numbers for the morning after

Vancouver

The Washington Capitals avoided the start of a losing streak with a third period against the Los Angeles Kings that saw them score all four of their goals en route to a 4-3 victory. Phew.

Gotta find a way to score goals in more than one period of games.

Believe it or not, the Caps were likely very unlucky to be behind after forty minutes. Statistically, those two first frames were their best of the game and maybe their best back-to-back periods of the season. At five-on-five, they out-scoring chanced the Kings 18 to 11 and out-high danger chanced them 10 to 3. I think the team is definitely pressing to start the season so when you come out with zero goals and are down two it can look very bad to fans, coaches, players, etc. The house isn’t burning down…yet.
On that note, I’ve been seeing some rumbling negative discourse on Darcy Kuemper popping out recently. I think that’s kinda ludicrous to be doing this early and as I noted in a prior post he is notoriously a slow starter. There was nothing he could have scored down on any of the three goals the Kings. Two of them were bang-bang tap-ins and the other was a defensive zone slot breakdown. He made some pretty huge stops in this one if you go watch the highlights back and finished with 20 stops overall.
I’ve been pretty negative about the decision to bring Marcus Johanson back and I still think some of that discussion is valid, but it’s safe to say he’s had a phenomenal start to the year. Five points in six games for MoJo and he should never leave that top power play unit.

The Capitals overcame a two-goal deficit entering the third period to win in regulation for the second time this season (i.e. Oct. 17 vs. Vancouver). Washington’s two wins after trailing at the end of two periods is tied with the Columbus Blue Jackets for the most in the NHL.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) October 23, 2022

Please stop playing Alex Ovechkin with Conor Sheary. It does not work. In almost 320 minutes together at five-on-five since Sheary arrived in DC, the Caps have been out-scored 21 to 17 at five-on-five. They also bleed high-danger chances, getting outdone there 74 to 60. Why have we not seen Anthony Manta up with Ovi for an extended period of time yet in his tenure with the Caps?
Everything Aliaksei Protas touches turns to gold so far this season. Keep him in that top nine and let him flourish. The finish is clearly not there for him yet but the process has been outstanding. Protas is the team leader at five-on-five in shot attempt percentage (62.7%), expected goals for percentage (61.3%), and high danger chances for percentage (72.7%).
Gonna use this last bullet to give some Reverse Retro takes. First off, the Caps get a 10-out-of-10 from me. I wish there was a little more blue, but I’m not complaining. It’s gonna be so cool to see Ovi in those things. To round out my top five which includes the Caps, give me Florida, Calgary, Winnipeg, and San Jose.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.