Record: 2-0-0
Week 15 was the sixth perfect week out of 15 this season for
the Caps. It was the seventh in which
they did not lose a game in regulation.
The Caps finished the week 16 points clear of the New York Rangers in
the Metropolitan Division and 14 points ahead of the Florida Panthers in the
Eastern Conference. In defeating two
Metropolitan Division rivals in the New York Rangers and the Columbus Blue
Jackets, the Caps reached the 11-win mark against divisional opponents. They finished the week as the only team in
the league with double-digit win totals against two different divisions, 16-3-0
against the Atlantic Division and 11-3-1 against the Metropolitan Division.
Offense: 5.50/game
(season: 3.33 /game; rank: 1st)
A two-game week is a light week, workload-wise, but an
11-goal week looked a lot like a full week’s worth of output. With the Caps lighting up the Rangers for
five goals and the Blue Jackets for six, the Caps now have 12 games this season
in which they scored five or more goals.
They had 13 all of last season (not including Gimmick results). The Caps lead the league in games with five
or more goals scored.
Individually, the scoring was a bit clustered, but that
might be more a function of the 11 goals coming over just two games. There were guys who were hot. Six Capitals shared the 11 goals, Justin
Williams leading the way with three goals, all of them recorded in a hat trick
against the Rangers to start the week. Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and
Marcus Johansson each had a pair of goals.
Twelve different Caps recorded points for the week, seven of them with
multi-point weeks. Evgeny Kuznetsov led the
team with six points, all of them assists, including four in the 6-3 win over
Columbus. Williams finished the week
with five points (3-2-5).
Defense: 2.50/game (season: 2.15 /game; rank:1st)
Another week, another week of not allowing more than three
goals in a game. This despite allowing
the Rangers 33 shots on goal and the Blue Jackets35 shots on goal. What looked like a good start to the new
calendar year in that regard – opening January with a pair of sub-30 shots
against games – has slipped some. The
two games over 30 shots allowed make it five in their last seven in which the Caps
have allowed 30 or more shots to opponents.
It was not really much of a score-effect result, either. The Caps allowed 24 of the Rangers’ 33 shots
over the first two periods, after which they held just a 3-2 lead. They allowed Columbus double-digit shot
totals in each of the three periods of the 6-3 win.
If you’re looking at individuals, the Matt Kiskanen/Karl
Alzner defensive pair was on ice for three of the five goals against for the
week, two of them at 5-on-5, one while shorthanded. Taylor Chorney and Ryan Stanton were on ice
for two goals, both at even strength against Columbus. Among the forwards, it was Jason Chimera and
Tom Wilson on ice for most goals against, with three apiece.
It was not an especially good week, possession-wise. The Caps were 84 shot attempts to the good,
97 to the bad at 5-on-5, a Corsi-for of 46.4 percent overall. That was a disappointment after posting a plus-50
percent Corsi-for in each of their previous three games and 55.9 percent
overall. It was not any better in close
score situations, where the Caps were 40.7 over the two games (numbers from war-on-ice.com).
Goaltending: 2.50 /.926 (season: 2.04 / .929 / 2 shutouts)
As Braden Holtby finished Week 14, so did he start Week 15 –
relieved by Philipp Grubauer. Late in
the second period of the Caps 5-2 win over the New York Rangers, Holtby took himself
out of the contest with what was later described as symptoms of
dehydration. Grubauer slammed the door
in his unplanned stint, stopping all 11 shots he faced in 22 minutes and change
of work.
Holtby returned to the ice to face Columbus in the second
game of the week, and while he was not quite as sharp as fans have come to
expect of him this season, he played well enough to keep the game from ever
being in much doubt. It left him in the
unaccustomed position of finishing a week with a personal goals against average
over 3.00 (3.07 to be exact) and a sub-.920 save percentage (.912).
For Grubauer it was another case of filling in the gaps in
expert fashion. With his 11-for-11
effort against the Rangers, he is 3-1-0, 1.36, .955 over his last six appearances.
Power Play: 4-for-6 / 66.7 percent (season: 27.1 percent;
rank: 1st)
“Cool efficiency “ does not describe the Capitals’ power
play in Week 15. “White-hot efficiency”
seems a more apt description. Four power
play goals on just six power play chances in two games. It was quite an eruption for a team that
finished Week 14 with their first consecutive games without a power play goal
in the 2016 portion of the season.
Three Caps divided up the four goals, Alex Ovechkin
recording a pair, and Nicklas Backstrom and Marcus Johansson each recording
one. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Matt Niskanen
each finished the week with three power play assists.
It is part of an important change in deployment the Caps
have used recently, involving the movement of the forward occupying the goal
line extended to the goalie’s left to a position at the top of the crease. The move appears to have created a headache
for defensemen trying to decide whether to cheat and lean toward Ovechkin in
the left wing circle, or pay sufficient attention to the man at the top of the
crease who is in position to redirect a centering pass, precisely what happened
on the power play goals by Johansson against the Rangers and Backstrom against
the Blue Jackets. If you factor in that
Ovechkin had the other two power play goals, the Caps seem to have given
opponents a whole new scenario to give them fits.
It was not an especially efficient week from a shooting
perspective, the Caps managing seven shots on goal in 8:31 of power play time
(0.82 shots per minute). But their shots
were of such high-quality that it hardly mattered. The Caps are still at least a step ahead over
their opponents in this regard.
Penalty Killing: 6-for-7 / 85.7 percent (season: 84.9
percent; rank: 6th)
It was a pretty good week for the Caps on the penalty kill,
posting a mark over 85 percent after dropping under that threshold in Week
14. It was a very uneven week,
though. Against the Rangers to open the
week the Caps did a fine job a man short, holding the Rangers to four shots on
four power plays over 7:40 in power play time.
Against the Blue Jackets, the Caps – Braden Holtby, specifically – found
themselves in a shooting gallery.
Columbus recorded ten shots on goal (scoring once) in 4:20 of power play
ice time (2.30 shots per minute). Still,
it is results that count, at least in the context of a single week, and one
goal in seven chances is a decent result.
Faceoffs: 71-for-134 / 53.0 percent (season: 50.2% / rank: 13th)
It was a good week overall in the circle for the Caps,
divided into a very good start and a less than good finish. The Caps dominated the Rangers in the opening
game of the week, winning 42 of 71 draws (59.2 percent). They went just 29 for 63 against the Blue
Jackets in the second game of the week.
The Caps were consistent across the zones for the week, winning 53.5
percent of their offensive zone draws, 52.0 percent of faceoffs in the
defensive end, and winning 53.7 percent of faceoffs taken in neutral ice.
On an individual level, it was the new guy who impressed most. Mike Richards won 22 of 34 faceoffs (64.7
percent), going over 50 percent in all three zones. The surprise was Evgeny Kuznetsov being the
only other Capital taking at least ten draws to finish the week over 50
percent, going 16 for 29 (55.2 percent).
Goals by Period:
The Caps won every period and won the week by period. By the end of the week they remained the only
team in the league with double-digit goal differentials in each of the three
periods of games, and they enjoyed better than plus-20 goal differentials in
the second (plus-21) and third (plus-21) periods of games.
If there was a smudge on the record in Week 15, it was the
manner in which the two goals against were scored in the first periods of
games. In both games for the week the
Caps allowed the first goal. The good
part of that was that it was the only goal either the Rangers or the Blue
Jackets would score in the opening frame.
In the end…
With two wins in Week 15, the Caps reached the 35-win
mark. That ranks 26th in wins
for a season in team history, which might not sound like much, given that this
is the Caps’ 41st season.
But that is after just 46 games.
Their points percentage (.793) is unmatched in club history, not even by
the 2009-2010 Presidents Trophy winners that posted a 54-15-13 mark for 121
points (.738 points percentage. This
club is on a pace to finish with 130 points.
Will they finish with such an impressive total of standings
points? Who knows? Injuries, slumps, the odd snow storm could
pierce the momentum the Caps established and sustained over the first 46 games
of the season, but one reason that they have been able to sustain that momentum
is that they show no inclination but to take each game – each week – at a
time. Week 15 was an example of that.
Three Stars:
- First Star: Justin Williams (3-2-5, plus-5, eight shot attempts, six shots on goal
- Second Star: Evgeny Kuznetsov (0-6-6, 55.2 percent faceoffs)
- Third Star: Matt Niskanen (0-3-3, plus-1, 11 shot attempts, eight shots on goal, almost 27 minutes average ice time)
