The phrase, “no rest for the wicked,” comes from the Book of
Isaiah. The NHL’s version of this is “no rest for the playoff hungry.” And so
it is for the Washington Capitals who, despite having won five of six standings
points on their trip to California last week, come home to face two stout
opponents this week in their hunt for a spot in this year’s Stanley Cup
playoffs. No rest indeed.
First up for the Caps is the Los Angeles Kings, a team that
denied the Caps a sweep in California by winning in a trick shot competition,
2-1, at Staples Center last Thursday. The Kings are coming to Washington from
just up I-95, where they battled the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night. That
makes it two games for Los Angeles since they played the Caps, so not much has changed from when we took a look at them in some depth for last week’s game in
southern California. Nevertheless, here is how the two teams compare going into Monday night's games:
1. When Jonathan Quick shutout the Florida Panthers, 4-0, on
Saturday it was his fifth shutout of the season. That placed him in a tie for
second behind Boston’s Tuukka Rask, who has six. It was his 30th career shutout
in 327 appearances. He is one of only 23 goalies in NHL history to record 30 or
more shutouts in his first seven seasons. In each of his last eight blankings
he faced fewer than 30 shots on goal. The shutout also left Quick alone at the
top of the win column in Kings’ history with 172, passing Rogie Vachon for the
top spot.
2. The four goals that the Kings scored against the Panthers
was the first time they scored as many as four goals at home since January 9th
in a 4-2 win over Boston, a span of 14 games.
3. Only Buffalo has scored fewer goals on the road (57) than
the Kings (77); only Minnesota (2.22), Vancouver (2.11), and the Sabres (1.68)
have averaged fewer on the road than Los Angeles (2.26).
4. On the other hand, no team has allowed fewer goals (70)
nor averaged fewer allowed on the road (2.06) than the Kings.
5. Going into Monday’s game in Philadelphia the Kings had
ten straight games with Corsi-for and Fenwick-for percentages at 5-on-5 over 50
percent. The longest such streak with both measures over 50 percent for the
Caps this season: four games, accomplished twice.
1. The Capitals are one of three teams – Calgary and Florida
being the others – to have four goalies play more than 400 minutes this season:
Braden Holtby, Philipp Grubauer, Jaroslov Halak, and Michal Neuvirth.
2. Evgeny Kuznetsov is already among the top 35 rookie
forwards in assists (five). Doubt he will catch Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon
(31) for the top spot.
3. Ten rookie skaters have dressed for the Caps this season,
and eight of them have points. Only Nicolas Deschamps and Cameron Schilling did
not register a point in their brief stints with the big club.
4. If Philipp Grubauer does not get another minute with the
Caps this season (and frankly, if he does, a figurative meteor will have struck
this team) he will have fared well in his rookie season. Among rookie goalies appearing in at least
10 games, Grubauer is second in save percentage (.925) to Los Angeles’ Martin
Jones (.932).
5. So far this season, 11 Capitals have skated 500 or more
minutes in 5-on-5 close score situations. Who leads the team in Corsi-for
relative percentage (their percentage relative to team percentage when they are
not on the ice)? Dmitry Orlov (+9.4) and Mike Green (+7.4). Go figure.
The Peerless’ Players to Ponder
Los Angeles: Mike Richards
Seven times in his nine-year career Mike Richards appeared
in 70 or more games. The only season among them in which he did not reach the
40-point mark was his rookie season in 2005-2006 when he was 11-23-34 in 79
games for the Flyers. He hit the 40-point mark on Saturday against Florida when
he scored late in the first period of a 4-0 win. It is, however, his only point
in his last seven contests. He is just 3-2-5 over his last 20 games. This also
happens to be his worst shooting season (7.0 percent) since his rookie campaign
(6.5 percent). He does not play as prominent a role with Los Angeles as he once
did for Philadelphia, but with almost 650 games in his resume, and recognizing
that he plays hard, spirited minutes, one starts to wonder if things aren’t
beginning to take their toll, at least on his offensive game, even though he is
just 29 years old.
Washington: Jay Beagle
Something strange happened in the second period of the
Capitals’ game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 16th. It started when
Dion Phaneuf scored for Toronto 8:05 into the period to bring the Leafs to
within 3-2 of the Caps. Jay Beagle found himself on the ice on the next shift,
but came off when Jack Hillen took a penalty 27 seconds after the Phaneuf goal.
Then, having seen that penalty killed off, Beagle went off himself on a penalty
a minute after the Hillen penalty expired. The Caps killed that penalty, too,
but on Beagle’s next shift he, who started the game centering a line with Dustin
Penner and Tom Wilson, had new linemates – Alex Ovechkin and Marcus Johansson –
15:33 into the second period.
Except for power plays, that Beagle-Ovechkin-Johansson line
would remain intact for the remainder of the game against Toronto, then be left
intact almost for the entirety of the Caps’ road trip to California. For Beagle
it has no doubt been exciting, but not for his numbers. Consider that over a
five-game period ending with that game against Toronto, Beagle had a cumulative
Corsi-for percentage at 5-on-5 of 61.2, while in his three full games centering
Ovechkin that number dipped to 40.9. Sure, there are factors to consider such
as meshing with an infrequent linemate, facing superior opponents bent on
defending Ovechkin, etc. But is this experiment in matching such different
players working? One could say that “results matter,” and at this time of year
that is as important as it gets. But was the Caps 2-0-1 run through the Golden
State a product of anything Ovechkin or Beagle did as linemates, either at the
offensive or defensive ends? The answer to that question should probably be
answered by wiser hockey minds than ours, but the fact that this line does not have an even strength point in three games, added to the optics and the underlying numbers, suggest that it has not been the case.
Keys:
1. Move the Puck. If the Caps stand around on this team,
they are going to be run over. Make the Kings move their feet, make them move,
period. That will be especially important against a team playing its second
game in two nights and third in four nights, the last two of them three times zones
from home.
2. Quicker Picker-Upper. Going into the land of giants is a
tough chore on this team, but if the Caps are to be successful, it might not be
on first shots taken. They need to follow things up from in close and pick up
loose pucks, whether it is in front of Jonathan Quick or Martin Jones.
3. No peeking. It is scoreboard watching time, and one might
expect the occasional peek at the out of town scoreboard. This is a team that
has focus issues without even adding that nonsense. Eyes front, boys. Focus on
the ice.
In the end…
The Caps have five home games remaining starting with this
contest against the Kings. None of them can be considered easy, especially with
the last three Stanley Cup winning franchises coming to visit, including the
Kings. If the Caps are going to make it to the post-season, they are going to
earn it. The price of lackadaisical play over their first 72 games, there is
little margin for error now, and no mercy to be found from those who come to
visit.
Capitals 2 – Kings 1
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