Capitals: Three Stars Of The Game – Holtby The Lone Standout

Yes, the Washington Capitals lost but we still gotta do this.

How do you pick stars of the game after a game like that? There are games where you can get smoked 6-1 or 6-0 or something like that and it might look better than the Washington Capitals looked vs the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday afternoon.

There were not a lot of Capitals who looked like they cared too much in this one, and that’s something I really don’t like to say. You know these guys care about every game. Some games guys just don’t have it. This was one of those games where pretty much nobody had it. Tough watch for Caps fans.

But, here we are. We’re going to pick our three stars of the game regardless. It wasn’t too easy, but I still think these were the right choices. So here we go…

Braden Holtby

I thought Holtby was the only slam dunk here. Washington didn’t need him all game. The final shot totals for the game had the Flyers at 21 and the Caps at 17. The total shot attempts were a pretty pathetic 25-25. This goes to show Holtby wasn’t peppered all game and the Capitals didn’t rely on him.

That being said, the Capitals lost 3-1 and without Holtby having a very good game himself it could have easily been 6 or 7-1. There was at least three times that Braden Holtby went post to post to rob the Flyers and keep his team at least competitive. Washington did end up getting a goal and making this game somewhat interesting. But for the most part, the only guy that showed up to play that whole game for the Capitals was the guy guarding the goal.

It’s not often you have the goalie who gave up 3 goals in a losing effort being one of the stars of the game. But that’s the case here today. And based on how the Capitals played, this is the only clear choice.

Jakub Vrana

After Holtby we’ll be scraping at the bottom of the barrel to try to find something good. If we’re trying to find “stars” from this game, I suppose Jakub Vrana is as good a choice as anyone. Vrana was pretty much quiet throughout the game, one thing separates him from the rest of the team however.

Vrana had a couple of good chances in the third period that could have made the game very interesting after the Caps fell behind 3-0. The Caps scored to make it 3-1 and if Vrana buries just one of his two or three chances it’s 3-2 and who knows what happens from there.

His advanced stats were alright. His Corsi rating was 63.64%, that led that team. He was also on the ice for three scoring chances for and four scoring chances again.

Again, we’re struggling to name stars here. But that fact that Vrana seemed to wake up in the third period gives him the edge over pretty much everyone else who failed to even do that. It might not be stars of the game quality for most games but for this one Vrana easily cracks our stars compared to the rest of the team.