The Washington Capitals looked to double up on wins to start the 2021-22 season and to do so they’d need to take down the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
That didn’t happen as they fell in overtime 2-1. Let’s talk about why.
- The Capitals had a very tough time limiting the talented Lightning from creating chances. If you look at this game purely statistically it should have been a blowout with the Lightning recording 14 high danger chances at five-on-five to the Capitals one. A far cry from holding the Rangers to a single high danger chance at five-on-five in the season opener.
- I didn’t think it “looked” that lopsided just viewing the game with my two eyeballs but I also didn’t think the Caps were really in the game for much of the entire middle part of the action. The fact they even grabbed a point was due to Vitek Vanecek standing on his head over and over again. Vanecek finished with 22 stops and about 20 of them were really tough saves. He was great.
- Normally in a game like this I would come on here and complain a whole lot more and worry about the future. Not today, Satan. I actually really, really liked the “process” the Caps displayed system-wise. Tampa is just ridiculously, annoyingly good at turning the puck over with speed and a whole bunch of bounces just didn’t fall in the home team’s favor.
Firing in career goal #733 to put his @Capitals up 1-0 vs TB tonight, Alex Ovechkin is just the 2nd player in NHL history to score 3+ goals through their team's first 2 games of a season on 4 different occasions (also 2009-10, 2013-14 & '17-18). Other: Babe Dye (1920-23, 1925-26) pic.twitter.com/f89hPUyCar
— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) October 17, 2021
- Alex Ovechkin looks like an insane ball of offense to start this season. Ovi has talked about how the full offseason and knowing the exact start date of the season was a big help for him and it’s showing. He recorded 14 individual shot attempts, eight shots on goal, six individual scoring chances, two hits, and of course his third goal of the season. Outside of the fourth line which was very good again, he was basically the team’s entire offensive output. Stay hot and stay healthy, Ovi.
- Hendrix Lapierre played a team-low 7:25 at five-on-five which was a full three minutes and change lower than anyone else on the team. His line got tuned up when they were deployed at even strength, getting out-attempted 15 to three and out-chanced eight to zero. He was pretty much benched for large stretches of the second and third periods. Although Lappy is 100-percent going to be a talented, full-time NHLer in the future, this may have been Peter Laviolette deciding that he just isn’t quite ready yet. I would not be surprised to see Connor McMichael against the Avalanche on Tuesday.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
