Friday, November 26, 2010

Recap: Capitals 6, Lightning 0

I didn't catch the previous Caps shutout at Carolina, but this game must have been close to that quality of performance. By scoring chances (see below), the Caps had I think their best defensive performance of the season. I counted 7 and thought about a couple of others, but nothing else.

Man of the match: More or less all the Caps (save Neuvirth, the backup goalie) played pretty well tonight. I'll pick Marcus Johansson, who was flying all over the ice, picked up his first two career assists, and never missed his defensive zone assignment. He doesn't look so weak on the puck anymore, either. Alexander Semin had a good game with his second hat trick this season against Tampa Bay and third overall, but was largely a finisher as well.

The special teams tonight were excellent. Tampa Bay only had one "high-pressure" power play possession, and the Caps matched them in terms of chances. Meanwhile, the Capitals' power play was moving the puck with ease and scoring at will. Sorry Tampa, you're not challenging the Caps yet.

Timeonice reports: Corsi/Fenwick, H2H, Shift Charts, Zone starts
  • If you would have guessed Erskine and Fahey led all skaters in Fenwick...nah, you didn't.
  • Brett Clark. Didn't notice him play, he didn't show up in scoring chances.
  • Victor Hedman is good. Granted, he did see most of the Caps fourth line, but he saw about four minutes of Backstrom as well, was a +2 zonestart, and finished with a 0 Fenwick and +2 Corsi. He also made a really nice sweep check towards the end of the game on...Johansson, I think it was.
  • Guy Boucher shuffled his pairings once he realized his initial pairings weren't working.
  • Bruce Boudreau did not, except when Erskine went off with his fighting major. 
  • All sorts of funky things can happen in terms of score effects when the lead is four, five, or six goals. It looks like the Lightning ramped it up a bit, but not too much (maybe along the lines of down 1 instead of down 5). That means allowing only one chance in the third is stellar, even if the Lightning were only giving a half-hearted effort.
  • My heart skipped a beat when Semyon Varlamov was in the butterfly and the net starting falling on him. Luckily, nothing important became of it and Varly has his fifth career shutout.
  • Most of the game was played in the neutral zone, so it may be a bit tough to tell from the stat sheets, but John Carlson and Karl Alzner had a very strong game, including some good recovery plays. The only gaffe might have been Alzner getting caught on the wrong foot against Martin St. Louis. 
  • Tom Poti and Jeff Schultz didn't stand out as much at even strength, but each had a couple of terrific pass blocks on the penalty kill.
  • Mike Smith was a -11 Corsi, Dan Ellis a +8. Tampa Bay didn't score much, but they did start getting the better of the play. Then again, pretty much the only even strength play before Ellis came in was within a goal or two.
  • Tampa looked tired all night. They're playing tomorrow night against Florida, too. 
  • Eric Fehr was largely ineffective, but I thought in the third he got his legs a bit and made some good forechecking plays. One that stands out to me is hustling back, lifting the stick, stealing the puck, and dumping it back again for a line change.
  • What sums up the night? The Morgan Franklin Pivotal Play(s) of the Game sequence came in the second period.
  • The Caps played dump and chase all night. They moved the puck quickly out of the defensive zone. That's a formula for success that has worked two games in a row. On to Carolina on Sunday.
 And...

    Stamkos only had one shot from his sweet spot, a sweeping wrister on the power play. CSN had a great telestrator sequence in which Craig Laughlin pointed out that even on a 5-on-3 PK, the Capitals essentially assigned one player (Steckel) to take away Stamkos' shot from the left circle. In fact, it was Semin who was deadly from those areas, tallying three times from the left circle in the second period. Mission accomplished.

    Scoring chances, thanks to Vic Ferrari's xdennis script. It's promising to see so many "ZP" chances. Those I feel are a bit more impervious to luck than "T"s.

    Scoring Chances for NHL Game Number 20327

    TeamPeriodTimeNoteWSHOpponent
    WSH116:52FO GOAL Carlson1222728749089132641915v5
    WSH115:08ZP puck trickles to front for Fehr141516254456161939415v5
    TBL111:33T St. Louis gets a step on Alzner1151625277459263941915v5
    TBL110:18T Moore 2-on-1131026395556161939415v5
    WSH14:11ZP Semin to Backstrom18192128748183941445v4
    WSH14:00ZP Backstrom misses open net18192128748183941445v4
    TBL219:40ZP St. Louis point shot tipped1319215567162641914v5
    TBL219:21ZP Malone pass tip goes wide1319215567162641914v5
    WSH218:36T Gordon 2-on-11315225567162641914v5
    WSH218:20T Semin 1-on-11315285567162641914v5
    WSH215:47T Johansson 2-on-213422559056163941915v5
    TBL215:55ZP Stamkos wrister1322559056163941914v5
    WSH215:23ZP GOAL Erskine148192144510192139415v5
    WSH213:09T GOAL Semin132228559068161939415v5
    WSH212:41T Backstrom 3-on-2138192155810131841445v5
    WSH211:05ZP GOAL Semin1819212874561939415v4
    WSH29:34ZP GOAL Semin138192128581019335v4
    WSH27:30ZP Laich from in close13192128447183339425v4
    WSH27:09ZP Laich weak side13192128447183339425v4
    TBL23:52ZP Purcell collects blocked pass in slot13153969162633913v5
    WSH310:35T Chimera 2-on-112526277479192633914v5
    TBL37:25T Moore 3-on-313222855901013161933775v5
    WSH35:15ZP GOAL Poti1310263955813213342495v5


    #PlayerEVPPSH
    1S. VARLAMOV44:58735:44607:3833
    3T. POTI17:05421:56304:2823
    4J. ERSKINE12:13300:00001:0000
    8A. OVECHKIN13:34205:05400:0000
    10M. BRADLEY12:48110:10000:0000
    15B. GORDON10:27110:00001:5320
    16E. FEHR10:35111:48000:0000
    19N. BACKSTROM13:02203:47601:2802
    21B. LAICH10:42203:36602:2902
    22M. KNUBLE9:05312:10001:4011
    25J. CHIMERA10:38110:00001:5710
    26M. HENDRICKS13:22110:10001:3010
    27K. ALZNER14:51110:00002:3710
    28A. SEMIN9:08213:52602:0810
    39D. STECKEL12:02110:10001:0000
    44B. FAHEY10:46200:35200:0000
    55J. SCHULTZ18:05420:10003:5323
    74J. CARLSON17:24113:54303:1810
    90M. JOHANSSON9:27311:53001:1101


    PeriodTotalsEVPP5v3 PPSH5v3 SH
    1422220000000
    21044040002301
    3211100001000
    4000000000000
    Totals1677360003301


    I'll try something new here, H2H scoring chances. I listed the most frequent ES lines using the H2H charts and listed the scoring chance +/-, line vs line, using the center in case lines were jumbled. Pluses and minuses are from a Caps perspective. Only ten EV chances here. Click for larger.



    (I left that damn cursor in there again...)

    1 comment:

    1. Love the H2H scoring chances data. Very interesting.

      ReplyDelete