1. The Good
Aside from, y’know, scoring an actual goal or two, Game 3’s first period was almost certainly the Caps’ best of the series so far (though we’d hear arguments for the middle stanza of Game 2). The Caps outshot Carolina 8-5 at five-on-five, out-attempted them in a period for the first time all series (19-18), and had an 8-1 edge in high-danger chances. And because it wasn’t all LDHS, the Caps amassed 1.54 expected goals at fives in the first period, comfortably the highest total for either team in series’ now nine-plus periods.
Graphically, that dominance looked like this:
On the scoreboard, however, it looked like this:
As so often happens, the Caps’ inability to capitalize on that strong start would come back to bite ’em, right, Coach?