The Washington Capitals were in control of Game 1 against the Carolina Hurricanes on the scoreboard for a good portion of Tuesday night’s contest. However, they were definitely not in control of anything actually on the ice.
This one was ugly, and they need a big response in Game 2. Yikes.
- Even if you don’t believe in analytics to any degree, you can’t have been happy watching that game. The Capitals hardly touched the puck the entire night. I do think they did a halfway good job in their zone limiting Carolina from creating too many high-danger chances, but at the same time, you can’t win many hockey games if you just create zero five-on-five offense. The Caps recorded 10 total five-on-five shots in the entire game. They had just one worse game during the entire regular season, firing seven five-on-five shots in a 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on December 23. Carolina controlled 76 percent of the five-on-five shot attempts. The Capitals’ worst regular-season game on that front saw the Hurricanes control 70.2 percent of the five-on-five shot attempts in a 4-2 win on November 3. The common denominator there? Three losses.
- Aliaksei Protas provided the sole goal for the Capitals, his first-ever in the playoffs. I suspect we will see him returned to the top line for Game 2. Spencer Carbery played him with Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome for 1:15 of ice time in the loss.
- The Hurricanes had the puck in the Capitals’ zone for 33:28 of the game, which is more than half of the total game time (63:06). I don’t think you need me to elaborate on why that’s troubling.
- None of the forward lines had anywhere close to a good game. The second line, made up of Connor McMichael, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Tom Wilson, was not on the ice together for a single Capitals shot on goal. They were only on the ice together for two total shot attempts. The Hurricanes had 23 attempts, seven shots, 11 scoring chances, and five high-danger chances during those same minutes. That’s supposed to be the shutdown line, y’all. Trouble.
- Logan Thompson was incredible again. He stopped 31 of the 33 shots he faced in the loss. Per MoneyPuck, he saved 2.18 more goals than expected. The Capitals have a guy in net they can win a Cup with if they can quickly figure out the mess in front of him.
- Despite the negativity I’ve expressed in this post, the Capitals were one goal away from being up 1-0 in the series. They were one Ryan Leonard third-period breakaway goal from not even going to overtime. So, if that’s their worst effort of the series, and it only goes up from here, I think there is positivity to take away from that.
