The Carolina Hurricanes do not surrender many shots on goal, averaging the fewest shots against per game in the NHL. The Washington Capitals do not record many shots on goal, averaging the 4th-fewest shots per game. Last night’s matchup between the two went about as expected in that department.
It didn’t play out as such on the scoreboard however, where a Nic Dowd tally followed by a Dylan Strome tip-in had the Capitals enjoying an early 2-0 lead heading into the first period.
That scoreboard was lying, however. The Hurricanes would cut the lead in half off a Brent Burns goal in a second period that saw the Caps hemmed in their own zone, only getting 4 shots on Canes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov. The next period would see Carolina break the Caps for good, rattling off 5 goals with zero response from the Caps, other than a very ill-advised slash from Evgeny Kuznetsov after Andrei Svechnikov’s power play tally gave the Canes the lead.
Three Takeaways
- If they aren’t already there, it really feels as though the Caps are approaching untenable territory with Evgeny Kuznetsov. There aren’t any easy answers to this situation and it’d be pretty reactionary to mark last night as the “last straw,” but there’s more of an urgent need for something to get done…if there’s anything possible to begin with.
- For a team that has notoriously struggled to get anything going offensively this season, and was especially anemic on offense in this game, the fourth line getting the most minutes at 5v5 was curious, to say the least.
- In the grand scheme of things they’re still in the middle of a very crowded logjam for wild card spots in the East, but the Caps are now 6-7-4 since December 2nd, with only three regulation wins in that span. Things have really begun to trend downward as they approach the midway point of their season.