Washington Capitals vs Islanders: What We Have Learned Through Two Games

The Capitals need better goaltending

Let me get this straight. I know the goaltending position for the Capitals has been a touchy subject this season. I am in no way blaming Holtby for how this series has gone so far. You could maybe blame him for game 1, but he’s not alone in the blame for that game. It’s not that Holtby has been awful, he just needs to be a bit better.

So far in the playoffs, in the five games that Braden Holtby has played, he has a 3.21 goals against average and a .887 save percentage. I’m going to go out on a limb and say those numbers are not going to get it done. So far in these playoffs Holtby has given up 16 goals, that the fourth most in the league in this restart.

Holtby also has a high danger save percentage of .739, that is ninth worst in the league. Something I’d like to point out here is that Holtby has faced 46 high danger shots, that’s the fourth most. The goalies around him have all played a full game more than him as well. Of the 16 goals against Holtby so far, 12 are high danger.

Just to compare, lets look at Semyon Varlamov’s stats. He has a 1.85 GAA, a .929 save percentage, and a .850 high danger save percentage. He has 40 high danger shots against in 6 games played.

Again, this is not on Holtby alone. This is a full team issue. Holtby is a part of this team and in my opinion, he has to be better. If the team continues to play the way they are now, they’ll need Holtby to be a ton better and probably even steal this series.