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Another lead blown, another playoff collapse: numbers for the morning after

By Chris Cerullo

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May 12, 2022 7:38 am

The Washington Capitals held a 3-0 lead in Game Five over the Florida Panthers with almost half of the game over and done with. That lead evaporated in an instant and the Panthers didn’t just stop there.

That was horrible.

  • Another game where from an overall standpoint the Caps didn’t really play poorly at all at five-on-five. Just several completely avoidable mistakes at the exact worst moments and now they’re facing elimination in Game Six. High danger chances even ended 17 to 13 at even strength in favor of the good guys. Really tough one to swallow.
  • What makes it even worse is the Panthers are STILL 0-for on their power play after five games. Another three scoreless opportunities for them in this particular one. If you told me that before the series, I’d assume the Caps had already moved on.
  • Ilya Samsonov looked a little more human, getting scored on five times with 38 shots against. He was still really good though and more often than not let down by some of the defensemen in front of him. I thought John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov who are supposed to be the Caps’ two best on the backend were downright horrendous. Just countless, costly mental errors.

  • I would break up the lines for Game Six. That second line in particular is just not working. Anthony Mantha has been a non-factor in the past two games (minus-two in this one) and I think it’s time he goes back with Lars Eller where he was having a ton of success.
  • I’m worried about how bad Nicklas Backstrom has looked. He’s really struggling to keep up with those cement hips. With him on the ice at five-on-five, the Caps were out-attempted 16 to 7, out-scoring chanced 10 to 6, and out-high danger chanced 4 to 2.
  • Alex Ovechkin has an assist in five-straight but man, he’s kinda been invisible. I really would not be surprised if we learn this summer that he is totally not exactly healthy right now.

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

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