Final Score: Capitals 6 – Blue Jackets 3
Game Summary
Well Washington is a very good team and the Jackets are well not so good. Worst part of the game was the Jackets didn’t play that poorly at 5 on 5. Special teams and Braden Holtby killed them.
Holtby is the clear Vezina favourite at this point in the season. He has been very good all year and the Jackets saw firsthand why. Despite the score the Jackets played pretty well. They had more shots, shot attempts and scoring chances. Holtby stood tall making 32 saves, finishing with a .914 save percentage. He also made eight high danger saves.
At the other end of the rink Sergei Bobrovsky had a rough go. This was his first game back from his injury and you couldn’t have a tougher matchup outside of maybe Dallas. He was clearly a little rusty but the team in front of him made some costly mistakes. Overall though the defense was quite good only allowing 11 scoring chances. Bob can and needs to be better.
I talked about this last time the Jackets played the Caps. The Caps have the best PP in the league and you cannot give them chances at all. Last time the Jackets were quite lucky to only allow two goals. This time they were quite unlucky to allow two goals. The Jackets only gave the Caps two power play opportunities. Unfortunately they were on one penalty, a Justin Falk double minor, and the Caps converted twice. It’s time to end the Falk Dalton Prout experiment. They have been a mess and are not NHL regulars. Falk took the bad penalty and Prout made some sloppy plays that lead to chances and goals against. Unless this is a tank move they have no reason to be in the NHL. Fedor Tyutin is a much better option than both of them and should be playing. If the Jackets hope to move him by the deadline they need him to be playing.
Scott Hartnell was a healthy scratch for this game. He took a bad penalty chirping the Avs bench on Saturday causing the Jackets to take a too many men penalty. Hartnell apologized to the team Monday at practice, but John Tortorella felt that wasn’t enough and decided to scratch him anyway.
With Hartnell out Josh Anderson was on the top line alongside Wennberg and Brandon Saad. He only played 14:18 in the game as he did not get any special teams time. He was not effective in this role either, finishing with just one shot and an awful 35.29% Corsi. Worst part of this was he also dragged down Alexander Wennberg who had a 35% Corsi. Those two were the worst on the team outside of Jarod Boll. Anderson on the top line was a curious decision as nothing about his play screams top line forward. His potential is as a grinding middle guy who chips in a few goals.
The other young winger Kerby Rychel had himself a game to remember. He scored his first NHL goal on a great feed by William Karlsson.
that was his first career NHL goal, congrats! pic.twitter.com/hZLShoG5a9
— Stephanie (@myregularface) January 20, 2016Rychel also added an assist and had four shots on goal. He now has four points in his last five games. If someone new should be getting a shot on the top line it should be Rychel, he's earned it.
Stat of the Night
Stats courtesy of HockeyStats.ca and War On Ice.
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