Washington Capitals: Three Stars Of The Game – On To The Playoffs
By CJ Witt
Last Washington Capitals Stars of the Game before the playoffs.
It’s our last stars of the game before the playoffs start. I think I can say, thank goodness for that. As great as some of the hockey has been around the NHL during this “return to play” phase, the round robin games have been somewhat lackluster.
Maybe that shouldn’t be incredibly shocking. These teams are in the playoffs already, they just want to warm up again and try to stay as healthy as possible for when the real games begin later this week. It’s definitely had that feel anyways.
The Capitals finished up their round robin play vs the Boston Bruins on Sunday afternoon and finally got in the win column. Still far from perfect, but a win nonetheless.
If you’re asking me, which of course everyone in the world should be, not many players stood out once again in this final game. That makes picking stars of the game difficult again, but we’ll manage.
Braden Holtby
Braden Holtby made our last stars of the game list as well, and he’ll make it for a similar reason this time around. Holtby didn’t have to be “lights out” and steal the game vs Boston on Sunday. Instead, I thought he looked really, really solid and hard to beat.
Holtby took a shutout late into the third period and the only shot that ended up beating him was a bit of a broken play and an incredibly quick shot off that broken play by Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk.
Other than that goal that he couldn’t do much about, he was perfect. He had 30 saves on 31 shots against. He faced more and more pressure as the game went along. He had 6 shots against in the first, 10 in the second and 15 shots in the final frame.
While 5v5 Holtby had 9 high danger shots against and saved 8 of those shots.
It might not be the flashiest thing you’ll see from a goalie to land himself on a stars of the game list. But to me, Holtby looked locked in and made some tough saves look pretty easy. The team around him played OK, he didn’t have to stand on his head, just make saves, and he made plenty of them.