The Washington Capitals did not have their best in Columbus on Friday night. However, their goaltender sure did, and they got some key contributions late in the game to seal what was an actually very close 5-1 victory.
With the win, the Capitals are now 6-2 on the season, winning six of their last seven games. Lucky in this one, but you aren’t going to dominate every single game in the year.
- Spencer Carbery was less than thrilled with his team’s effort at five-on-five in the win, remarking postgame that the Capitals stole two points. He’s right. The Blue Jackets left Nationwide Arena up 52-38 in shot attempts, 30-25 in scoring chances, and 15-8 in high-danger chances. Way, way, way too many bad turnovers in the neutral zone or even on breakout attempts in the defensive zone. With better finishing, the Blue Jackets are probably up 4-1 after two periods.
- The man responsible for keeping the cannon at bay the most was in net for the Capitals. Logan Thompson made 34 saves on 35 shots faced and even grabbed a secondary assist, his second-ever point with the Caps. According to MoneyPuck, Thompson stopped four more goals than expected. You read that correctly, f-o-u-r. That’s unreal. In the Columbus net, Jet Greaves allowed 1.7 more goals than expected.
- I thought the fourth line was the one that struggled the most. Obviously, you need to factor in that they never start their shifts in the offensive zone, but a bad penalty from Nic Dowd and the trio just never figured it out at five-on-five. With them on the ice, the Caps recorded just two shot attempts, neither of which was a scoring chance or a high-danger chance. I don’t love Ethen Frank as the other winger on that line, but I understand Carbs doesn’t exactly have a ton of options with Justin Sourdif playing center. I would personally send Frank back down and give a stylistically more aligned player like Bogdan Trineyev a chance. However, that’s about to not even matter since Pierre-Luc Dubois is probably back from injury later tonight.
- The one line that I really would like to see stick together, even with Dubois back, is the combination of Hendrix Lapierre, Connor McMichael, and Tom Wilson. Ultimately, I don’t think they’ll stick, but they’ve been excellent in their time together, seeing 74.8 percent of shot attempts, 72.2 percent of expected goals, 79.5 percent of scoring chances, and 79.4 percent of high-danger chances during their five-on-five ice time. Lapierre, in particular, looks far more comfortable and effective on the wing and now has two assists in his last three games.
- John Carlson notched two points (1g, 1a) to give him a five-game point streak and seven points (2g, 5a) in eight games to begin the season. He also skated a game-high 25:43 in the win, which means I would not be surprised if he fades late in tonight’s game. Wilson (20:28), Jakob Chychrun (25:19), and Martin Fehervary (21:54) also played heavy minutes, so something to keep an eye on.
- Super happy to see a fellow Capitals fan, Justin Sourdif, score his first goal with the team. The Capitals have been truly excellent with Sourdif on the ice at five-on-five this season, owning 60 percent of shot attempts, 59.3 percent of expected goals, 62.4 percent of scoring chances, and 65.3 percent of high-danger chances.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
