hockey just absolutely suits how both of those dudes like to play. I just really hope they can continue to heal while still playing the way they did in this game.
- Back to Boston’s top line or what some call “The Perfection Line” made up of David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron, and Brad Marchand. Peter Laviolette chose his forward trio of Lars Eller, Michael Raffl, and Conor Sheary to try and mark that unit in Game One. I think that’s the right call, but how did they do? Ehhhhhhh, not good, not bad. Boston’s line did not score. That’s a checkmark. Boston’s line however probably had their team’s best chances of the game at five-on-five (three high danger to the Caps zero). Not so good. I want to see it again.
- What I might want to see changed regarding that same line is the John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov defensive pairing also getting the matchup against them. I want that defensive unit playing in the other team’s zone as much as possible and I don’t think the defensive disparity when you switch the Caps second or third pairing into the matchup instead is really that noticeable. However, Orlov is clearly the Caps best defender and you probably want your best defender on the ice against that line. What do you guys think?
Craig Anderson, who turns 40 on Friday, made 21 saves in relief of @Capitals goaltender Vitek Vanecek to earn his first playoff win since Game 6 of the 2017 Conference Finals (w/ OTT). #StanleyCup#NHLStats: https://t.co/Has0BYsxem pic.twitter.com/lMAhBxBmjX
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 16, 2021
Craig Anderson stopped 21 of 22 shots faced in relief, earning his 24th career playoff win. Anderson's .929 career save percentage in the playoffs is the second-highest in NHL history among goaltenders with at least 40 games played.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) May 16, 2021
- The Caps top line feasted and if they get the kind of looks they did in Game One the rest of this series that will only mean good things for Washington. With Anthony Mantha on the ice five-on-five, the Caps controlled 69-percent of the shot attempts (nice), 92.3-percent (!) of the scoring chances, and had a plus-two high danger chance differential.
- Back to Mantha real quick. Jakub Vrana played 15 total “playoff” games (including the weird bubble games) for the Caps in the previous two seasons. He had zero points. So, Mantha has already outscored that effort in his first career playoff game. I love Jake, I’m just reporting the facts.
- Daniel Sprong also picked up his first playoff point in his first career playoff game.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Headline photo: KP8 Design
