Playing with fire

Last night's game against the Flames was a weird one to watch, for me.  It kept feeling like the Caps were comfortably dominating, then I'd blink and Calgary would score.

Both teams got some really lucky scores.  For Washington, there was MarJo's shot that deflected off a defender, hit the back wall, then got pushed into the goal by Hiller's leg pad when he tried to find it.  Ward's goal went off both of Hiller's legs before going in.  For the Flames, there was Giordano's backhand shot through a wall of defenders that slipped through Holtby's legs when he didn't see it coming.  And there was MarJo's attempt to play the puck to the corner, from in front, that deflected off Brouwer's skate and over Holtby's shoulder.  (MarJo, I guess, got karma coming and going.)

Through it all, Washington kept coming, getting edges in shots for all three periods, while Calgary was leading in blocked shots throughout.

I don't have numbers on missed shots, so I don't know exact numbers on Corsi or Fenwick, but the Caps did improve their full-season CF% and FF%.

Hiller certainly had a good game (other than that MarJo shot), to keep Calgary in the game.  A number of the Caps looked very good; OV, Schmidt (and not just on the one play that got highlighted late), Alzner (who made several very good pinches).  The fourth line also did well, although I still think Beagle should be off the line.  He's where scoring chances go to die (for both teams, which can make him a useful player).  Despite that, he looked pretty good, last night.

Wilson also had a good night, even if he failed to bury a gift-wrapped chance from OV or Backis.  I loved it when he goaded Giordano into matching minors; too bad he couldn't arrange it to be majors.

Anyway, it felt like a good game, but the game ended when a nice passing play from Calgary, in OT, got behind Holtby.  So the ending was quite disappointing.  But I was pretty happy with the game, overall.  I just hope results start matching process, soon.