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

Team	Period	Time	Note	WSH						Opponent
WSH	1	16:52	FO GOAL Carlson	1	22	27	28	74	90	8	9	13	26	41	91	5v5
WSH	1	15:08	ZP puck trickles to front for Fehr	1	4	15	16	25	44	5	6	16	19	39	41	5v5
TBL	1	11:33	T St. Louis gets a step on Alzner	1	15	16	25	27	74	5	9	26	39	41	91	5v5
TBL	1	10:18	T Moore 2-on-1	1	3	10	26	39	55	5	6	16	19	39	41	5v5
WSH	1	4:11	ZP Semin to Backstrom	1	8	19	21	28	74	8	18	39	41	44		5v4
WSH	1	4:00	ZP Backstrom misses open net	1	8	19	21	28	74	8	18	39	41	44		5v4
TBL	2	19:40	ZP St. Louis point shot tipped	1	3	19	21	55		6	7	16	26	41	91	4v5
TBL	2	19:21	ZP Malone pass tip goes wide	1	3	19	21	55		6	7	16	26	41	91	4v5
WSH	2	18:36	T Gordon 2-on-1	1	3	15	22	55		6	7	16	26	41	91	4v5
WSH	2	18:20	T Semin 1-on-1	1	3	15	28	55		6	7	16	26	41	91	4v5
WSH	2	15:47	T Johansson 2-on-2	1	3	4	22	55	90	5	6	16	39	41	91	5v5
TBL	2	15:55	ZP Stamkos wrister	1	3	22	55	90		5	6	16	39	41	91	4v5
WSH	2	15:23	ZP GOAL Erskine	1	4	8	19	21	44	5	10	19	21	39	41	5v5
WSH	2	13:09	T GOAL Semin	1	3	22	28	55	90	6	8	16	19	39	41	5v5
WSH	2	12:41	T Backstrom 3-on-2	1	3	8	19	21	55	8	10	13	18	41	44	5v5
WSH	2	11:05	ZP GOAL Semin	1	8	19	21	28	74	5	6	19	39	41		5v4
WSH	2	9:34	ZP GOAL Semin	1	3	8	19	21	28	5	8	10	19	33		5v4
WSH	2	7:30	ZP Laich from in close	1	3	19	21	28	44	7	18	33	39	42		5v4
WSH	2	7:09	ZP Laich weak side	1	3	19	21	28	44	7	18	33	39	42		5v4
TBL	2	3:52	ZP Purcell collects blocked pass in slot	1	3	15	39			6	9	16	26	33	91	3v5
WSH	3	10:35	T Chimera 2-on-1	1	25	26	27	74		7	9	19	26	33	91	4v5
TBL	3	7:25	T Moore 3-on-3	1	3	22	28	55	90	10	13	16	19	33	77	5v5
WSH	3	5:15	ZP GOAL Poti	1	3	10	26	39	55	8	13	21	33	42	49	5v5

#	Player	EV			PP			SH
1	S. VARLAMOV	44:58	7	3	5:44	6	0	7:38	3	3
3	T. POTI	17:05	4	2	1:56	3	0	4:28	2	3
4	J. ERSKINE	12:13	3	0	0:00	0	0	1:00	0	0
8	A. OVECHKIN	13:34	2	0	5:05	4	0	0:00	0	0
10	M. BRADLEY	12:48	1	1	0:10	0	0	0:00	0	0
15	B. GORDON	10:27	1	1	0:00	0	0	1:53	2	0
16	E. FEHR	10:35	1	1	1:48	0	0	0:00	0	0
19	N. BACKSTROM	13:02	2	0	3:47	6	0	1:28	0	2
21	B. LAICH	10:42	2	0	3:36	6	0	2:29	0	2
22	M. KNUBLE	9:05	3	1	2:10	0	0	1:40	1	1
25	J. CHIMERA	10:38	1	1	0:00	0	0	1:57	1	0
26	M. HENDRICKS	13:22	1	1	0:10	0	0	1:30	1	0
27	K. ALZNER	14:51	1	1	0:00	0	0	2:37	1	0
28	A. SEMIN	9:08	2	1	3:52	6	0	2:08	1	0
39	D. STECKEL	12:02	1	1	0:10	0	0	1:00	0	0
44	B. FAHEY	10:46	2	0	0:35	2	0	0:00	0	0
55	J. SCHULTZ	18:05	4	2	0:10	0	0	3:53	2	3
74	J. CARLSON	17:24	1	1	3:54	3	0	3:18	1	0
90	M. JOHANSSON	9:27	3	1	1:53	0	0	1:11	0	1

Period	Totals		EV		PP		5v3 PP		SH		5v3 SH
1	4	2	2	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	10	4	4	0	4	0	0	0	2	3	0	1
3	2	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Totals	16	7	7	3	6	0	0	0	3	3	0	1

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...)