Week 8 was not a perfect week for the Washington Capitals,
but it was a good week. A very good
week. Arguably their best week of the
season. Because as much as the how many,
it was the how, and as much as the how, it was the who the wins were forged
against.
Record: 3-1-0
The Caps had their fifth straight non-losing week (over
which they are 10-6-0) and their winningest week of the season with three
victories. That they would have as
successful a week as they did was surprising in the context of a season in
which stringing together wins consistently has been a challenge. Coming into Week 8, the four teams that the
Caps would face had a combined record of 48-22-8. When the Caps dropped their opener in the
week to the Calgary Flames, 4-1, to end a five-game home winning streak, things
looked bleak for a club hovering along the .500 mark for the season. But righting the ship in their other two home
games – wins over the Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning – gave them seven
wins in their last eight contests at home, outscoring teams by a 24-15
margin. Beating the Toronto Maple Leafs
on the road at Air Canada Centre ended a three-game road losing streak.
It was a bit of an odd week in that it extended some
patterns, good and bad. When the Caps
lost to the Flames to open the week, it was Washington’s third loss in their
last four games against the Flames on home ice (1-1-2). The win against Ottawa gave the Caps a 9-1-1
record against the Senators over their last 11 meetings overall. The win against Tampa extended the Caps’
record to 13-1-3 in their last 17 meetings overall against the Lightning and
22-2-2 in their last 26 meetings in Washington. The Caps have not lost
consecutive games to Tampa Bay on home ice since the 2006-2007 season. And the win over Toronto to end the week
brought the Caps’ record to 11-3-1 against the Maple Leafs in their last 15
meetings overall.
Offense: 3.25/game (season: 2.88/game, rank: 17th)
Scoring three or more games to end the week does not sound
particularly impressive, but it marked the first time that the Caps scored
three or more goals in three consecutive games since Games 13-15, and it was
only the third time this season that they cobbled together three straight games
with three or more goals (they have not had a four-game streak).
There was a significant personnel adjustment in Week 8, the
pair of Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin being reunited to open the second
game of the week, that against the Senators.
The move bore early dividends with Backstrom starting a play late in his
own end that would be the secondary assist in a goal by Ovechkin with 5.0
seconds left in the first period to give the Caps a 2-0 lead on their way to a
5-2 win. Before the week was out,
Backstrom assisted on four of the five goals scored by Ovechkin.
Ovechkin led the team and finished second in the league for
the week in goals with five (Vegas’ William Karlsson had six), while Jakub
Vrana had three for the Caps. They were
the multiple goal scorers in a week in which seven Caps shared in the goal
scoring. Ovechkin had three of his goals
in the 4-2 win over Toronto to end the week, taking over the franchise record
for hat tricks with 20 (Peter Bondra had 19).
The hat trick was his third of the season, tying his all-time best for a
season, accomplished in two previous seasons (2007-2008 and 2008-2009). Those 20 career hat tricks are more than any
NHL’er has posted since the 1994-1995 lockout (Bondra: 17).
Fourteen different skaters recorded points, led by Ovechkin
and T.J. Oshie with five apiece, all of Ovechkin’s coming on goals and all of
Oshie’s on assists. Seven different
Capitals had multiple-point games, Oshie being the only one who had a pair.
Defense: 2.25/game (season: 3.00/game, rank: T-12th)
The Caps set another team best on the defensive side of the
ledger. In allowing only five goals over
the last three games of the week, it marked the first time this season that
Washington allowed opponents two or fewer goals in three consecutive
games. Through 25 games last season the
Caps had already accomplished the feat three times.
A key was keeping shots on goal down. After allowing 39 shots in the 4-1 loss to
Calgary, the Caps allowed Ottawa, Tampa Bay, and Toronto a total of just 86
shots (28.7 per game). Not that was a
particularly good week in terms of shots against. Only the Anaheim Ducks allowed more shot
attempts at 5-on-5 than did the Caps (287 to 199), and they did it in five
games to four for the Caps. Their shot
attempt differential at fives was fourth-worst in the league (minus-29), as was
their shot attempts-for percentage (46.07; all numbers from NHL.com). Part of the result might have been due to
score effects, the Caps over 50 percent in SAT%-close against Tampa Bay (53.57
percent) and Ottawa (54.29 percent), but using that to explain away a
challenging week is a stretch.
One might say that no one Capital or group of them was
exploited in an unusual fashion (except perhaps Brooks Orpik, who was on ice
for six of the nine goals scored against the Caps for the week), but on the
other hand, 17 skaters being on ice for at least one goal against spoke to a
kind of sharing about which one does not get excited.
Goaltending: 2.28 / .928 (season: 2.87 / .910)
It was a good week overall.
Even the opening goal of the week was not quite awful, Braden Holtby
having to face 39 shots, allowing four goals.
Holtby was better after that in facing a bit lighter workload, stopping
56 of 59 shots (.949 save percentage) in his last two appearances of the week.
Those appearances bookended an appearance by Philipp Grubauer, who got the rare
front end of a back-to-back set of games, and at home to boot. It might have seemed a bit of a sacrificial
offering, given that Grubauer, who had yet to win a game this season, would be
going against the team with the best record in the league in the Tampa Bay
Lightning. And when the Lightning scored
just 82 seconds into the game, it looked as if Grubauer’s troubles would
continue. However, Grubauer stopped the
last 23 shots he faced, and the Caps rallied to a 3-1 win to give him his first
win of the season.
Power Play: 2-for-10 / 20.0 percent (season: 20.7 percent,
rank: 14th)
It was something of an average week for the Caps, although
it was the third consecutive week of 20 percent or better in power play
efficiency after a pair of weeks drawing blanks. If there was a down side to finishing at 20
percent, it was having that efficiency achieved as a result of only ten
opportunities in four games. In that
sense it was an odd week. Even with the
Caps enjoying only seven power play chances in three home games for the week,
their 46 power play opportunities on home ice ended the week tied for
eighth-most in the league. That they
were just one for seven in those chances was not unusual in the context of this
season, the Caps’ 15.2 percent efficiency on home ice ending the week 24th
in the league.
The Caps did not lack for shooting effort on their
infrequent power plays. In 16:56 of power play time for the week, they recorded
20 shots on goal. Even in just 48
seconds of power play time on their lone power play against Ottawa, one that
ended in one of the two goals, they had three shots on goal. Alex Ovechkin did not have one of those three
shots on goal against the Senators, but he did have nine of the 20 shots for
the week to lead the club.
Penalty Killing: 9-for-12 / 75.0 percent (season: 77.3
percent, rank: 23rd)
It was another week in which if the Caps were not perfect,
they were not good. Twice in eight weeks the Caps have been perfect in killing
penalties. In the other six weeks,
including Week 8, the Caps did not reach the 80 percent kill level. On another level, though, it was not such a
bad week. Three of the teams the Caps
faced – Tampa Bay (1st), Toronto (10th), and Calgary (11th)
finished the week among the top dozen teams in the league on the power
play.
They were burned as much by opportunities allowed against
the Flames (five) as any technical shortcomings. The flip side of that is that the Caps held
the last three opponents for the week to a total of just seven power play
chances and held the Maple Leafs to a single chance on their ice.
The Caps might have been better in allowing shots, but given
the quality of power plays faced it was not a bad week. In 19:53 of shorthanded ice time, the
Capitals allowed three goals on 21 shots, and it was only against Calgary,
against whom the Caps skated 8:42 shorthanded, that they allowed more than a
shot per minute (11, on which two goals were scored).
Faceoffs: 125-for-232 / 53.9 percent (season: 51.7 percent,
rank: 8th)
Overall, it was a good week for the Caps in the circle, not
so much in the particulars. Winning the
offensive (55.0 percent) and defensive ends (56.9 percent) by wide margins and the
week overall (53.9 percent) were positive developments, but the entire week
boils down to an uncommonly dominant effort against the Tampa Bay
Lightning. In that 3-1 win over the
Lightning, the Caps were 40-for-18 on draws (69.0 percent). For the other three games they were just
85-for-174 (48.9 percent).
It was similar by zone, the Caps winning 11 of 15 in the
offensive zone against Tampa Bay, but going just 22-for-45 in the other three
games. In the defensive end it was
18-for-23 against the Lightning, but just 36-for-72 in the other three
contests.
Individually, Jay Beagle had the best week, finishing
31-for-49 (63.3 percent). He was all but
unbeatable in the defensive end against Tampa Bay, finishing the game 12-for-13. The defensive end was an odd place for Beagle
in Week 8, alternating games with a 50-plus win percentage (against Calgary and
Tampa Bay) with less than 50 percent games (against Ottawa and Toronto). Among the other Caps with at least ten draws
taken, Nicklas Backstrom (51.4 percent), Lars Eller (56.0 percent), and T.J.
Oshie (57.1 percent) finished over 50 percent, while Evgeny Kuznetsov (43.6
percent) was underwater for the week.
Goals by Period:
It was a week in which the Caps generally started well in
games but finished sluggishly.
Washington scored first period goals in all four games and scored first
in three of them. They posted
multiple-goal totals in two of the games, both of which ended in wins (Ottawa
and Toronto).
At the other end, the Caps allowed five third period goals
for the week, those coming over the course of three of the four games, two of
them breaking a game open in favor of the Flames to open the week and another
pair coming in the Toronto game to end the week that made what was a 3-0 game a
lot more interesting than perhaps it should have been.
The goal differential of minus-2 in the third periods of
games in Week 8 might make things look better than they were. All three third period goals scored by the
Caps were of the empty net variety – Alex Chiasson against Ottawa, Jay Beagle
against Tampa Bay, and Alex Ovechkin getting the hat trick against Toronto.
In the end…
The Caps finished Week 8 with a three-win week on a schedule
that featured three teams eligible for the postseason at week’s end, wins over
Tampa Bay and Toronto and a loss to Calgary.
That they swept all three games in a three-games-in-four-nights stretch,
interrupted by the Thanksgiving holiday, says something about the team’s focus
this week.
Finishing the week as the first wild card team
in the Eastern Conference is a good thing, made better because while they hold
a three-point lead over the New York Rangers and a five-point lead over the
Boston Bruins – the teams just under the playoff cutoff line – the Rangers hold
two games in hand on the Caps, while the Bruins hold four games in hand.
Still, it was a very good week for the Caps, a nice holiday
present for their fans and for one fan in particular, a week for which we might offer some thanks as the Caps get a few days off
before starting a five-game home stand this Thursday against the Los Angeles
Kings.
Three Stars:
- First Star: Alex Ovechkin (5-0-5, plus-3, 21 shots on goal, 31 shot attempts, 20th career hat trick (passed Peter Bondra to set team record), 7 hits)
- Second Star: Jakub Vrana (3-1-4, plus-3, 1 GWG, 10 shots on goal, 13 shot attempts, 62.50 shots attempts-for percentage at 5-on-5)
- Third Star: T.J. Oshie (0-5-5, plus-2, 9 hits, 4 blocked shots)
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