Saturday night, the Capitals called on Hunter Shepard for the second time this season. Starter Darcy Kuemper was out with an injury, while backup Charlie Lindgren had played the night before in New Jersey. In just his second NHL game, Shepard would answer the call, stopping 36 of 37 shots in a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders.
Shepard has now won both of his starts with the Capitals and earned first star of the game Saturday night. While the 28-year-old goaltender deflected praise to the skaters in front of him, both Shepard’s teammates and head coach Spencer Carbery spoke highly of his performance.
“Shep played unbelievable,” said Nic Dowd, who recorded the game-winning goal against New York.
Count 'em!
The best from Shep's 36-save effort to go along with a season-high 31 blocked shots by the boys to help him to his second career win. #CapsIsles | #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/xsOLk88tBd
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 12, 2023
Carbery emphasized Shepard’s steadiness in the face of the Islanders’ frenzied offense.
“He’s undefeated, right? That’s two,” Carbery said. “And he was great. Their shot attempts are probably through the roof. I’m assuming they’re close to 80, 90 shot attempts. And for him, seeing through traffic, tons of bodies, rebounds, stuff around the net, they started to try to use behind the net.
“He was exceptional tonight. Really felt like (he) especially did a good job on not only the long-range stuff that was coming in from the point but also the stuff in and around the net where there’s a ton of scramble stuffs, where he held his ground and did a real good job of freezing those situations and just giving us a D-zone draw.”
Carbery also highlighted Shepard’s performance postgame as players clamored for the goaltender to make a speech.
“Good job fellas,” Shepard said. “That was fun, guys.”
Back-to-back bliss#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/GiBiIoVvmR
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 12, 2023
Shepard’s play was particularly strong when compared to his first game of the campaign. Though Shepard ultimately won his debut against the New Jersey Devils, he did so after allowing four goals in 5:30 during the second period; without the nerves of his first NHL game weighing on him, Shepard felt far more comfortable in net.
“I think when you’re not used to something you get that feeling — it happened in the second period of the first game for about ten minutes — where you feel like everyone’s staring at you. And it’s not for a good reason,” he explained. “So that’s the worst feeling you can get as a goalie because that’s when things aren’t going good usually. But I talked to Scotty (Capitals goaltending coach Scott Murray) after the the first game. I just told him I felt like if it wasn’t my first game, if it felt like a normal game in a normal day, I think it would be a lot different, and that’s just it’s how I felt tonight.”
The Islanders gave Shepard a workout in net, outscoring the Caps 37-28. Still, Shepard credited his team’s defense for making his job easier, including by blocking a season-high 32 shots.
“Either the shots were getting blocked or there were lanes in front of the net for me to see everything,” Shepard said. It probably looked like there was a couple, like there’s one I think in the first that hit me in the face and then dropped straight down. I’m seeing them get released at least, which is the main part. So the ones that didn’t get blocked, which there was a lot of them tonight, I was just able to see the shots.”
Dowd also highlighted the team’s work blocking shots, but gave Shepard a far larger share of the credit for stopping the pucks that did make it through.
“I was watching the Islanders shoot a lot of pucks from the point, and our guys were eating a lot of pucks,” he said. “But with how many shots they were firing, pucks are going to get through and it was incredible that he was finding those and making saves. He was great all game. It’s tough to be consistent for 60 minutes, and he was.”
With Saturday night’s win, the Capitals now sit third place in the Metropolitan Division. They’ll be back in Washington on Tuesday to play the reigning Stanley Cup Champions in the Vegas Golden Knights.
Screenshot: @Capitals/X
