A look at the Spiderman meme in action
13 – Number of games in which the Capitals have earned at least a point against the Penguins over the last 5 seasons, out of 20 games played since the start of the 2018-19 season.
The two longtime rivals have been fairly even overall in that timeframe, with the Penguins holding the slight series edge thanks to four more overtime victories.
In those 20 head-to-head matchups, the Caps have scored 68 goals to the Penguins 67; they’ve given up 14 power-play goals (on 68 times shorthanded) and allowed three shorthanded goals, while scoring nine power-play goals (on 59 opportunities) and four shorthanded goals. The Caps have the slight edge in game-opening tallies, scoring first 12 times to the Penguins’ 8 and going 6-4-2 when picking up the game’s first goal.
Neither team’s goalies have been particularly stout – or at least the game-changer – in these matchups over the last five years; in fact, Ilya Samsonov has the best save percentage out of the 7-man group (4 Caps, 3 Pens) at .908.
On the other side of the puck, Pittsburgh’s Jake Guentzel leads all skaters on either team with 10 goals in these games, despite having played in only 16 of them; T.J. Oshie, Tom Wilson and Lars Eller share the team lead for the Caps with seven goals apiece. 28 different skaters have picked up at least a point for the Caps over this span, while it’s up to 37 for the Penguins.
And then there is an elite group of players who have played, and scored at least a point, for both teams since 2018:
- Daniel Sprong (6 points in 7 games with WSH, 1 point in 1 game with PIT)
- Conor Sheary (6 points in 10 games with WSH, 1 point in 1 game with PIT)
- Justin Schultz (4 points in 12 games with WSH, 4 points in 5 games with PIT)
…and special honorable mention to Carl Hagelin, who picked up 6 points in 15 games with WSH but 0 points in his 2 games with PIT over the last five years.