In a hole: numbers for the morning after

May 20, 2021 6:35 am

The Washington Capitals have now found themselves in a 2-1 series hole as they could not find a way to an overtime winner for the second game in a row against the Boston Bruins. Game Three ended with Boston on top 3-2.

The Bruins outshot the Caps 43 to 37 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 63 to 55.

This one stings a lot more than the last one. The Caps should have put the Bruins away in regulation, were not able to, and collapsed in overtime. Let’s be brutally honest for a second. This team is a very old one and that has been showing for a couple of months now. You’d be hard-pressed to name a player on the Caps not nursing an ailment and the group just looks tired at the end of games. The Bruins had 15 scoring chances at five-on-five through 60 minutes and then doubled that total in the first overtime period alone. The Caps have to put away their chances early against the team.
Ilya Samsonov returned to the cage and made 40 stops. That last goal though is just one where both he and Justin Schultz need to be more focused. A mistake like that can happen 40 games ago. It cant happen now. I guess he’s the guy now for Game Four?
Alex Ovechkin scored the 800th goal of his career if you count both his regular season and postseason tallies. I wish we could celebrate that more.
At the end of the day, there is a world where the Caps are legitimately up 3-0 in this series when you look at who has been leading these games late in play. It’s time to turn this thing all the way around and start putting away their chances. They cannot find themselves in a 3-1 series deficit.