The Washington Capitals were feeling good after their win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night and had the chance to continue positive momentum on Sunday afternoon against an Arizona Coyotes team that had won once in their last 15 games. They didn’t do so.
Perhaps one of the most uninspired performances of the season. Brian MacLellan has gotta do what he’s gotta do now.
- The Capitals simply were not in this game from the second the puck dropped. Arizona was without Clayton Keller, their top scorer and star winger, but still managed to outplay the Capitals in all three periods. The neutral zone was an absolute mess for Washington as Arizona managed to cut through them like a hot knife through butter with just one pass from their defenders on countless occasions. At five-on-five, the Capitals managed just four total high-danger chances and were out-attempted 51-29. Pretty atrocious showing against a team that did not win a single game in the month of February.
- The absence of Nic Dowd was very evident in this game. The fourth line got absolutely demolished at five-on-five. With Nicolas Aube-Kubel on the ice, the team did not record a single shot attempt, scoring chance, or high-danger chance. They were also scored on once. That might be something we need to get used to down the stretch here as Dowd is going to be in high demand all week from contenders looking to add him to their group.
- Hendrix Lapierre also had a very rough right. In his 11:55 of five-on-five ice time, the Capitals held massively negative differentials in shot attempts (-16), scoring chances (-11), and high-danger chances (-5). I love the opportunity he’s getting right now but there are going to be nights like this when such a young rookie is trusted with the spot he’s been given.
The Capitals have scored a power-play goal in five-straight games and in eight of their last nine games (10 PPG in 9 GP). It marks Washington’s longest stretch of consecutive games with a power-play goal since Dec. 1-13, 2022 (7 PPG in 7 GP).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) March 3, 2024
- Dylan Strome got back on the scoresheet against his former club. Strome now has 19 points (6g, 13a) in his last 15 games.
- Anthony Mantha scored to reach the 20-goal mark for the first time as a member of the Capitals. Hopefully, he’s pumping up that trade value enough to garner a first-round pick in return for his services at this point. That would be very nice.
- The Capitals have just one more game left before the March 8 trade deadline and it’s on the road in Pittsburgh the day before that deadline. This game very well could have been the last we see of some of these guys in a Capitals sweater if MacLellan wants to get a head start on all of the activity.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
