It’s not a series until the home team loses. That’s what they say, anyway. Well, it’s a series now. The Penguins dominate this one through two, but it took a familiar face to score a timely goal for the bad guys to ultimately salt this one away. Now the Caps head to the Steel City looking to take back home ice.
Here’s our breakdown from Game 1.
Now let’s take a look at what worked and what didn’t in Game 2.
What Worked
As has so often been the case during Caps’ playoff losses of late, it’s pretty much impossible to pin this one on Holtby, who was on the receiving end of an open shooting gallery for the game’s first two periods. Holtby ended up with 33 saves on the night, and both goals against were the result of strong chances from the slot – completely uncontested in the case of Carl Hagelin’s goal, and weakly contested (but more on that later) on Eric Fehr‘s game-winner. Holtby was a big part of the Caps’ perfect penalty kill, and was one of the only reasons they had the opportunity to make a late push. So long as Holtby’s game remains where it is, the Caps are likely to be in the game on any given night, even when the quality of play in front of him suffers.
More people should be talking about this. This Richards miss was a minute before the winning goal. pic.twitter.com/fFJXzZVU6R
— Martin Shatzer (@mshatzerDC) May 1, 2016
What Didn’t
At five-on-five, the Pens took 21 shot attempts to the Capitals 11, which included 4 high-danger scoring chances to Washington’s 1, according to War On Ice. Graphically, it looked like this:
If Orpik’s not on the ice to clear dudes who are smaller (and as Caps’ fans know about Fehr, don’t play to their size) out of danger zones…what exactly is he on the ice for?
#Fehr deflects one past #Holtby, #Pens up 2-1 #CapsPens pic.twitter.com/lzg9bu9tF9
— CAPITALS HILL (@CapitalsHill) May 1, 2016
- The Fourth Line
(from hockeystats.ca)
Mike Sullivan‘s probably going to be plenty interested in getting that Malkin line out against Beagle (who lost 12 of 18 draws and 7 of 11 in his defensive zone last night) and company, who may be a shut down line in theory, but certainly have not been in practice.