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WSH 5, BUF 3 - Ovechkin's 741st & Wilson's 2-Goals Propel Caps |
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Hello All,
The Washington Capitals took care of business tonight and beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-3 on home ice.
Here Are the Stats:
Shots on Goal:
WSH – 30
BUF – 28
Shots on Goal (5v5):
WSH – 23
BUF – 23
Corsi For %:
WSH – 47.6%
BUF – 52.4%
Corsi For % (5v5) :
WSH – 42.35%
BUF – 57.65%
Power Play:
WSH – 1/3
BUF – 0/3
Hits:
WSH – 20
BUF – 11
Blocks:
WSH – 15
BUF - 6
Scoring Chances For:
WSH – 27
BUF – 24
Scoring Chances For (5v5):
WSH – 19
BUF – 22
High Danger Chances For:
WSH – 12
BUF – 6
High Danger Chances For: (5v5):
WSH – 8
BUF – 5
Goaltending:
Vitek Vanecek: .893 SV% / 3.0 GA
Dustin Tokarski .833 SV% / 5.0 GA
Here are my Takeaways:
Ovechkin Ties Brett Hull – With his 11th goal of the season, Ovechkin has tied Brett Hull for 4th most goals in NHL history. Ovechkin has rapidly climbed the ranks amongst the top goal scorers in NHL history. Since October 19th, 2019, Ovechkin has past the likes of Robitaille, Selanne, Lemieux, Yzerman, Messier, Gartner, Esposito, and Dionne. What I love about Ovechkin’s game this season is that his finding different ways to score. He is not overly reliant on sitting in his “office”. Ovechkin is all over the place. He is parking down low and getting rebounds, he is getting breakaways, and he is looking for tips/deflections. Now to be clear, Ovechkin has always executed this as part of his game. This season it is just more prevalent with how hot he has started. With his goal and assist tonight, Ovechkin now is at 20 points. NHL stats posted this:
Nice work, Ovi!
Tom Wilson Quietly Producing –Tom Wilson Scored 2G tonight. It was his ninth career multi-goal game in 581 games played. Wilson now has 3G-7A-10P in 12 GP. Wilson played a great game tonight and certainly had a couple looks to complete the hat trick but it just didn’t bounce his way. Wilson generated 4 SOG, 1 hit, and 2 blocks with 21:16 TOI. Wilson now has three goals in his last three games. I mentioned in my last blog the Capitals need for guys other than Ovechkin and Kuzy to be stepping up. Well Wilson buried the game winner tonight! With the Sabres pressing in the third and cutting it to a one goal game, it was Wilson who scored after a failed clear by the Sabres. The goal completely halted any and all momentum the Sabres had generated.
Nic Dowd Exits Game with Injury – The Capitals just got Nic Dowd back in the lineup but he was injured again tonight. The Capitals ultimately bumped up McMichael to the third line and the Caps essentially ran three offensive lines the rest of the night. Because of this, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby’s NHL debut was mostly spoiled as he only got to play 5:44 TOI. Leason played 5:54 TOI. The extent of Dowd’s injury is unknown but the Capitals simply can not afford to keep losing key players!
Closing Thoughts – I thought the Sabres held their own this game. The stats for this game were fairly favorable for Buffalo. They held the "Corsi For %" advantage at all strengths and at 5on5. I would say the biggest downfall for the Sabres tonight was goaltending and their inability to generate consistent high danger scoring chances. I won’t knock Tokarski too much, the Capitals offense injured or not, is always potent and there many players and layers to account for.
EXTRA OVECHKIN STAT BROUGHT TO YOU BY @CAPITALSPR
Next Up the Capitals are @ Detroit on Thursday night for the first half of their back to back. After Detroit, the Capitals will travel to my old stomping grounds, Columbus, OH.
That is all, thanks for reading and LET’S GO CAPS
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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