The Washington Capitals did not start Wednesday night’s matchup with the Edmonton Oilers on the best footing but they actually ended up playing a pretty darn fine hockey game. Unfortunately, that didn’t end up mattering because they are literally worse when they have an extra skater on the ice this season. 5-3 loss in the end.
Goodness, it’s bad, y’all.
- Man, the Caps actually played a pretty great game at five-on-five against the Connor McDavid/Leon Draisaitl led Oilers and it’s a shame it was wasted. They recorded nine high danger chances to the Oilers three and held Edmonton to just one over the final forty minutes. When you put into context who they were missing, that is actually really encouraging. I thought they were the clear better team even if Edmonton had the better individuals.
- One of the reasons it was wasted is that the Caps inexplicably put Ilya Samsonov back into the net only a night after he faced almost 50 shots in Pittsburgh. Not only did he have a big workload in that game but the team had to travel home as well which makes it even more of a confusing decision. We have known forever since the back-to-backs became more regular that goaltenders are drastically worse in the second game if asked to play in both. He let in three goals on the first four shots of the game for the Oilers. Pheonix Copley would go on to make 21 stops on 22 shots in relief.
- I think Peter is going to talk more in depth about the power play later today or sometime soon so I won’t get into too much specific because I’m sure you, just as I am, are quite burnt out when it comes to hearing about how bad it is. Three power plays and zero shots on goal in all three. One came with close to three minutes left in regulation where the Caps could have put the game away but instead, they handed Edmonton a shorthanded goal. Putrid.
Martin Fehervary and Nicklas Backstrom each picked up the assists. Backstrom has just tied Rod Brind’Amour (732a) for the 48th most assists in NHL history.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 3, 2022
- Martin Fehervary led the Caps in five-on-five ice time with 19:01 skated and he definitely deserved to do so. He had one particular one-on-one battle with McDavid that made McJesus look more like McNuggets, fried. The kid was just all over the place making plays on both sides of the puck. The Caps held a plus-five scoring chance differential and a plus-three high danger chance differential with him on the ice in those minutes. The two Oilers forwards he played the most against? McDavid at 6:45 ice time shared and Draisaitl at 7:16 ice time shared. Marty won’t win the Calder because he doesn’t get the eye-catching point totals other rookies do, but I still think other than Seider in Detroit he’s the best of the rookie defensemen out there and will only get better.
- I give this line probably too many negative words so it’s only right to praise them when deserved. That fourth line was downright unstoppable and very unlucky to not end up with a goal. They were untouchable defensively, creating six high danger chances with Garnet Hathaway on the ice five-on-five to the Oilers’ big ole zero.
- I want to see more of Joe Snively. He’s basically like having another Conor Sheary in the lineup and that has worked out very well for the Caps this season and the last. Five shot attempts, two shots on goal, three individual scoring chances, and one individual high danger chance for the former Little Cap in this game.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
