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The Capitals may have a goaltending issue: numbers for the morning after

By Chris Cerullo

 2 Comments

January 11, 2022 9:37 am

The Washington Capitals could not buy a single save for like half of this game against the Boston Bruins and ended up dropping it by a scorer of 7-3.

Remember when they had a 2-0 lead?

  • Would you believe me if I said the Caps actually dominated this game at five-on-five? They out-attempted Boston 60 to 44, out-scoring chanced them 34 to 23, and out-high danger chanced them 14 to 6. Was some of that due to score effects because the Bruins took a huge lead? Sure, but I actually loved a lot of what I saw at even strength either way. Overall in this game, the Caps had 3.43 expected goals to the Bruins 3, which highlights the following.
  • The Caps may have a goaltending issue, y’all. Zach Fucale looked very normal in his third career start, giving up four goals on 16 shots. Vitek Vanecek relieved him and honestly looked even worse. I say “may have” because, despite some horrible games like this, they’re still pretty league average overall when it comes to five-on-five save percentage. Trading for goaltending help is always a risky business and you’d love to avoid it especially considering you spent two high picks on two of your current guys, but I’m not sure the Caps will be able to avoid making a move this season. And no, Marc-Andre Fleury shouldn’t be an option, IMO. He’s been even worse this season.
  • Conor Sheary scored twice to give the Caps that aforementioned 2-0 lead. He has ten goals this season now which puts him at above a 20-goal pace. He’s only hit that mark once before in his career, the 2016-17 season with Pittsburgh where he potted 23.

  • I would like to see the first line from this game stick together for a little bit. The Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Oshie trio has worked in the past and they’ve rarely seen the ice together this season, playing a little over nine minutes at five-on-five before this game. The Caps out-chanced the Bruins 11 to 3 with that line on the ice. The second line with Protas flanking Backstrom on one side and Wilson on the other also very much worked. I’d love to see that again as well.
  • Alex Ovechkin is now goalless for four games. That needs to change.
  • Power play went O-for. Again, again, again, again.

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

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