The Washington Capitals were shut out for the fifth time this season on Saturday night. The St. Louis Blues went up early in the matchup and the Capitals did little to nothing the rest of the game to try and even things up.
Just a poor, poor showing. Not a fun watch in the slightest.
- I can sum this entire game up by just mentioning that the Capitals had 16 shot attempts combined at five-on-five in the final 40 minutes of regulation. They were trailing for the entirety of those minutes. So, the team just did not create any offense despite the Blues inviting them to for stretches in the back half of the game. And, with the chances they did create, they either passed out of them or flubbed them. I’m not sure there’s a single positive thing I can come up with from this night.
- No Capitals player had more than two shots on goal. This game was only the fourth of the season where the team was unable to come up with 20 or more total shots. Unsurprisingly, they have been outscored 14-4 in those games.
- Connor McMichael’s line was superb in December but they are struggling big time in 2024. Through 10 January games with the line on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals have seen just 48.7 percent of the shot attempts, 46.5 percent of the expected goals, 46.3 percent of the scoring chances, and 41.8 percent of the high-danger chances. They have also been outscored 4-0 in those minutes. Might be time to try something else there.
#ALLCAPS Wes McCauley needs to RETIRE pic.twitter.com/YVZxMQnpLC
— x – Capitals Replays 🍁 (@capsreplays) January 21, 2024
- Alex Ovechkin saw his seven-game point streak snapped. Ovi is without a goal in his last six games. He’s on pace for under 15 goals this season. Just a scary, sharp fall from past seasons.
- Not a fan of what Spencer Carbery did with his lineup in this game. He took one ineffective line and turned it into two by switching Nic Dowd and Evgeny Kuznetsov. The Capitals ended up using seven different line combinations at five-on-five by the end of regulation. Not one of them really worked.
- Some good news from the Hershey Bears. Rookie goaltender Clay Stevenson picked up his AHL-leading sixth shutout in a 1-0 win against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Stevenson now holds the Bears’ single-season record for shutouts by a rookie netminder.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
