Barrie Trotz must have been reading yesterday when I ripped him for having the objectively terrible Devonte Pelly-Smith (hyphenated names are annoying too) on his first line, because in what is one of his best moves of the season, Trotz scratched Smith last night.
Why you'd ever have a player you could even potentially scratch playing with Alex Ovechkin is beyond my pay grade. I leave you to figure that mystery out for yourself.
Back in the game - and I can't believe they ever scratched him, as he's one of their best players - was Alex Burakovsky. Of course it was on the fourth line, and..........whatever.
It didn't last. Though he started with Beagle and Stephenson, Burakovsky eventually ended up getting playing the most last night with Kuznetsov, and he had a great game and was the Capitals third-most used forward at 5v5, which is how it should be.
Man oh man, if I was the GM of another team and I saw the Capitals healthy-scratching Burakovsky, and knowing how precarious their cap situation is, I'd be all over that. Not to mention he's an absolute bargain at $3 million and signed for another season. He didn't score last night, but he did put up a 63% possession rating that was +30% relative to his team.
If Burakovsky was the Caps best player last night (along with Djoos and Carlson) then the worst was Orpik and Madison Bowey.
Everything Christian Djoos has been in his rookie season, Bowey has been the opposite. O goals, 8 assists, a 45% CF rating, and 32 shots against per 60. He's not Brooks "36 shots against per 60" Orpik, but he's pretty bad. And the Capitals play them together, like a couple of puke-coloured Power Rangers, they team up to be worse than one player could possibly be together. When paired, which is most of the time, they rock a terrible 43% CF rating, and unbelievably, Orpik actually gets worse if paired with anyone else.
By the way, the Capitals lost for the second straight night, and they were, for the second straight night, absolutely dominated.
Here is an interesting chart, courtesy of @chartinghockey:
PDO breakdown
I'm worried about what will happen to Nyi when their shooting dries up. I'm also worried about what will happen to the NHL when Pit's bad luck dries up. pic.twitter.com/NY4PeDtV4q
This chart shows visual proof of what I've been saying for months: the Capitals are the luckiest team in the NHL. But to be fair, last year they were only prevented from winning the Stanley Cup due to terrible luck. They are essentially owed this year's good luck, so I'm not complaining.
This chart (below) shows that the Capitals are a team that is bad at preventing shots and bad at getting shots. It shows them as one of the NHL's worst teams, and they are plotted as both bad defensively and boring offensively.
In this light, it's amazing to think of their actual record, which has them first in the Metro. The play of Braden Holtby has been so underrated this year, in part because I think people expect Washington to be good, and so because they've had great results, no one has noticed.
Intersting stuff. If the Capitals want to get better, they should just replace their bottom pairing with any two AHL randos and they should continue to give ice time to Burakovsky.
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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