The Washington Capitals did not play close to their best against the Seattle Kraken on Sunday evening. Playing without top-line center Pierre-Luc Dubois and top-pairing defenseman Matt Roy proved too much to handle, as they gave up too many prime chances in a 5-3 loss.
Pretty easily their worst performance so far this season. Gotta clean up a lot.
- The Capitals were just an uneven mess throughout the entire game. They put together a few encouraging spells at five-on-five, then quickly fell back into the mess. Overall, they were probably a little unlucky not to push the game to overtime, but they didn’t exactly deserve a standings point either. The third period was their best from a process standpoint at five-on-five, finishing the last 20 minutes up 20-10 in shot attempts, 12-4 in shots on goal, 12-5 in scoring chances, and 5-3 in high-danger chances. However, they were outscored 2-1, so none of that mattered.
- Logan Thompson, a game after I said he’s really never “bad,” was bad. He made just 22 stops on 27 shots faced and, per MoneyPuck, allowed 1.82 more goals than expected. Joey Daccord was a positive in the other net, saving 0.31 more goals than expected. That’s pretty much the difference in the game right there.
- Dylan McIlrath played just 5:04 of ice time, sitting on the bench most of another game. He still managed to take a minor penalty and was on the ice for a goal against in the loss. I don’t know, folks, but it seems like negligence to keep him on the NHL roster.
- Alex Ovechkin scored his 930th career goal and his first against Daccord, the 190th different goaltender he has beaten. However, the Capitals were again at their worst with Ovechkin’s line on the ice, and this time he had different linemates in the two Protas brothers. With Ovechkin on the ice five-on-five, the Caps posted negative differentials in shot attempts (-4), shots on goal (-4), scoring chances (-2), high-danger chances (-4), and expected goals (-1.05).
- Good to see Jordan Kyrou finally get on the board with a goal. He still needs to be shooting the puck more, though. Kyrou hasn’t had a game this season with more than two shots on goal, and he’s only fired two in a game once, in the team’s season opener against the Carolina Hurricanes.
- Alex Tuch still continues to impress me, and the Capitals were really unlucky not to score with him on the ice in this one. With him over the boards at five-on-five, the Caps had a healthy lead in shot attempts (18-6), shots on goal (13-2), scoring chances (10-3), high-danger chances (5-1), and expected goals (1.51-0.17). They somehow managed to get outscored 1-0 in those minutes, though. Rough.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
