46.3 – Capitals‘ first period all-situations shots-on-goal percentage since opening night (when they fired 15 of 17 of the opening stanza’s shots). Over that same span, the Caps have been credited with 57.4% of the games’ non-first-period shots on goal. (And the Corsi data is even uglier – 45.8% Corsi-For in the first periods, 53.2% for the rest of the games.)
The Caps have been fortunate that, outside of the San Jose game (in which the Caps actually had as many shots on goal as the Sharks, but trailed 3-0 ten minutes in), the scoreboard hasn’t reflected the fact that they’ve been badly outplayed in at least three of their first periods so far (Boston, New Jersey and Vancouver last night).
To hammer home the point, that 46.3% is actually lower than last year’s overall percentage (46.7), so if the Caps continue to play first periods the way the played full games last year, we can probably expect similar results. Let’s elevate this concern to “moderate.”