The Capitals are in the playoffs and the Penguins are not: numbers for the morning after

📸 : RMNB

The Washington Capitals lost their final game of the 2024-25 regular season to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens secured a 5-2 victory over the Caps to even the season series 2-2.

No one on the Caps cared, which they made clear postgame. I think that’s fine…as long as they show up on Monday.

#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Washington Capitals on 2025-04-17

#ALLCAPS

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— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) April 17, 2025 at 9:49 PM

  • As I said in the intro, the Capitals weren’t good in this game with their eyes already on the Montreal Canadiens. Still don’t enjoy seeing them get out-attempted 27-7 and out-chanced 12-3 at five-on-five in the third period, though. I hope they got the rest they needed and can flip the switch in the first round.
  • Clay Stevenson was the poor sacrificial lamb in his NHL debut, making 33 saves on 38 shots faced. Per MoneyPuck, he allowed 1.23 more goals than expected, but I honestly think you can ignore that. I do wonder how Hershey feels seeing their two goaltenders called up to a less-than-invested Caps team and allowing 12 goals in two starts right before the playoffs. Stevenson and Hunter Shepard will always take the chance to play in the NHL, though, and they deserved those two games for their work over the past few years.
  • Alex Ovechkin scored his 897th career goal, extending his own all-time goals record yet again. Ovechkin finishes the regular season with 44 goals in 65 games, which would see him on pace for 56 goals over a full 82-game slate. Leon Draisaitl, this season’s winner of the Rocket Richard Trophy, finished with 52 goals. I am well aware Draisaitl missed 11 games, but still.

Tom Wilson recorded the primary assist on McMichael’s game-opening goal, his 32nd assist of the season. Wilson has recorded at least one point in his last seven games played at PPG Paints Arena (2/1/22-4/17/25: 5g-3a–8p).

— Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) April 17, 2025

  • Dylan Strome grabbed the primary assist on Ovechkin’s goal to give him 82 points (29g, 52a) in 82 games this season. Here’s the list of Capitals with point-per-game seasons in the Ovechkin era (minimum 41 games): Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Mike Green, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Ribeiro, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and now Dylan Strome.
  • Ryan Leonard finishes his first nine NHL games with just the one empty-net goal. He recorded one shot on goal in 16:30 of ice time in Pittsburgh. I think the process is there, and he’d probably have gotten on the scoresheet again in the top six, but that’s not the role he’s filling yet. I think he should be in the Game 1 lineup, but I do wonder how long his overall playoff leash will be.
  • Let’s go, Caps. Next morning numbers is a playoff morning numbers. Vamos.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-ReferenceNaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.

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