Washington Capitals: Three Stars Of The Game – Oshie Fights Back
Washington Capitals 3 stars of the game.
We’re back with our three stars of the week or in this case, game here at Stars and Sticks. It was a pretty awful start to the game vs the Lightning if we’re going to be honest here. Halfway through the game the Washington Capitals were getting out shot attempted by fourteen. They could not deal with the pressure the Lightning were bringing on the forecheck and they found themselves down 0-2.
Then T.J. Oshie got into a fight with Yanni Gourde and things seemed to turn around after that. The game ended 2-2 (through regulation and 3 on 3 overtime) and they trailed the Lightning in shot attempts by just one.
It was still all in vain however, the Capitals fell in a shootout and lost the game 3-2. Plenty to not like, but still plenty to like in the game. But, we’re not here to discuss the team as a whole, we’re here to point out who we think were the best players on the team for the game.
Alex Ovechkin
I’ll say this now to get it out of the way, there are not too many players with pretty fancy stats. When we give out the stars for this game, we’re not handing them out for that reason. This will be an eye test kind of game.
Alex Ovechkin was one of the worst Capitals in the advanced stats department. In fact, in terms of shot attempts he was the worst. He finished with a 41.67% Corsi rating. While on the ice the team had 3 chances for and 4 against. Not quite stars of the night quality.
However, even when the team was struggling he was one of the few guys I noticed giving the team chances. Ovechkin could have easily, at least in my mind, had at least three goals in this game. He was just bested by the Tampa netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy.
He’ll have to settle with going home with a big ole goose egg on the score sheet but he still had the chances. He had 4 individual scoring chances, that was tied for the team lead with Lars Eller. He also tied for the team lead in hits with 6. Can you guess the two guys he tied with? It was Tom Wilson and Garnet Hathaway. If you successfully guessed those two guys, congratulations! That was an easy guess.
It wasn’t Ovechkin’s greatest game ever on the stats side of things. He was still one of the bright spots while the team was struggling and he could have had multiple goals and points. I think he’s worthy of a spot on our stars of the game.
T.J. Oshie
Again, we’ll be going with someone who has zero points on the board, and his fancy stats are average at best. But he did some good things for the game, was one of the better Capitals in the advanced stats area and potentially was a big reason why Washington woke up in the second period.
It was the fight late in the second period that got the Capitals to start playing with some energy. Just a few minutes of play later the Caps went from 0-2 down to tied 2-2. Sometimes it’s not a goal or a great offensive play that turns things around. It can be a hit or fight. Oshie did the latter and here we are. Getting one of our stars of the game.
Like Ovechkin he had zero points for the game. He did have a nice shootout goal vs Vasilevskiy though, Russian goaltenders must just despise this guy.
He had 50% Corsi rating for the night having 10 shot attempts for and 10 against while on the ice. The team also had 2 chances for and 3 against with 77 on the ice.
Maybe the Capitals would have figured it out anyways. But Oshie’s fight seemed to spark the team and that was possibly a reason the team took this game to overtime. For that, I think Oshie deserves to be one of our stars for this one.
Evgeny Kuznetsov
I thought this spot could go to a couple of guys. Richard Panik had a goal that started off the comeback, Carl Hagelin was going seemingly all game. But Evgeny Kuznetsov is the guys who gets our last stars of the game spot.
Kuznetsov got the second goal of the game and it was a goal you love to see him score. It wasn’t a fancy toe drag snipe in the corner kind of goal. It was a ugly, grind it home, playoff goal. You need that come playoff time and the Capitals got it from one of the their best players in this game.
Kuzy stuffs it! pic.twitter.com/Tgk3TLv8TY
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) August 3, 2020
He set up Ovechkin a couple of times for potential goals, but Ovechkin couldn’t quite get it to go in. Kuznetsov did have 4 individual shot attempts which was tied for third, and had 3 scoring chances which was tied for second on the team.
Faceoffs are something Kuznetsov has struggled for a large part of his career, but vs the Lightning he won 10 of 18 draws, meaning he won over 55% of the draws he took. Good night for him at the dot.
More. Washington Capitals get a point in Round Robin opener but fall in shootout. light
Again, it was a less than impressive night for him in the advanced stats section. He was just 43% in possession and while on the ice the team had 3 chances for a 4 against. His team stats may not look too great, but individually, I thought he looked good. That, and scoring a goal will be good enough to get him a spot on our stars of the game. Hope to see more good things out of number 92 as the playoffs go on.