The Washington Capitals got the job done in Arizona against the league-worst Coyotes and that’s about all you can say about that game. The win gave the Caps a 3-1-1 record on their five-game road trip.
Time to play hockey at regular people hours again.
- The Coyotes actually ended up with more high danger chances in this game at five-on-five than the Caps but they squandered the majority of those with poor finishing and poor passing. The Caps controlled the puck for what felt like 55 out of the 60 minutes and you can see a bit of that through the overall shot attempts ending 59 to 34 in favor of them. This was basically just a good team going through the motions against a terrible team.
- Vitek Vanecek made 19 stops in his fourth shutout of the season and the sixth overall in his career. His four shutouts this season have him tied for fifth in the NHL in that goaltending category.
- John Carlson has a new single-season, career-high in goals as he potted the empty netter to seal the game. He now has 16 on the season after hitting fifteen for the third time in his career previously.
The Capitals conclude their season-long five-game road trip with a 3-1-1 record. Washington is 9-1-2 in their last 12 road games and have a 25-8-6 road record this season. The Capitals lead the NHL in road points (56) and road points percentage (.718).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) April 23, 2022
- Conor Sheary got on the board with his 18th goal of the season which also turned out to be his 40th point of the season. This is the second time he has hit the 40-point mark in a season and his first time with the Capitals. He also recorded an assist on the empty netter and his 41 points rank fifth on the team.
- The Caps forward line that did the most damage five-on-five was the third line consisting of Anthony Mantha, Lars Eller, and TJ Oshie. They held a plus-13 shot attempt differential and a plus-3 scoring chance differential. Mantha basically dented the post with a one-timer in the game.
- The win moves the Caps to 99 points on the season and into a tie again with the Pittsburgh Penguins for third in the Metropolitan Division as well as the Boston Bruins for the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. Pittsburgh has the tiebreaker over the Caps due to having fewer shootout wins and Boston similarly does as well through having played one fewer game.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
