The Washington Capitals dropped a home game to the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2. That sentence alone makes me want to vomit but add on to that nonsense that the already banged-up Caps are looking at two more injuries to players they really need to not be injured.

Hoo-boy.

• Before we get into some of the hot takes and all we need to talk about the pure play from this game as this is the “numbers” post after all. The Capitals did not play well in this game and didn’t deserve a win based on that play. I thought the extra COVID precautionary days off may have been refreshing for what is a beaten and bruised roster but I think it actually just threw them off rhythm as they never could really get going at five-on-five. In a third period in which they trailed the entire duration, they only managed two scoring chances and one high danger chance at five-on-five. I don’t really think the Pens did anything special, this was just clearly them catching a very rusty, very dinged-up Caps team at the right time.
• I say all that, but how would this game have potentially been different if the referees had punished Brock McGinn properly for his blatant headshot on Martin Fehervary? The Capitals’ power play isn’t exactly world-beating right now but a five-minute major isn’t exactly the easiest thing to kill off in the world. I firstly hope Martin Fehervary is alright but secondly, I hope NHL Player Safety gets this one right and McGinn has to sit a few games. That isn’t a guarantee at all though. I’ve also noticed some player safety situations tend to get used on “hockey Twitter” seemingly, purely to boost impression signals. Unfortunately, there are not enough favorites, retweets, views, etc. to be had from just a regular ole blatant headshot. You’re telling me Tom Wilson wasn’t involved? I cant increase my social footprint with this! Anyway, that’s my rambling done on that situation.
• With Fehervary and Wilson both not finishing the game due to injury the Caps are facing quite the pickle. Nic Dowd, Garnet Hathaway, and Trevor van Riemsdyk are still out due to COVID protocol. Nicklas Backstrom isn’t expected back into the lineup until closer to Christmas and Anthony Mantha is still out for god knows how long. The Hershey Bears still aren’t fully recovered from their own COVID outbreak so we may literally see Craig Laughlin and Alan May suit up to play the Buffalo Sabres tonight.

Lars Eller scores his third goal of the season to cut the deficit to 3-2. Eller has now passed Mikkel Boedker (327) for second on the all-time Danish points list.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 11, 2021

• Alex Ovechkin recorded the primary assist on both Capitals goals giving him 43 points on the season. Ovi is now nine points ahead of Nazem Kadri for the third-most points in the league and only two back of both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl for the lead. I thought the first line was one of the bright spots in the game until Wilson had to leave. It’s tough to pinpoint any particular stats for you as the Caps literally had ten different trios of forwards together during this game. It was a mess.
• Poor Ilya Samsonov drew this assignment and really just had to take it on the chin. He made 28 stops and early on was facing what felt like odd-man rush after odd-man rush. He would have had to be superhuman to steal this one.
• With this loss I feel like I need to start glimpsing at the ole Metro Division standings. The Capitals are no longer at the top as the New York Rangers won and now have 39 points from 26 games played. I don’t think the Rangers are actually good so I’m not too worried about them but the Hurricanes also have two games in hand on the Caps and only one less point at 37. The Pens are the fourth team with 31 points from 26 games and have won three games in a row as they start to get healthier. Just something to think about.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.