The Washington Capitals could not find a way to fully bounce back from their devastating, terrible loss to the Florida Panthers as they fell in a shootout to the Chicago Blackhawks.
I thought the effort was pretty mediocre against a not-so-good team. I’m a tad concerned about recent trends in the Caps’ play. Let’s talk about that and more.
- As I said in the intro, I thought this was a pretty mediocre effort from the Caps. Their first period was just bad as they gave up seven high danger chances at five-on-five and we’ll talk about high danger chances more later in this post. Overall, I think they were probably “unlucky” to not win the game but they sure didn’t play well enough to ensure luck wouldn’t matter. A post hit in overtime and two more in the shootout were brutal but that’s clearly just what happens when this team goes past regulation so anything past 60 minutes needs to be avoided.
- Speaking of that, the Caps are now 0-6 when they can’t finish a game in regulation. One point is obviously better than no points but good lord I really hope their fortunes change in extra frames of play going forward. A slightly below “decent” record in those games would have them tops in the NHL right now.
- From a personnel POV, I thought the first line was fantastic. They were very unlucky not to add to the scoresheet more than they did and I thought Aliaksei Protas was noticeably better defensively than he has been in the past several games. The Caps had a plus-nine shot attempt differential, a plus-six scoring chance differential, and a plus-two high danger chance differential with that line on the ice at five-on-five. Ovi will score moar goals if they keep that up.
#Blackhawks earn first win in Washington since Jan. 10, 2006.
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) December 3, 2021
- Vitek Vanecek made 25 stops on 28 shots and I don’t think he was really at fault for any of the three. Maybe you want him to find the puck on the Seth Jones goal but he also hasn’t played in a hot minute.
- The Nic Dowd line had a hell of a night on the scoresheet. They took some bad penalties but made up for their errors by getting goals back and having a nice night at even strength. I think they still play too much but I mean Garnet Hathaway is fourth in goals on the team so what do I know? That’s a 20-goal pace for Hath and his current career-high is 11 scored with the Calgary Flames in the 2018-19 season.
- I’m a little worried about how the Caps have played in the back half of the 24 total games they’ve lined up for to this point. Before I get into this, we must remember and keep very fresh in our minds that that 12-game mark is also right after everything completely fell apart injury-wise and that the Caps have played some very good teams in the near, recent past. In their first twelve games when we adjust the team’s five-on-five stats for score and venue (thank you, NaturalStatTrick), the Caps were seeing 51.7-percent of the shot attempts go in their favor, 52.9-percent of the scoring chances, and 55.6-percent of the high danger chances. Since then…things are a little different. In their last 12, the Caps have seen 53.1-percent of the shot attempts, 50.5-percent of the scoring chances, and only 45.0-percent of the high danger chances. That last one is ranked 26th in the league in that timeframe. So, the Caps are still getting more of the puck than other teams but the team defense has taken a bit of a nosedive when it comes to preventing chances. They’ve played a ton with a lead this season at five-on-five, the most of any team in fact (537:44), and always outperform their expected goals, but just something to keep an eye on.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
