Coming into the 2017-18 season, Capitals backup Philipp Grubauer was thought as one of the better backup goaltenders in the league.
There was speculation that the Caps could've lost Grubauer in the expansion draft to the Vegas Golden Knights. Smooth skating defenceman Nate Schmidt was instead selected, leaving the Capitals strong goaltending duo of Braden Holtby and Grubauer intact.
Grubauer put up terrific numbers for the president-winning Capitals last season. In 24 games including 19 starts, the 25-year-old ‘tendy posted a 13-6-2 record with a .926 save percentage and 2.04 goals against average.
This season hasn’t been so good for the German. Winless in four games in which he’s started the second half of all the Caps’ back-to-backs, Grubauer wasn’t pleased with his performance following a 3-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.
The high scoring Caps have failed to provide much offensive spark in Grubauer’s starts this season.
Talk about a lack of run support. You can see why his frustrations boiled over.
While this is likely just a rough and unlucky stretch to start the season for the Caps backup, there's no doubt Grubauer needs to be better, as his 3.70 goals against average and .886 save percentage is well below league average.
(h/t Isabelle Khurshudyan)
