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Capitals dodge deluge of shots to pick up first two points of the season: numbers for the morning after

By Chris Cerullo

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October 17, 2023 6:04 am

The Washington Capitals didn’t play the best 65 minutes you’ll ever see an NHL team play but they did just enough to eke out a full two points against the Calgary Flames on Monday night. The Capitals entered the action after going without a goal in their Home Opener and twenty minutes into Monday’s game they still had yet to score.

But, fret not as their goaltender and a spunky couple of youngsters in their forward corps came to play. Their efforts drove the team to its first victory of the season and ensured some positivity would be left in Capital One Arena before the club heads north for a short Canadian road trip.

  • Can’t say it was the most fun thing in the world seeing the Capitals go down 2-0 after twenty minutes and also being behind on shots 18-3. But, what would you say if I told you that first period was actually the one out of the three regulation periods where the Capitals gave up the fewest five-on-five scoring chances and high-danger chances? Well, it was. That’s not really me saying it wasn’t a bad period but it is me saying that I’m not entirely sure what to make of the game overall. There were good spells, bad spells, and some really bad spells. Simply put, at the end of regulation, I thought the Caps had probably done just enough to earn the point they did.
  • Darcy Kuemper is a large reason the team even had the chance to get there though. The new, proud papa stopped 38 shots on the way to his first win of the season. Kuemper bailed his teammates out more than a few times, including a big stop on a Blake Coleman penalty shot and seeing Calgary shooters go 0-for-3 in the shootout. Coincidentally, Kuemper’s last win during the 2022-23 regular season was also a 38-save effort. He stopped 38 or more shots on seven different occasions last year.
  • The other big story of the evening is obviously Matthew Phillips haunting his former team in his first game against them. Phillips scored his first NHL goal and grabbed his first NHL assist on the team’s two regulation goals. That third line of Phillips, Dylan Strome, and Sonny Milano was the team’s best and the only line to really stay above water defensively. In 11:13 of five-on-five ice time with Phillips on the ice, the Capitals had positive differentials in scoring chances (+1) and high-danger chances (+1).

  • Alex Ovechkin did not record a shot on goal in the game. That’s only the 18th time in Ovechkin’s career that he has gone shotless in a game. Ovi had at least one shot in every single game he played last season (73) and the last time he didn’t have a shot in a game came on November 11, 2021 against the Detroit Red Wings.
  • Those Ovi-related numbers leads me to my next point. I’m already worried about the viability of the Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and TJ Oshie top line. They’ve just done relatively nothing and I think it needs to get changed. Zero points for the three of them so far and they created zero five-on-five high-danger chances in this game. You can’t have no offense from that line because at their age, they’re not doing a ton else for you in the other two zones.
  • On a more positive note, I’ve really liked the Rasmus Sandin and John Carlson pairing so far. The two led the team in ice time and are pushing the pace offensively without being a detriment defensively. It’s a very small, two game sample but I want to see more of it.

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

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