The Washington Capitals squared off with the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night. The Ducks came into the game as the NHL’s worst team. They left Capital One Arena with a regulation victory.
Yep. Things are that bad right now.
- The Capitals absolutely got goalie’d out of this game but that really does not take away any of the sting from losing to such a bad team. But, I mean…the Caps are a very bad team right now too. They finished the game with 15 high-danger chances at five-on-five to Anaheim’s four. John Gibson stopped almost exactly two more goals than expected in the win.
- Via Whyno, this is the first time that the Capitals have lost six consecutive games in regulation since before Alex Ovechkin was drafted and before the NHL salary cap era began. That’s all the way back to October 2003.
- Speaking of Ovi, he played in his first game since February 12. He recorded five shots on target, nine individual shot attempts, five individual scoring chances, and four individual high-danger chances. Rather unlucky not to find a goal.
T.J. Oshie scores on the power play to give the Capitals a 1-0 lead. It marks Oshie's 200th career power-play point (89g, 211a).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 24, 2023
- After this loss, Tankathon has the Capitals at a 3.8 percent chance of moving up to the second overall selection and at a 3.5 percent chance of being the team to select Connor Bedard. I played with their mock draft simulator and the Caps won the whole lottery on just my second try.
- Before the actual result of Thursday’s game, Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic had the Capitals with a 14.9 percent chance of still making the playoffs after trading Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway (down from 18.7 percent). With the acquisition of those two great players, the Bruins’ Stanley Cup chances jumped from an already absurd 30.1 percent to 33.0 percent.
- Erik Gustafsson and Nick Jensen both tallied points in the contest. Those are two names I would assume are very much in talks of being moved next.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
