Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Caps Look Better, Still Lose in OT

Capitals 1, Senators 2 (OT)
Scoresheet

An exciting game; a disappointing outcome. The Caps played hard last night, highlighted by the defensive efforts of Brent Johnson in goal. The only scores in regulation were in the second period: the first by Ottawa's Dany Heatly, followed soon thereafter by a Tomas Fleischmann goal. In the end though, the Senators emerged victorious, when Mike Fisher scored his first goal of the year with just under 40 seconds left in overtime.

Johnny summed it up simply: "It's definitely a tough loss. You want better results any time you can play like that." (Associated Press)

It looks like we've addressed the problem of limiting opponents' goals...now we just need to score more ourselves. Last night, the Caps put up a mere 27 shots to Ottawa's 44. In regulation, the Caps scored once in 25 attempts, and the Senators scored just once in 41. Realizing that there's a difference between good shots and bad shots, and that offensive efficiency shouldn't be derided, the law of averages would suggest that a few more Caps shots could very well have kept this game from going into overtime.

Next game: Thursday at home vs. Carolina.

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