Thursday, October 12, 2017

Washington Capitals fall 3-2 at home to Pittsburgh Penguins

Not surprisingly, the Capitals lost to Pittsburgh, at home, yet again.

Also not surprisingly, Matt Murray played out of his mind, making several dynamite saves, and furthering the story of Sidney Crosby's continual dominance over Alex Ovechkin.

The results:

1. The Capitals will win handily

Ha!

2. A defenseman will score for the Capitals

Christian Djoos impressed, netting his first career goal in his first career game on his first career shot.  He also added a beautiful assist on an Ovechkin slamdunk.  

3. The Capitals special teams will continue to shine

Ha!


1-2

Season:

2-4

Some assorted notes:


  • Aside from scoring his first two career points, Djoos impressed in his limited role.  Djoos began with Ness, but quickly found himself paired with John Carlson, who was on the ice for two of the Penguins three powerplay goals.  
  • Carlson led the team with 26:22 of icetime, the third time he has led the team this season.  Excepting the blowout win over Montreal, in which he played a measly 23 minutes, Carlson has played more than 26 minutes nightly.  For an all-situations defender this is to be expected, but one has to wonder how long this can be sustained.  Carlson is ostensibly the Capitals #3 defenseman, but plays on the top powerplay and penalty kill units.  
  • Speaking of #1s, Matt Niskanen should have played more (22:13), but he took two soft penalties, the first of which allowed Kris Letang to score (coincidentally, from a place which would have been otherwise occupied by Niskanen himself).  Again, excepting the blowout, in which the third pair received considerably more icetime than in a competitive game, Niskanen was on the ice less than usual.  For some reason, he only played 6 minutes in the third period of a 1 goal game.  Odd, to say the least.
  • Brooks Orpik continued to exceed expectations, posting an even all-situations CF and 58.62% 5v5 CF.  He also played 21 minutes, slightly lowering his average for the season, yet considerably higher than his career average with the Capitals.  
  • The Capitals were badly outshot (36-22), but that does not pass the sniff-test: Washington attempted 55 shots compared to Pittsburgh's 57.  It's not as if the Pens were profoundly better at blocking shots than the Caps; Pittsburgh blocked 17 compared to the Capitals 16.  They were just better at getting shots toward the net. 
  • The fourth line was particularly buried, totaling 4% CF.  Yowch.
  • Tyler Graovac was arguably the worst of the bunch, seeing 0 shots head towards Murray, while seeing 9 towards Braden Holtby.  This would not be that bad, but Graovac had less than 6 minutes of ice time.  
  • The remainder of that trio, Devante Smith-Pelly and Jay Beagle had rough games too, but they earned most of their shots against on the penalty kill.
  • Alex Ovechkin slammed home an easy goal on a brilliant tic-tac-toe play started by Nicklas Backstrom, the first of his league-leading 8 that were not off the tape of Evgeny Kuznetsov.  
  • Alex Chiasson continues to underwhelm.  He had negative possession numbers again, and with the return of Tom Wilson, should slide out of the lineup.
  • Speaking of Chiasson, we're not sure what's worse: Sidney Crosby putting his shoulder into Holtby, or the lack of a response by the Capitals.  Take a look below and let us know:


  • Should Crosby have been penalized for his headshot, or was it in the normal course of play?  Either way, should someone have retaliated, to show Crosby, the Penguins, and the rest of the league, that the goalie is off-limits?

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