Washington Capitals: Three Stars Of The Game – On To The Playoffs
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.
T.J. Oshie
With players failing to stand out, at least in a good way, you have to look at stat sheets and key plays to fill out a stars of the game list. While nothing about T.J. Oshie‘s stats will scream out at you, he did have a goal, and it was a pretty unique goal I suppose you could say.
🍩shbabe!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/wjOkV27rKR
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) August 9, 2020
It wasn’t a goal you’ll see over and over again on the highlights, but personally, I loved it. Late in the first period after a shot did not go in, Chara attempted to carry the puck either to the corner or behind the net. Oshie decided that was a bad idea so he knocked the puck off of his stick and into the goal it went. Again, not the prettiest goal, but a very heads up play.
As for his other stats, nothing too special. While Oshie was on the ice, the Caps had 15 shot attempts for a 21 against putting him on the wrong side of 50%. Washington also had 8 chances for and 8 against with Oshie on the ice. He was one of just five Caps to have a scoring chance for percentage of 50% or higher.
Other stats for Oshie, he had 3 shots to go along with his goal, he had 2 individual scoring chances, 2 high danger attempts, which led the team, and also went 4 for 4 on faceoffs while 5v5. Not a bad afternoon for him.
It surely wasn’t his best game, but in a game that lacked standouts, Oshie is a fine choice for one of our stars of the game.
Alex Ovechkin
I suppose if you don’t have anyone who clearly deserves to be on a stars list you could just put Tom Wilson here thanks to him scoring a goal, and a nice goal at that. Other that that, I didn’t notice Wilson much and for me, that’s a huge factor. I did notice Alex Ovechkin several times thanks to him having a few chances. The stats back me up there as well.
There were no goals from “the Great Eight” this time out but he still put up five shots and some of those required Tuuka Rask to make a good save. Ovechkin also more than doubled up the next highest total of scoring chances on his team. He ended the day with 5 scoring chances while the next highest was 2 which was shared by Michal Kempny and Oshie.
Ovechkin was also one of just four Capitals to finish the day with a positive possession number. While on the ice Washington had 17 attempts for with 14 against. They also had 11 chances for and 7 against.
light. More. Capitals defeat Bruins in Round Robin finale
This is obviously far from Ovechkin’s best game. Anytime he doesn’t score it’s almost surprising. But today, it wasn’t for a lack of trying. He had chances, he just got beat by Rask. No shame there, especially when your team walks out winners. With a lack of standouts once again, Ovechkin is as good a pick as anyone to be one of our stars of the game.