Hello All,

The Washington Capitals suffered a tough 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday. The loss is just another example how brutal 2022 has been for the Capitals and more specifically, how Caps continue to put up losses to sub .500 teams in the month of February. Panic meter? 8/10.

Here are the stats from the game:

Shots on Goal:
WSH – 28
PHI – 22

Shots on Goal (5v5):
WSH – 20
PHI – 21

Corsi For %:
WSH – 53.38%
PHI – 46.62%

Corsi For % (5v5):
WSH – 48.42%
PHI – 51.58%

Power Play:
WSH – 1/3
PHI – 0/2

Hits:
WSH – 30
PHI – 21

Blocks:
WSH – 19
PHI - 16

Scoring Chances For:
WSH – 21
PHI - 26

Scoring Chances For (5v5):
WSH – 17
PHI - 25

High Danger Chances For:
WSH – 9
PHI – 7

High Danger Chances For (5v5):
WSH – 7
PHI – 7

Here Are My Takeaways:

Slow Start – In typical fashion, the Capitals got out to a slow start. They allowed a goal in the first 11-seconds of the game and looked SLOW all of the first period. The Flyers outshot the Caps 13-5 at 5v5 in the first period. CorsiFor% was pretty much 70-30 in favor of the Flyers in the first period. In addition, the Caps ended the period down 0-2 on a late Atkinson goal. This was just a terrible start to the game against one of the worst teams in the League in the Flyers. Simply unacceptable for any team who was once 1st place in the Metro standings earlier this season.

Power Play – The power play scored and generally looked better. I alluded to this in my previous blogs but the power play is making progress lately. It is still not where it needs to be but with Oshie back in the fold, you can why his presence is so important to the unit. Oshie scored from his patented bumper spot on the power play. The Capitals rank 17th in the league for the power play for the month of February. The Caps have scored 6-goals on 30 power plays (20%) for February. This is a slight improvement from scoring 5-goals on 33 power plays (15.2%) for the month of January. Don’t get me wrong, the PP needs a ton of work still. I just am trying to pull anything positive at this point and while minor, this incremental improvement is promising.

Losses to Sub .500 Teams – This loss to Philadelphia is just another among many losses in the month of February to sub .500 teams. The Capitals are 4-5-0 in February. Here are their losses:

02/02 – WSH 3, EDM 5
02/08 – WSH 4, CBJ 5
02/13 – WSH 1, OTT 4
02/24 - WSH 1, NYR 4
02/26 – WSH 1, PHI 2

While some of these teams are not currently sub.500, all were right around there or below at the time of the game in February. I am honestly at a loss for words for the Caps. Their inability to take care of teams they “should” beat on paper is mind boggling. Nothing against the Flyers, but let’s call a spade a spade, they are not good. They are not a playoff team. They have a .307 win percentage. To be fair, the Flyers have suffered an insane amount of injuries this season and have only recently started to get some key guys back. At full health, this team should be moderately competitive. In reality, I have to look inward and really come to terms with the fact that the Capitals might not good. Maybe the Capitals are not a playoff team. Maybe the Capitals finish the season with a sub .500 win %. At this point anything is possible. The schedule ahead for the Capitals is pretty brutal. Here is to hoping March will be much better.

Thanks for reading. Go Caps!

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