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WSH 3, EDM 4 (OT) - Caps Force OT, Backstrom Scores His 1000th Career Point |
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Hello All,
The Washington Capitals finished off the second half of a back-to-back with a 4-3 loss (OT) to Edmonton. This was a highly entertaining game with tons of chances on both ends of the ice, but most coming from Edmonton. On the positive side, Nicklas Backstrom recorded his 1000th career point. Congrats, Backy!
Here are the stats from the game:
Shots on Goal:
WSH – 32
EDM– 40
Shots on Goal (5v5):
WSH – 20
EDM – 27
Corsi For %:
WSH – 44.19%
EDM – 55.81%
Corsi For % (5v5):
WSH – 41.86%
EDM – 58.14%
Power Play:
WSH – 1/4
EDM – 1/4
Hits:
WSH – 19
EDM – 21
Blocks:
WSH – 19
EDM – 8
Scoring Chances For:
WSH – 26
EDM – 45
Scoring Chances For (5v5):
WSH – 17
EDM – 28
High Danger Chances For:
WSH– 6
EDM – 23
High Danger Chances For (5v5):
WSH – 3
EDM – 12
My Takeaways:
The Stats – The Caps had their bright spots last night, but they were largely outplayed by the desperate and fresh Oilers team. The Oilers generated 45 scoring chances and 23 high danger chances. That is an abnormally high amount of high danger chances, and may even be the most the Caps have let up in a game all season. I should start putting these stats in an excel sheet or something. The Caps only mustered 26 scoring chances and 6 total high danger chances. 3 of the Caps 6 high danger chances came at 5v5. That is not going to win you a lot of hockey games. So how did the Caps manage to get to OT in a game where they were significantly outchanced? Ilya Samsonov
Ilya Samsonov - Samsonov came into the night as the Capitals 1B goalie. Due to his recent struggles and the excellent play of Vitek Vanecek, Samsonov has been usurped by Vanecek and has seen his playing time decrease quite a bit. Last time the Caps played the Oilers on 02/02/22, Samsonov allowed 3-goals on 4-shots in the first five minutes of the game and was ultimately pulled. Tonight was a much different and much better for Samsonov. Edmonton came out of the gates HOT and put up 20 shots in the first period, eight of which were high danger chances. Samsonov stopped them all! Many from point blank range. This could have easily been another blowout had Samsonov not kept the Caps in this game early. For Samsonov, we just need to see this more consistently! His ceiling is through the roof.
Backstrom’s 1000th Point Milestone – Nicklas Backstrom recorded his 1000th point of his NHL career last night…twice. If you saw the game you know what I am referring to. Anyhow, this is an incredible accomplishment for Backstrom. With 1000 points, Backstrom is now the 93rd player in NHL history to achieve the mark. He is the 6th Swedish born player in NHL history to ever reach 1000 career points. Guys in front of him in order from 1st to 5th are Sundin, Alfredsson, Lidstrom, H. Sedin, and D. Sedin. Mats Sundin has a sizeable lead at 1349 points but Daniel Alfredsson has 1157 career points. I think its well within reason to think Backstrom will end his career as the second highest scoring Swedish player in NHL history. Backstrom has average .90 points per game in the last two years. If he plays the next three seasons at that average, he will score an additional 221 points. Knowing Backstrom, he might get hurt so let’s knock off 20 games a season and that pushes him down to 167 points over the next three years. If he stays healthy, Backstrom will finished his career pretty close to 1200 career points. How about Backstrom’s 1200th point will be an assist to Ovechkin when he breaks Gretzky’s record? That would be epic. Bookmark it.
Honorable Mention:
TJ Oshie scored a game-tying goal with one second left in the game. The goal was impressive but the slap pass from Carlson was just filthy. Here is the clip. The best look at the pass from Carlson is at the 0:24 second mark.
Final Takeaway – The Caps didn’t really deserve to win this game. Getting to OT was massive and I will gladly take the point on the second half of a back-to-back against a desperate Oilers club. Next Up, the Caps head to Vancouver for a Friday night tilt at 10pm ET. The Canucks are pretty darn hot right now. In their last 10 games, they have beat the Rangers, the Flames, and the Leafs…twice. Should be a great game against former Caps Coach Bruce Boudreau.
That is all, thanks for reading and GO CAPS
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Stats/Facts/Video Clips Provided By:
nhl.com/stats
hockey-reference.com
naturalstattrick.com
@CapitalsPR Twitter page
@Capitals Twitter page
@HerseyBears Twitter page
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Follow me on Twitter @HB_Capitals
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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