The Washington Capitals collapsed late in a game for the second match in a row, ruining a dominant start against the Stars. Another night of futility on the power play also contributed to the 4-3 overtime loss that saw the Caps scrape a point with a pulled goalie goal.
The Caps out-shot the Stars 32 to 26 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 43 to 28.
- Evgeny Kuznetsov is back and it took him five minutes to put one in the back of the net. His overall night was up and down, but it’s nice to have his game changing talent back in the lineup. Score a million points this season, Kuzy.
- John Carlson and Jonas Siegenthaler had a fantastic first forty minutes. Carlson was burned for the Stars third goal in the third, but the pairing ended up with over 75-percent of the shot attempts at five-on-five and a plus-10 scoring chance for margin. Most of their night came against the impressive Tyler Seguin line as well.
- The Caps through two periods held a 27-11 shot advantage, and a 49 to 21 shot attempt advantage. It was not capitalizing on more of their 22 scoring chances in those periods and their total collapse for the first 15 minutes of the third that doomed them.
The Caps take a 2-1 lead with John Carlson's first goal of the season. He's now seven goals away from tying Scott Stevens (98) for the fifth-most goals by a Capitals defenseman in franchise history.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) October 9, 2019
Nicklas Backstrom recorded an assist on Carlson's goal. He's now five assists shy of passing Daniel Sedin (648) for the fifth most assists all-time by a Swedish-born player.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) October 9, 2019
- Oh yeah…and also the power play. Another night and another 0-for-5 for the Caps on the man advantage that featured time on both a 4-on-3 and 5-on-3. I feel like the stubbornness to change anything will stick around for some time longer. Lets just hope some individual brilliance can save them.
- The second line, centered by Lars Eller, was a little less impressive in this game. One has to wonder how much longer the coaching staff will keep Kuznetsov on the third line.
- Overall, the Caps have been pretty excellent to start the season at even strength. That is something that couldn’t be said for a majority of last season, so lets hope they keep it up. Six out of a possible eight points is not the worst thing in the world to kick off a campaign.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Stars
Headline Photo: NBC Sports Washington
