For the first time this season, the Capitals have lost two games in a row. Washington fell on home ice again on Saturday night, dropping a 3-2 decision to the New Jersey Devils.
The bottom is falling out a bit on the team’s shooting percentage, which was expected at some point, but this was still a winnable game.
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Washington Capitals on 2024-11-23:#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/Alt5WHyIFK
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) November 24, 2024
- The Capitals put together their best, complete five-on-five performance in some time in the loss. They finished the game with positive differentials in shot attempts (+21), scoring chances (+15), and high-danger chances (+6). Unfortunately, all of that good only ended up in one even-strength goal, a weird deflection from a Matt Roy point shot.
- New Jersey’s power play is lethal, and they almost exclusively used it to beat the Capitals. Thirteen of New Jersey’s 33 shots came while up a man, and so did two of their goals. Were all of their power plays actually deserved? I’ll leave that answer up to Spencer Carbery. But, also, the answer is no. The refs were horrible.
- The other primary factor leading to Washington’s downfall was Jake Allen in the Devils net. Allen stopped 24 of 26 Washington shots and, per MoneyPuckm saved 0.41 goals above expected. I was bummed when I saw Allen was playing instead of Jacob Markstrom because Markstrom is historically bad against the Capitals and has been the worse of the two New Jersey goalies this season, allowing 0.9 more goals than expected.
Matt Roy scores his first goal as a Capital to give Washington a 1-0 lead. Roy has recorded three points (1g, 2a) in his last six games.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) November 24, 2024
- Ivan Miroshnichenko played just 8:56 of ice time in the loss. I thought Miro had a tough time adapting to the speed of the NHL again and stuck a little too much to the perimeter. He still showed some flashes, and Carbery liked his game, but when Miro is good, he’s confidently taking command of the puck. I didn’t see much of that. Zero shot attempts and just one hit for the young Russian.
- Washington has scored just three goals in their two games without Alex Ovechkin. That’s not going to be enough.
- The power play did get on the board without Ovi, though. Connor McMichael scored his 13th of the season. Washington is 6-for-13 on their man advantage over their last seven games.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
