Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was - Week 18

Week 18 for the Washington Capitals was not as bad as it could have been, they did win a game.  But losing a pair to divisional rivals and relinquishing the hold they had on the top spot in the league standings made for a week that would have been forgettable but for the Captain closing in on another career milestone.

Record: 1-2-0

The Caps went the first 12 weeks of the season without posting a losing record for a week, but with their 1-2-0 record in Week 18 they have two losing weeks in their last six, matching the number of winning weeks and the number of break-even weeks.  Over those six weeks the Caps have a record of 10-8-0, their .556 winning percentage over that span ranking just 15^th in the league.  The best that can be said for that is that they are in good company, resting three percentage points ahead of the St. Louis Blues, last year’s Stanley Cup champions, over the same span (.553/9-7-3). 

What makes this week even worse is losing to a pair of divisional opponents – the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers – bringing their season record against the Metropolitan Division to 9-9-1 and just 4-5-1 on home ice.  And speaking of home ice, the Caps 1-2-0 record at Capital One Arena for the week brought their home record to 16-8-4 overall (10^th in the league in points percentage at .643), but having lost three of their last four on home ice.

Offense: 3.00/game (season: 3.56/3rd)

It was not an impressive week on offense, nor was it a disaster, nine goals in three games on home ice being more or less middle-of-the-road in the NHL.  The distribution was not impressive, either.  Alex Ovechkin led the team with three, all of them coming in a hat trick in the Caps’ 4-2 win over Los Angeles in the middle game of the week to bring him within two goals of 700 for his career.  Evgeny Kuznetsov and Lars Eller added a pair apiece, and T.J. Oshie and John Carlson rounded out the goal scoring.  What the Caps did not get was top-six contributions from Jakub Vrana, Tom Wilson, or Nicklas Backstrom, none of whom had a goal.  Backstrom extended his streak without a goal to five games and has one goal in his last ten contests.  Vrana extended his own streak without a goal to five games, and Wilson has four goals in his last 20 games.

The Caps had 12 players share in the points, Ovechkin, Oshie, and Carlson with three apiece.  Five Caps added a pair apiece – Vrana, Backstrom, Kuznetsov, Eller, and Carl Hagelin.  Defenseman Martin Fehervary had an assist in the 7-2 loss to the Flyers to end the week, his first NHL point.  He was one of four defensemen to record points for the week, including Nick Jensen, who has been snakebit most of the year and was a healthy scratch in favor of Fehervary to end the week.  Those not getting a point included Dmitry Orlov, who has two points in his last 11 games and is without a goal in his last 18 games, and Michal Kempny, who is without a point in his last ten games and has not had a goal since October 25^th, a streak of 40 games without one and counting.

Defense: 4.33/game (season: 3.00/12th)

Things got better as the week wore on for the Caps in terms of allowing shots on goal, but that is a thin reed to hold onto as a means to save the week.  The allowed 33 to the Penguins, 31 to the Kings, and finally 26 to the Flyers to end the week.  The Flyer game was not even much of a “score effect” result, the Caps allowing nine, nine, and eight shots by period in that game.  It is worth noting, though, that the 33 shots recorded by the Penguins and the 31 by the Kings represented the first time in the new year that the Caps allowed teams more than 30 shots in consecutive games.  In fact, it was the first time since the Caps allowed Columbus and Boston to top 30 shots in consecutive games in early December, the Caps then going 20 straight games without allowing 30 shots in consecutive games and only allowing 30 or more shots four times, including the 33 allowed to Pittsburgh in the first of the consecutive 30-plus shots allowed games this week.

There is one individual stat that one can attribute to defense that merits mentioning.  Tom Wilson was credited with 13 hits in the loss to Pittsburgh to start the week (hits are “defensive,” since the player/team does not have the puck).  That tied a team record for a game since the league began recording it in the 2005-206 season.  Alex Ovechkin was credited with 13 hits in a 5-4 Gimmick loss to the New York Rangers on February 9, 2009.

Goaltending: 4.39 / .856 (season: 2.84 / .904 / 1 shutout)

Week 17 was not a good week for goaltending, Braden Hotlby and Ilya Samsonov combining for a 3.37 goals against average and a .882 save percentage.  You would think that would be as bad as it gets for a team as accomplished as the Caps.  You would be wrong.  The two combined in Week 18 to allow more than a goal-per-game more (4.39 GAA) and dropped 26 points on their save percentage.

Samsonov saw his personal streak of 11 wins come to an end when he allowed four goals on 33 shots in the Caps’ 4-3 loss to Pittsburgh to start the week.  And as if that wasn’t bad enough, he took an Alex Ovechkin shot in practice off the chin of his mask, flipping the mask off his head and sending him off for the remainder of the session.  He missed the next game, the Caps calling up Vitek Vanacek from Hershey to fill in as backup to Braden Holtby against Los Angeles in the middle game of the week.  Samsonov returned to the bench for the last game of the week against the Flyers, getting just under 12 minutes of work in the third period in relief of Braden Holtby.  He stopped the only shot he saw in the 7-2 loss.

As for Holtby, the misfortune continues.  He played well against the Kings, stopping 29 of 31 shots in the 4-2 win, but he was torched by the Flyers for all seven goals on 25 shots to close the week.  It was by no means a goalie meltdown, as it seemed the Flyers had set up a settlement in front of him with few Capitals within a stick length of them, leaving Holtby to fend for himself.  However, at week’s end, Holtby had a 4-8-0 (one no-decision), 4.04, .853 record over his last 13 appearances and has been relieved three times in that stretch.

Power Play: 1-for-8/12.5 percent (season: 20.1 percent/13th)

It seems odd to say that a 12.5 percent power play overstates its effectiveness for the week, but that is what one would have to conclude based on the miserable effort in generating chances in Week 18. Put in the form of a “Jeopardy!” question, “Alex Ovechkin, T.J. Oshie, and Tom Wilson.”  What is, “name the three Capitals with power play shots on goal in Week 18?”  That’s right.  Three players, one shot on goal apiece, Oshie getting the only goal.  If it was not the worst week of power play in the last ten years of Caps hockey, it is on a short list.

Silver lining… at least the Caps did not allow a shorthanded goal.

Penalty Killing: 11-for-13/84.6 percent (season: 84.0 percent/3rd)

The penalty killing was another story.  It was actually a bit better than the final 84.6 percent kill rate for the week suggests.  The team put itself in a hole by going shorthanded six times against the Penguins, but the penalty killers kept the slate clean and allowed only seven shots on goal in 12 minutes of shorthanded ice time.  They allowed Los Angeles only one shot in four minutes in killing off both shorthanded situations they faced.  Even against Philadelphia, they did allow a first period power play goal to open the scoring, but the second Flyer power play strike was largely cosmetic, the game already a lost cause at 6-1 when Claude Giroux converted a man advantage for the Flyers mid-way through the third period of a 7-2 loss to Philadelphia.

In all, the Caps allowed only 12 shots on goal in almost 23 minutes of shorthanded ice time.  In that respect it was not a bad week, perhaps the only area in which the Caps fared decently.

Faceoffs: 72-for-184/39.1 percent (season: 48.8 percent/25th)

And then there were faceoffs.  We have long been an advocate of the view that while faceoffs are not particularly influential in terms of wins and losses, they serve as an indicator of attention to detail and level of effort.  The mano-a-mano contest is pretty basic “who wants it more” stuff.  In this regard, the Caps had a ghastly week, perhaps their worst of the season in this category.

The Caps were under 50 percent in all three games and in all three zones for the week.  They got worse as the week wore on, the 46.9 winning percentage against the Penguins being the high point, while the 27.0 percent against the Flyers was not only the worst for the week (4-for-25 in the offensive end/16.0 percent), it was the worst for a single game since the league started capturing faceoff statistics in 1997-1998.  And, if you want to know one thing that might be contributing to weak power play numbers, the Caps drew blanks on power play faceoffs against both Los Angeles (0-for-2) and Philadelphia (0-for-5).  They are just 48.1 percent wins on power plays for the season.

Individually, no Capital finished the week as high as 50 percent, regardless of the number of draws taken.  Lars Eller had a particularly unfortunate game against Philadelphia, going 5-for-25 (20.0 percent).  Only Nicklas Backstrom (52.0 percent in the offensive end) was over 50 percent in either end of the ice for the week.

Goals by Period:

Another area that was not a good one for the Caps in Week 18.  They lost the first periods of games, they lost the second periods of games. If not for Alex Ovechkin posting a hat trick over a span of 4:24 late in the third period against Los Angeles, they would have lost the third period, not to mention all three games for the week, too.  That the Caps scored two-thirds of their goals for the week in the third period is another illustration of just not being prepared to go with a full effort at the start of games.  If there is an area that reflect the need to put the fear of God in this team, here it is.

Year-over-Year:

The Caps continue to outpace last year’s team in most respects, but much of that difference is the product of how insanely well the team was performing over the first 35 games of the season.  This is a team that is 10-8-0 over their last 18 games and have allowed 63 goals (3.50 per game) over that span.  Over the 55 games that serve as the basis for comparison, this team is better.  But “this team,” as it has played over the last month, is not one that inspires a lot of confidence for a deep playoff run, despite its overall record.

In the end…

We are at the two-thirds mark of the regular season.  From here on, it is about tuning for the playoffs on the ice and looking for that last piece or two for the stretch run in the front office.  This team has a lot of work to do on the former, and it has perhaps more work than we thought would be necessary as to the latter.  The Caps at the moment have goaltending issues, look soft on defense, are getting spotty production from top-six forwards too frequently, and look more than a bit lost at the moment.  They has better find their way back to the trail that leads to a deep playoff run soon. 

Three Stars:

• First Star: Alex Ovechkin (3-0-3, plus-1, one game-winning goal, 11 shots on goal, 21 shot attempts, 27^th career hat trick, taking over eighth place on the all-time list)
• Second Star: T.J. Oshie (1-2-3, plus-5, three shots on goal, one power play goal)
• Third Star: John Carlson (1-2-3, plus-1, seven shots on goal, surpassed the 50-assist mark, tying Scott Stevens for franchise lead in career 50-assist seasons (three))

Captain rates the week…

One pupper