Facing Elimination, the Washington Capitals Insist It s Not Over Yet japersrink.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from japersrink.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Narrative: Low Fives, Burying the Lead and Third Pair, Don’t Care
Three things we’re talking about today when we’re talking about the Caps
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1. Low Fives
During the regular season the, Washington Capitals scored 131 goals at five-on-five (2.3 per game), one great Alex Ovechkin night behind League-leading Vegas’s total of 135. Through three playoff games (really ten periods and change), they’re just a bit below that pace, having managed six tallies at fives, though they’re scoring rate is off by a more significant amount (2.16 goals-for per sixty minutes at five-on-five after clicking at a 2.89 mark during the regular season, a 25 percent drop).
The Narrative: Sam’s On/Off, Ups and Dowds, and Slowvertime
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1. Sam’s On/Off
A surprise Game 3 starter given how well Craig Anderson played in Games 1 and 2, how recently he came off the dreaded COVID list, and other stuff, Ilya Samsonov was terrific. until he wasn’t.
Samsonov stopped 40 of the 43 shots he faced, including 28 of 30 at five-on-five, and saved 1.6 goals “above expectation,” given the shots he saw. Really, he stopped everything he “should” have stopped and then some, often spectacularly, giving the Caps every chance to win Game 3.
And then this happened:
Critical mishap leads to Bruins win over Capitals in two overtimes Follow Us
Question of the Day
For so much of Ilya Samsonov’s night, the 24-year-old goaltender had been stellar.
But a critical miscommunication with defenseman Justin Schultz in the second overtime period Wednesday proved fatal for the Washington Capitals, nullifying all the preceding good. Samsonov gathered a loose puck behind his net, and he waited for Schultz to retrieve it. But Boston Bruins center Craig Smith crashed hard and beat Schultz to the puck.
Then Smith whirled around the net, even as Samsonov rushed back into position. Samsonov had made 40 saves to that point, but he couldn’t make No. 41. Smith flung the puck into the net to send his Boston teammates off the bench into an overtime celebration for the second game.