Islanders 4, Capitals 1 [Stanley Cup Playoff Game 1 Stats]

The New York Islanders took on the Washington Capitals in the first game of the Stanley Cup playoffs. If things go the way they did last night for the rest of the playoffs, the Islanders are going to be sitting very pretty. They outshot the Capitals, had better scoring chances and had better goaltending on route to a four to one victory.  Brock Nelson was saving all of his goals for the playoffs, apparently, as he outscored the Capitals by himself.

The Box Score

Nick Leddy led the team in possession at an even 70 percent Corsi, while Johnny Boychuk was second with 62.2 percent.  The fourth line of Matt Martin, Cal Clutterbuck and Casey Cizikas lead the forwards despite some difficult zone starts.

The only player with negative possession for the Islanders was Nikolay Kulemin, who had a less than stellar game at even strength despite having favorable zone starts.  He was effective on the penalty kill though, as only two Corsi attempts were registered in over two minutes of P.K. time.  Brian Strait was last in possession for defensemen, but he was positive overall and the Capitals registered no shots in his minute of P.K. time.

For the Capitals, Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson were the only players in the positives. Ovechkin had seven scoring chances and the Islanders thwarted all of them. As Ovechkin goes, so do the Capitals and this one looked pretty easy for the NYI.

Karl Alzner was the worst Capital on the ice tonight. He and Matt Niskanen were victimized for three goals against while on the ice, and Alzner finished with the lowest relative Corsi on the team. Curtis Glencross was also rather terrible.

The difference between the two goalies was night and day. Jaroslav Halak stopped everything but one of his own gaffes on route to a .960 save percentage. Braden Holtby faced one more shot and gave up two additional goals.  If that keeps up, then the Islanders would win this series pretty easily.