The Washington Capitals had three days off before their game against the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night and perhaps that showed. The team’s effort late in the loss was incredibly poor and it felt like they weren’t even on the ice for much of the second half of regulation.
Seattle is on a hot streak but that’s not really an excuse. Not ideal.
- The Capitals’ struggles in the game were perhaps best personified by their third period. They managed just a single five-on-five shot on goal despite being down on the scoreboard. Seattle also just had more of the puck in general as the Caps were out-attempted 17-10 over the same timeframe. That’s not how you get back into a game.
- The one bright spot was Max Pacioretty scoring his first goal in over a year. He fired just that one shot in the game which needs to change moving forward. The Capitals need him shooting the puck more.
- Mixed results from Patches’ line combination with Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome. While they did combine for the pretty, passing play goal, they were also on the ice for one of Seattle’s markers and the team saw negative five-on-five differentials in shot attempts (-3) and high-danger chances (-3) with them over the boards.
Alex Ovechkin recorded an assist on Pacioretty’s goal and extends his point streak to six games (2g-5a–7p). It marks Ovechkin’s second six-game point streak this season (6 games, 10/18/23-10/29/23: 2g-6a–8p).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) January 12, 2024
- Not a pretty night for Martin Fehervary. He was on the ice for three of Seattle’s goals. The Capitals were out-attempted 27 to 15 in his five-on-five minutes.
- TJ Oshie played the second fewest minutes on the team (13:04) in his comeback game. Oshie ended up with three shots on goal, individual scoring chances, one individual high-danger chance, and one shot block.
- The Capitals cannot score goals. This was already their 19th game of the season where they have scored two or fewer goals. It doesn’t matter what Darcy Kuemper does on the other end of the rink if the puck just never goes in for the guys in front of him.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
