The Washington Capitals played only two periods in Saturday’s game against the New Jersey Devils, but it ended up being enough. Despite barely showing up for the third period, they hung on to their lead and downed the Devils 4-2.
Some really concerning stuff in that final frame that they need to address. But again, two points are two points, especially in their own division.
- The Capitals did a lot of good work in the first two frames; we have to acknowledge that. But we’re going to focus this bullet on that horrendous third period. It’s one thing to sit back and protect a lead; it’s another to just completely capitulate. This was the latter. In the third period alone at five-on-five, the Devils led 31-8 in shot attempts, 12-5 in shots on goal, 15-5 in scoring chances, 8-4 in high-danger chances, and 1.65-0.44 in expected goals. Very, very bad and becoming a bit of a trend. They have to figure out how to close games out better because you can’t do that against better teams. Yes, they’re missing some huge pieces of their roster, though, so we do need to lend them that grace…for now.
- Logan Thompson was back to being incredible, making 29 stops on the 31 shots he faced. According to MoneyPuck, he saved 2.05 more goals than expected, which now puts him sixth in the league overall in the stat this season (5.3), trailing Jake Oettinger (9.2), Ilya Sorokin (7.9), Linus Ullmark (7.8), Jesper Wallstedt (6.1), and Daniil Tarasov (5.4).
- Vincent Desharnais has really settled into his role with the Capitals, and now he’s even providing points to go along with it. Desharnais grabbed two assists in the win during his 20:22 of ice time, only the third multi-point game of his career. Stellar night from him and some really good early signs that the Caps bet on the right guy this past summer, especially when their full defense corps gets healthy.
- Tom Wilson had a rare rough night at five-on-five; with him on the ice, the Capitals posted heavily negative differentials in shot attempts (-17), shots on goal (-6), scoring chances (-9), and high-danger chances (-4). They didn’t create a single high-danger chance of their own during his minutes and allowed one goal.
- Boone Jenner now has four goals in his last five games, leaving him on pace to score 41 times this season. I don’t think he’ll quite do that, but he’s been a fantastic addition. He was brought in for some of the ugly, grinder-type work and his intangibles, and he’s been putting the puck in the net on top of all of that.
- Alex Ovechkin recorded the primary assist on Ilya Protas‘ second-career goal, his third assist of the season. Ovechkin is now two assists shy of passing Nicklas Backstrom (762) for the most assists in franchise history. Gulp.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
