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The Morning Narrative: Familiar Refrains on Shots, Refs and Holtby

Related Topics: Easter Bunny, Tooth fairy, Narrative

1. Santa Claus. The Easter Bunny. The Tooth Fairy. Moral victories in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

None of these things exist. (Sorry for not providing a spoiler warning at the top of the post.)

That said, the Caps fairly dominated the Game 1 shot counter, and continued dominance like that (however likely or unlikely it may be) would certainly bode well for their chances going forward. To the charts:

Of course the game-winner came off the stick of a guy who had just about the worst game, shot-wise, of any skater for either team. And before you dismiss what the Caps did with a wave of the hand and a “yeah, but score effects,” recall that, in the past, score effects generally shift our expectations of a 50/50 split in unblocked shot attempts to 54/46 when down one and 56/44 when down two; the Caps, per Natural Stat Trick had a 35-16 edge in unblocked shots over the last two periods (a 68.