Washington Capitals: Top 3 studs against the Penguins
The Washington Capitals played a complete team game from start to finish in a dominating win over the Pittsburgh Penguins that could’ve easily been a shutout.
After a scoreless first period, the Caps would break through first on a goal from Conor Sheary against his former team. They would double that lead with a good defensive play from Alex Ovechkin that led to a goal from Jakub Vrana. Lars Eller put the exclamation point on the game with a goal early in the third period and the Caps hung on from there on out.
Here were the top 3 studs from the game.
#3 Vitek Vanecek
It’s a shame some fans and Caps Twitter were quick to criticize Vitek Vanecek when the team was on a four game slide when the defense in front of him was simply bad. After a dreadful Sunday afternoon where he allowed six goals on 38 shots. He bounced back in a big way Tuesday night.
🇨🇿🇸🇰#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/IB5Eno4uw5
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 17, 2021
Early in the game he made a stop on a shorthanded breakaway attempt. It was a huge play and it led to momentum shifting towards the Caps. Vanecek finished with 26 saves on 27 shots.
#2 Jakub Vrana
For the second straight game, Jakub Vrana lit the lamp for the Caps. His goal doubled their lead in the second period. His goal was his fifth of the season and he also has five assists for 10 points. It came at the 11:31 mark of the second period.
With the Caps on a four game losing streak including being without Vrana for the Philadelphia Flyers game, they needed players like V to step up. With a tough stretch coming up, the Caps need to win some games. Vrana has four points in his last four games.
This whole play *chef's kiss* pic.twitter.com/ypZ8kG5als
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 17, 2021
“It’s something to build off. It’s just a step in the right direction. We’ve got tough games coming up, but I think at this point what you’re trying to do is just build that on the ice, that identity and not focus so much on the results. Tonight it happened the results followed.”
Vrana has a chance to prove that he’s a superstar. He’s tired of people bringing up the past when he struggled in the playoffs and so far he’s got the drive to put up another 25 goal season.
#1 The third line
The number one stud of the game isn’t an individual player but the entire third line of Conor Sheary, Lars Eller and Richard Panik. The line was nearly perfect in both every regular and advanced statistical category you can think of.
Sheary would get the Caps on the board first after Nick Jensen made a nice play to give Panik a chance to set him up. Sheary was in the right face off circle and fired it in. For Panik, it was his 100th career assist.
NEW DAD STRENGTH! pic.twitter.com/sGvqmjstKF
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 17, 2021
The dominance wouldn’t stop there. In the third period, Panik added his second assist setting up Eller in front of the net.
This line is COOKIN' pic.twitter.com/IZy87KUfuC
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 17, 2021
Now is where it gets wild. From a possession metrics standpoint, the third line skated 9:37 while on the ice and had a Corsi-For percentage of 92.86 percent. Panik led the way with a 93.33 Corsi-For percentage while Sheary and Eller posted 82.35 and 80.95, respectively. That is pretty darn good.
Damn near impossible for one line to play a game more perfect than this. pic.twitter.com/hpuTzMG39h
— Adam Gretz (@AGretz) February 17, 2021
Altogether the third line had 10 shots on goal while allowing zero which included three high danger chances for and none allowed. Oshie spoke about the third line after the game:
“Those guys were horses tonight. Shears with his efforts and his strides. Richie over there is a thoroughbred and Lars is a horse and a moose coming through there in the middle.”
More. Washington Capitals dominate Penguins. light
The Caps will host the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night, a team they haven’t seen since the beginning of the season.