Guess what’s back, back again? These posts that a lot of you like for some reason, please tell a friend.
Okay, that’s enough, Slim Shady, we have hockey to get to. If you’re new here, this series of posts is where we riff and raff about how the Washington Capitals played the night prior. All of the time, the posts will feature statistical analysis, and sometimes, they will feature the conjectures of a washed-up high school hockey player who is somehow right more than he is wrong.
The Capitals painted on the canvas that was their first game of the 2024-25 season on Saturday night against the New Jersey Devils and left us with plenty to talk about. There was a lot of good and bad, which is to be expected from a team getting a late start and mixing in several new faces to their lineup.
- Washington dropped their Home Opener to the Devils by a final score of 5-3. The club was very uneven at five-on-five, which led to much of their trouble against a New Jersey team already playing in their fourth game of the year. While the five-on-five shot attempts finished 44 apiece for both sides, New Jersey was clearly the superior team when it came to creating grade-A chances, creating eight of the high-danger variety and scoring on two of them. Washington created just five of their own and only scored on one.
- While that is undoubtedly not ideal hockey, a minus-3 deficit in five-on-five high-danger chances is also not exactly the end of the world. However, the more concerning portion of the equation is that the Capitals created relatively nothing in the third period, where they trailed from the outset. At all strengths in the final frame, Washington managed just six scoring chances (fewer than both previous periods) and one high-danger chance, which came while the teams played 4-on-4. You don’t make a comeback playing like that.
- From a lineup perspective, the biggest story was the play of the team’s third line. Spencer Carbery didn’t mince his words when speaking about the trio postgame, and for good reason. Before any of Sonny Milano, Hendrix Lapierre, or Aliaksei Protas had skated more than 3:04 of ice time as a line, they had already been on the ice for six shots on goal against and, more importantly, three New Jersey goals. Per Natural Stat Trick, they received just 4:22 total five-on-five ice time together in the game. If you’re holding Jakub Vrana stocks right now, you’re smiling.
- Another worrying tidbit from the loss was Washington’s loss of Matt Roy to a lower-body injury early in the second period. Roy skated just 8:39 of ice time before heading back to the locker room and not returning. The news is especially concerning when you consider Roy has missed just one total game over the past two seasons with the Los Angeles Kings.
- Alex Ovechkin recorded his first point of the season, an assist on Dylan Strome’s second-period strike. Otherwise, The Great Eight was very quiet offensively, firing just one shot attempt and going without a shot in a Capitals’ season-opening game for the first time in his 20-year career. Ovechkin did lead the team in hits with seven.
- Washington’s fourth line was probably their best line. Nic Dowd clearly formed early chemistry with Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh, as the club was plus-6 in shot attempts and plus-5 in scoring chances during Duhaime’s five-on-five ice time. However, Dowd took two penalties, and while the penalty kill was excellent, killing off all four New Jersey power plays, it’s a lot harder to get a foothold in a game, spending too much time down a man.
- I thought Pierre-Luc Dubois was one of the most noticeable players from a positive individual standpoint. The team’s new top-six center tallied his first point with the Capitals on John Carlson’s goal and showed a good connection with Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson multiple times throughout regulation. Wilson was also impressive overall, leading the team with five shots on goal, eight individual shot attempts, six individual scoring chances, and three individual high-danger chances to go along with his goal.
- The stats say Charlie Lindgren didn’t have the most fantastic start, giving up 1.68 more goals than expected. I thought Logan Thompson had the stronger preseason of the two Washington netminders, but I also saw nothing too wrong with Lindgren’s effort.
