Saturday night The Capitals were back home to play the Florida Panthers before they head out on a road trip that tours western Canada. The team won’t take a victory with them, as they fell 4-1 to the Panthers in a penalty-ridden display.
The Capitals out-attempted the Panthers 56 to 28 at five-on-five and outshot them 42 to 23. The Capitals’ 42 shots on goal set a new season high. You can dominate all the shot metrics you want, but if you take eleventy billion penalties in the first two periods, you’re not going to win many games.
I was particularly impressed with young defenseman Christian Djoos. Djoos scored his second goal of the season, which currently has him tied for the NHL lead among rookie defensemen. He played 11:41 at five-on-five, in which he had a plus-12 shot attempt differential. Going back to his debut game against the Pens, Djoos became the first defenseman in franchise history to record two points in a debut game. As the games go on, you can definitely see confidence in his ability growing.
- The Caps took six minor penalties within the first two periods. As Pat said in the recap, they entered the game having already taken 40 penalties on the season, adding the six from this game places them 4th among all teams. Their penalty differential is also among the worst in the league. This is a problem.
- Delving into this issue a little deeper. Individually among defensemen, John Carlson (5), Matt Niskanen (4), Aaron Ness (4), and Brooks Orpik (4) are within the top 22 in the entire league at taking minor penalties.
- Yes the shot attempts and the possession numbers look great for the Caps. For some that immediately means they’re worthless because the Caps lost, right? Well no, because when we use these statistics we are always looking for the context in which they occurred. The Capitals, as said at length, took a ton of penalties and the Panthers scored two power play goals. The Panthers also got terrific goaltending.
- Which leads to this bullet. James Reimer saved 41 of 42 shots for a .976 save percentage. Since 2014, only 10 goalies with 100-plus games played have a higher save percentage at five-on-five than Reimer. Try and name them in the comments.
- Carlson played 29:48 of this one. That’s the first time he has played that many minutes since Game 2 against the Maple Leafs last playoffs, which went to double overtime. It’s the first time he’s played that many minutes in the regular season since April 5 of 2014 under Adam Oates.
- TJ Oshie played in his 600th NHL game. Unfortunately, unlike Jay Beagle he was not able to commemorate that big round number with a goal.
- Philipp Grubauer saved 19 of the 22 shots he faced. The Caps need to start giving him any and all inflatable water objects so his trade value can last until it’s needed. Taking all of those penalties is like throwing bricks at him instead.
- Madison Bowey‘s plus-15 shot attempt differential in 16 minutes five-on-five led the team. Bowey, like Christian Djoos, is getting more and more comfortable after what was to say the least a shaky start.
Numbers thanks to Hockeystats.ca and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Photo: Patrick McDermott
