The Washington Capitals have not shown up to play post holiday break so far. With their 5-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Friday night, they’ve come out of Christmas with two losses and have been outscored 10-2.
They were not in this particular game from the drop of the first puck.
- New York came out in the first period and had all of the puck. The Islanders came out of the first 20 minutes with a 30-17 advantage in shot attempts and doubled up the Capitals in scoring chances 16-8. While the Capitals somehow survived that push without giving up a goal against, it just set the Islanders up for the five markers they would put away in the next two frames. At no point in this contest did it feel like the visitors had seized control. That’s not good because I don’t think the Islanders are very good.
- The number one concern coming out of the big loss is perhaps not even the divisional points dropped because Charlie Lindgren was taken out of action after facing just three shots. Lindgren has been the backbone and saving grace at times for this team. He does not have 11.9 goals saved more than expected per MoneyPuck for no reason. Losing him for the “foreseeable future” is a tremendous hit as Darcy Kuemper has been entirely too inconsistent.
- Kuemper was thrown into this game cold and unexpectedly so he deserves some leeway but he again let in almost two more goals than expected (1.95). That’s two poor starts in a row from him and he’s probably going to be “the guy” for the coming weeks. The Capitals need him to re-find that pre-holidays form that he was in.
On the bright side, at least you're not Ilya Samsonov pic.twitter.com/4HS1twcyNu
— RMNB (@rmnb) December 30, 2023
- Matthew Phillips was put into the lineup in place of a healthy scratched Ivan Miroshnichenko and things did not go well for him. With Phillips on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals saw negative differentials in shot attempts (-11), scoring chances (-5), and high-danger chances (-2). They created zero high-danger chances of their own in those minutes and were outscored 2-1.
- The team’s most effective player in the game was probably yet again Anthony Mantha. Mantha didn’t find the scoresheet this time but but did record four individual shot attempts, three individual scoring chances, and three individual high-danger chances. Um, should the Capitals be considering an extension for Mantha? What a thought I never thought I would have this year.
- With Martin Fehervary also dinged up with more than just a day-to-day ailment, it’ll be interesting to see how the Capitals handle their defense pairs. Ethan Bear looks like he’ll get a sweater later tonight against Nashville. Perhaps Trevor van Riemsdyk will flip to the right side now that Fehervary is out. John Carlson ended up skating a game-high 28:06 of ice time with Fehervary on the shelf.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
