Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was - Week 2

Last season, the Washington Capitals did not have a losing week until Week 5.  This season, with a 1-2-1 record, the Caps experienced the bitter taste of a losing week in Week 2.  And it Week 2, the Caps’ issues and problems were on display.  So, too, were their strengths, but in displaying them, they illustrated the difficulties this team might have in reaching the postseason.

Record: 1-2-1

The Caps were 1-2-0 in Week 5 last season in what would be one of just three losing weeks in the 2016-2017 season.  The disturbing aspect of Week 2 and the Caps’ 1-2-1 record – their first losing week this season – is that the record came entirely against Eastern Conference teams, and the Caps were 1-2-0 against fellow travelers in the Metropolitan Division.  Disappointing as it was, it was not far from being a lot better, the Caps dropping a pair of one-goal decisions, one in overtime to the Tampa Bay Lightning on a power play.

Offense:  3.00/game (season: 3.67/game, 9th)

Three goals a game over four games might be considered an “average” week for this team.  How they got there was not, and it was not an especially confidence-building experience.  Five Capitals shared the 12 goals scored for the week, and the distribution is what is of note.  T.J. Oshie led the club with four goals, and 11 of the 12 were scored by forwards on the top two lines.  Christian Djoos had the other for the defenseman’s first NHL goal in his NHL debut against Pittsburgh in the second game of the week.  It also happens to be the only goal scored by a Capitals defenseman through six games so far this season.  As it is, Nathan Walker and Brett Connolly are the only forwards outside the top-six to record a goal so far among the 21 scored by the club.

Defense: 4.25/game (season: 3.67/game, 24th)

If Wayne Gretzky was right about not scoring on 100 percent of the shots you don’t take, opponents have taken that adage to heart against the Caps.  The Caps allowed more than 35 shots to three of their four opponents in Week 2, giving them five games with more than 30 shots against in six games this season.  That they merely rank 22^nd in the league in shots against per game might be a reflection of more offense across the league at this early stage of the season.  Digging into that number, the Caps finished the week ranked 24^th in 5-on-5 Corsi (46.2 percent; numbers from Corsica.hockey) and 17^th in shots attempts against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 (55.22).

Goaltending: 4.23 / .875 (season: 3.60 / .894)

Goalies get the wins, and often the praise that goes with it, and they get the losses, and the often the grief that follows along.  The numbers paint a portrait of a bad week for Braden Holtby and Philipp Grubauer.  Holtby took Game 2 and 3 for the week and did not fare all that poorly.  His 1-1-0, 2.54, .915 record for the week was not at the standard of overall production one has come to expect of Holtby, but stopping 43 of 44 shots at even strength was (.977 save percentage).  That 9-for-13 in facing power plays was another matter (.692 save percentage), including all three goals scored by the Penguins in their 3-2 win over the Caps.

The best that can be said of Philipp Grubauer’s week is that he took one for the team, and over the course of a long season, there is a lot to be said for that.  He did not get much in the way of support in front of him.  He faced 40 shots against the Tampa Bay Lightning to start the week, 22 of them in the third period and overtime, and had to face a Lightning power play on the game-deciding goal.  Against the Philadelphia Flyers to end the week, the team in front of him was playing its third game in four nights and the back half of a road set of back-to-back games.  It might not be as grueling a run as it might be in February or March, when the grind of the season takes its toll, but it was no skate on the pond, either.  And Grubauer was left in to face the whirlwind – 37 shots, eight goals.  It was the most goals allowed by a Caps goaltender in a single game since Olaf Kolzig gave up eight in an 8-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on January 25, 2006.

Power Play: 5-for-15 / 33.3 percent (season: 30.0 percent / 2nd)

Going 5-for-15 is a very good week, but what is odd about that kind of efficiency was that the Caps alternated games with power play goals (two against Tampa Bay, three against New Jersey) with games without a goal (against Pittsburgh and Philadelphia).  T.J. Oshie had a particularly productive week, posting three of the Caps’ five power play goals.  And then there was Nicklas Backstrom, who recorded an points on all five goals with the man advantage, a goal and four assists.  That output put him at the top of the league’s power play scoring list for the week and at the top of that list for the season (1-5-6).  Overall, the Caps were an efficient group, scoring those five goals on 25 power play shots (20.0 percent) and recording those 24 shots in 24:00 of power play ice time.

Penalty Killing: 11-for-17 / 64.7 percent (season: 76.9 percent / T-21st)

And yet… the Caps ended up on the short end of the special teams scoring for the week, going minus-2 off five goals scored and seven allowed.  Six of those special teams goals against came on the opponents’ power play (one other a shorthanded goal against) in what would be charitably be called a difficult week.  The Caps allowed three power play goals to the Penguins in the second game of the week, the first time they allowed that many in a single game since they allowed three power play goals in a 4-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on March 13, 2015.  Overall, the Caps spent entirely too much time killing penalties.  The recorded 28:38 in shorthanded ice time for the week, and that despite only 1:32 recorded against the Flyers to end the week (they scored on that power play).  Allowing 27 shots in that time logged wasn’t a bad result in terms of shots per minute, but the cumulative effect was hardly what the Caps were looking for.

Faceoffs: 125-for-257 / 48.6 percent (season: 51.6 percent / 12th)

It was a mediocre week in the circle overall and one that was very different among players in their particulars.  The 48.6 percent was spit roughly into a good week in the defensive end (49-88/55.7 percent) and a poor one in the offensive end (28-73/38.4 percent).  At the individual level, two of the Caps taking ten or more draws finished the week over 50 percent – Nicklas Backstrom (35-68/51.5 percent) and Lars Eller (32-52/61.5 percent).  T.J. Oshie (11-27/40.7 percent) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (18-55/32.7 percent) were well under 50 percent, while Jay Beagle has what was for him an off week (15-33/45.5 percent).

Goals by Period:

Allowing three goals in four first periods is not great, but it’s not especially bad, either.  But as time went on in games, the worse if got for the Caps, who were outscored, 14-8 over the last 40 minutes and overtime for the week.  The Caps finished the week with only the Penguins (10) allowing more second period goals than the Caps (9) and only Calgary and St. Louis (nine apiece) allowing more third period goals than Washington (eight). 

In the end…

Everything the Caps might be concerned about came to pass in Week 2.  An injury to an important player; Matt Niskanen will be out for at least ten games and 24 days with a hand injury after being slashed by New Jersey Devil forward Jimmy Hayes.  Lack of defensive depth – the Caps iced Aaron Ness, Christian Djoos, and Madison Bowey (in his NHL debut) against the Flyers to end the week.  Their lack of experience showed and was exploited by the Flyers.  Lack of bottom six scoring – it helped doom their postseason last spring, and things have not improved with the start of the new season. The competition – if the Caps wanted to measure themselves against potential postseason rivals, they came up short against Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh, although both of those games were decided by one goal, one of them in overtime on a power play.  The schedule – the Caps played three of their four games in Week 3 on the road, making it four of six games on the road to start the season and part of a eight games in 12 on the road in October.  It is a trial by fire the Caps are on that will temper them and make them stronger or burn their early season playoff hopes to a crisp.

Three Stars:

• First Star: Nicklas Backstrom (3-6-9, plus-2, points on all five power play goals, 51.5 percent faceoff winning)
• Second Star: T.J. Oshie (4-3-7, plus-1, three of the Caps’ five power play goals, four power play points)
• Third Star: Christian Djoos (1-1-2, plus-2, first rookie defenseman to record two or more points in a season since the Caps had four blueliners do it in the 2013-2014 season: Alexander Urbom, Patrick Wey, Connor Carrick, and Nate Schmidt)

A ONE-Point Night: Washington Capitals -- Game 3: Lightning 4 - Capitals 3 (OT)

The Washington Capitals took to the road on Thursday night, visiting the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena.  The Caps got out to a 3-1 lead early in the second period, only to see the Lightning tie it mid-way through the third period to force extra time.  The Lightning were granted a power play chance in the extra session, and they converted it to send the Caps to their first loss of the season, 4-3.

First Period

For two teams with a lot of offensive firepower, they came out like a couple of heavyweights in a prize fight content just to feel one another out.  The Caps grabbed a shovel and started digging themselves a hole when Aaron Ness took a penalty in the fifth minute of the period, and then took another penalty nine minutes later.  The Caps held the Bolts to one shot on their two power plays.  After that, they handed the shovel to the Lightning to start digging a hole.  Nicklas Backstrom got the Caps on the board, taking a cross-ice feed from Andre Burakovsky, gliding through the right wing circle, and snapping a shot that seemed to handcuff goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy at the 16:42 mark. 

Barely 20 seconds later, the Caps found themselves on their first power play of the evening, Yanni Gourde sent off for slashing.  Just over a minute into the power play, John Carlson took a pass from Backstrom at the blue line, walked the puck back to the middle of the ice, then flipped a shot at the net that nicked T.J. Oshie on the way through to give the Caps a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.

Second Period

The Caps got burned in the sixth minute of the period when they were trying to move the puck into the Lightning end of the ice.  A pass to Alex Ovechkin at the red line went awry, and Braydon Coburn grabbed the sliding puck.  He fed it up to Brayden Point heading down the left wing, and after carrying it across the blue line, Point found Alex Killorn before he was plastered by Dmitri Orlov.  It was taking a hit to make a play, though, as Killorn one-timed the pass high over goalie Philipp Grubauer’s glove, and it was 2-1, Caps.

Oshie got it back on a power play just over two minutes later.  With the Lightning short for a faceoff violation, the Caps worked the puck around the perimeter, setting up Oshie for a one-timer  that was foiled, but Evgeny Kuznetsov swept the loose puck back to Backstrom along the boards.  Backstrom waited until Oshie found space and a passing lane in the middle, then threaded a pass that Oshie one-timed off the far post and behind Vasilevskiy to make it 3-1 at the 7:49 mark.

Tampa Bay got back to within a goal late when Anton Stralman sent a lollipop of a shot at the net that was redirected by Chris Kunitz (yes, that Chris Kunitz) down and to the left of Grubauer’s pad to make it 3-2 with 1:51 left in the period.

Third Period

The Caps survived an early Tampa Bay power play on which the Lightning recorded six shots on goal, but the Lightning pressure was persistent as the period wore on.  It finally bore fruit at the 10:46 mark when Nikita Kucherov barreled into the Caps’ zone and with Taylor Chorney trying to get a body and a stick on him, roofed a backhand over Grubauer’s left shoulder to tie the game, 3-3.  It was part of an onslaught on the Washington net as the Lightning outshot the Caps, 17-6.

Extra Time

The Caps stepped in it right away, taking a too-many-men penalty just 1:21 into the extra frame.  With less than 15 seconds left before killing it off, the Caps allowed their first power play goal of the season, Nikita Kucherov one-timed a feed that ricocheted off Brayden Point and past Grubauer’s glove for the game-winner.

Other stuff…

-- Nicklas Backstrom’s first period goal was his first of the season and 189^th as a Capital, passing Bobby Carpenter for eighth place on the team’s all-time list of goal scorers.  Next up is Dave Christian with 193 goals in 504 games played with the Caps from 1983 to 1990.

-- When T.J. Oshie recorded a goal and an assist in the first period, it made it 29 multi-point games as a Cap, passing Bengt Gustafsson and tying Andrei Nikolishin, Eric Fehr, and Troy Brouwer for 35^th place in team history.  When he scored his second goal, he had his tenth three-point game as a Cap, tying Dave Christian, Ulf Dahlen, and Dainius Zubrus for 21^st place on the team’s all-time list.

--  Backstrom’s assist on Oshie’s second goal gave him a three-point night, his 65^th as a Capital, second-most in team history (Alex Ovechkin has 92).

-- Washington allowed 40 shots, the third straight game in which they allowed more than 30 shots on goal.  The Caps allowed only one team 40 or more shots last season, that coming in a 3-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets On November 1, 2016, when they allowed 45 shots on goal.

-- Tampa Bay out-shot the Caps, 22-7 over the third period and overtime.  Overall, they out-attempted Washington, 83-48.

-- John Carlson led the team with six shots on goal and eight shot attempts.

-- The Caps allowed 12 shots on goal on the last two Tampa Bay power plays.

-- Dmitry Orlov played a team-high 27:32 for the Caps.  John Carlson (26:15) and Matt Niskanen (25:54) also topped 25 minutes.

-- Jay Beagle had an uncharacteristically off night in the circle, going 4-for-13 overall and 2-for-8 in the defensive end.

-- The domination by the Lightning at fives was complete.  They out-attempted the Caps, 60-33, at 5-on-5 (64.52 percent; numbers from Corsica.hockey).

In the end…

The problems the Caps have were on display tonight.  They are replacing half of their defense from last season with players who, frankly, are not as talented as those they are replacing, and Brooks Orpik is being asked to play second pair minutes when he played mostly third pair minutes last season.  The best thing you can say is that perhaps things will sort themselves out, that the new guys will improve enough to at least not be a liability on the ice.  But the Lightning made up a 3-1 deficit by scoring two goals with the Taylor Chorney/Aaron Ness defensive pair on the ice.  Consider that Chorney played barely ten minutes (10:17), and Ness played just 8:56, and one has to be concerned that this is something teams will look to exploit on a night-to-night basis.  The Caps did get a point, but it was one point fewer than they should have taken from this game, defensive breakdowns (not limited to Chorney/Ness by any means) and an inability to put the team away when they had a 3-1 lead less than half-way through the contest dooming them in the end.

Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was - Week 1

The Washington Capitals opened their 2017-2018 season this week, and it was something of an historic opening.  From a pair of wins, to a goal explosion, to a debut from down under, it was a Week 1 to remember.

Record: 2-0-0

The Caps opened their season with a pair of wins, the first time they accomplished that feat since the 2011-2012 season.  That’s the good news.  The bad news…the Caps won their first seven games that season and yet had a new coach by the end of November, when Bruce Boudreau was relieved in favor of Dale Hunter.  Worse, the same thing happened in the 2007-2008 season, when the Caps won their first two games and, again, had a new coach by the end of November, when Boudreau relieved Glen Hanlon behind the Caps’ bench.  Moral of the story… don’t get too high with the highs or too low with the lows.

Offense:  5.00/game (season: 5.00/game, 3^rd)

Alex Ovechkin is not going to score 287 goals this season.  You can write that one down in pen.  But with seven goals in two games, he became the first player in 100 years to record hat tricks in consecutive games to open an NHL season, the first since Cy Denneny, Reg Noble, and Joe Malone all did so to open the 1917-1918 season.  However, as a technical matter, Ovechkin might be the first ever to record “hat tricks” in consecutive games to open a season, if you believe that the custom of tossing hats on the ice for a three-goal game originated in Guelph, Ontario. 

Almost forgotten in the Ovechkin avalanche of goals is the fact that Evgeny Kuznetsov recorded seven assists (Kuznetsov and Ovechkin ended the week tied for the league lead in total scoring with seven points apiece and tied for second in plus-minus with several other players plus-6 apiece), while rookie Jakub Vrana added three more, giving the top line quite a week.  To that add that Nathan Walker, appearing in his first game, recorded his first NHL goal, and he hit history’s Daily Double – the first player from Australia to appear in an NHL game and becoming the first Australian to record a goal in an NHL game.  Brett Connolly and T.J. Oshie added the other goals of the week, and 14 different skaters recorded a point for the team.

Defense: 2.50/game (season: 2.50/game, T-9^th)

The Caps held, if that is the right word, Ottawa and Montreal to 90 shot attempts for the week, which puts them in the middle of the pack, tied for 12-th most in the league with Winnipeg and the New York Islanders (numbers from NHL.com).  Worse, that volume of shot attempts left he Caps with the tenth-worst shot attempt plus minus in the league (minus-11).  If there was a bright spot, it was that the Caps were plus-9 when the score was tied, and the minus-21 when ahead is largely a score effect of having jumped out to such a big lead against the Montreal Canadiens early (4-0 after one period on Saturday night).

It was hard to be Brett Connolly this week in the defensive end.  Connolly was on ice for four of the five goals scored against the Caps.  Brooks Orpik and John Carlson were on ice together for three goals against of their own.

Goaltending: 2.40 / .930 (season: 2.40 / .930)

Braden Holtby got both starts for the Caps in Week 1, and his week was somewhat typical of a Holtby season start.  He has never been particularly effective in his first game of the season (see our prognosto on the Montreal game for more on that).  And against the Ottawa Senators, he was consistent with that profile, allowing four goals on 32 shots.  He did not have as much help in front of him as he might be accustomed to, but it was not a classic Holtby performance, either.  He did finish that game strong, and that effort spilled over into the performance against the Canadiens to end the week.  He stopped 38 of 39 shots and resisted the temptation to lose focus as the Caps went out to a big lead early.

Power Play: 1-for-5 / 20.0 percent (season: 20.0 percent / T-11th)

There is not much to glean from the power play in Week 1.  Yes, it did record a goal.  Yes, it was an Alex Ovechkin goal.  Some things are slow to change.  The power play was also victimized by a shorthanded goal when the Caps forgot how to defend on a power play against the Canadiens, giving up the puck and letting Brendan Gallagher score from the top of the paint while a man down. Ovechkin had half of the shots on the man advantage for the week (four of eight), and the Caps recorded eight power play shots in 8:16 of power play ice time.  All in all, it was for the most part a rather typical week, the shortie notwithstanding.

Penalty Killing: 9-for-9 / 100.0 percent (season: 100.0 percent / T-1^st)

There was good and bad on the penalty kill this week for the Caps.  Well, mostly good.  The bad part was the volume.  The nine shorthanded situations faced is in the middle of the pack in the league rankings (tied for 11^th-most), but it was almost twice as many special teams opportunities for Ottawa and Montreal as the Caps had for the week (five).  That led to those two opponents enjoying a better than 2-to-1 edge in power play ice time(17:27 to 8:16).  The Caps might have been on the short side of opportunities and minutes on special teams, but they did not allow an inordinate number of shots relative to minutes (16 in 17:27).  It is, and it was to be expected, to be a work in progress at the start of the season with new penalty killers in the rotation, but it was a good week, all things considered.

Faceoffs: 72-for-125 / 57.6 percent (season: 57.6 percent / 2^nd)

If you are going to keep teams from scoring, it is best to have the puck.  And what better way to do that than to take possession of it from the puck drop, especially in the defensive end?  The Caps had a fine week overall in the circle, but they shined in the defensive end, winning 33 of 47 defensive zone draws (70.2 percent).  Jay Beagle gave a master class in the subject, winning 15 of 17 defensive zone faceoffs (88.2 percent) as part of a 73.1 percent week overall.  Evgeny Kuznetsov, who won just 44.0 percent of his draws last season, was a surprise, winning 14 of 24 draws overall (58.3 percent).  Nicklas Backstrom was the only Capital to take ten or more draws and finish under 50 percent for the week (16-for-34/47.1 percent).

Goals by Period:

That four-spot in the first period against Montreal in the second game of the week tilted the goal scoring toward the beginning of games, but don’t forget that three-goal third period against Ottawa in the opener.  It reminded Caps fans that the team can still be explosive, scoring seven goals in a span of 33:55 across two games.  Of course, Alex Ovechkin had six of them in what was a remarkable week for him, even in the context of his career body of work (T.J. Oshie had the other one).  At the other end, the Caps spread the gloom of opponents’ goals across the periods and did not allow either Ottawa or Montreal to score consecutive goals in any single period for the week, a way to stall momentum.

In the end…

Two games, two wins in the bank.  If you are of the picky sort, you would say the Caps escaped with a win on Thursday and leaned too heavily on Alex Ovechkin on Saturday.  If you are of a forgiving sort, you might respond, “so what?”  Sometimes the captain takes over a game, and sometimes you rally from behind.  In the context of a long season, neither game of the sort the Caps played this week is particularly informative.  But you can’t take two wins off the ledger, and that is the takeaway from this week.

Three Stars:

• First Star: Alex Ovechkin (7-0-7, plus-6, 14 SOG, 21 shot attempts, two history-making hat tricks)
• Second Star: Evgeny Kuznetsov (0-7-7, plus-6, 58.3 percent FO (7-for-8 in the defensive zone))
• Third Star: Nathan Walker (1-0-1, plus-1, first Australian to play in an NHL game, first Australian to score an NHL goal, first to do it in his debut game)

A TWO-Point Night: Washington Capitals -- Game 2: Capitals 6 - Canadiens 1

Alex Ovechkin can now add his name to the list that includes Cy Denneny, Reg Noble, and Joe Malone.  Ovechkin became the fourth player in NHL history to record hat tricks in back-to-back games to start a season and the first in 100 years (from Elias Sports Bureau) as the Caps steamrolled the Montreal Canadiens, 6-1, at Capital One Arena on Saturday night in the team’s season opener.  And in a double first, Nathan Walker became the first Australian player to appear in an NHL game, and he became the first Australian player to record a goal in the NHL.

First Period

Wayne Gretzky once said, “you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”  It might explain Alex Ovechkin going after a loose puck above the left wing circle, spinning, and slapping the bouncing puck over the glove of what appeared to be an utterly shocked goalie Carey Price 20 seconds into the contest to set the stage.

Less than half a minute later, the Caps had a 2-0 lead when T.J. Oshie recorded his first goal of the season off a Montreal turnover.  Jordie Benn circled out of the corner in the defensive end and tried to move the puck up ice, but Andre Burakovsky intercepted the feed.  Burakovsky fed Oshie moving through the left wing circle, and Oshie left it for Nicklas Backstrom.  The shot from Backstrom was stopped by Price, but not covered, and Oshie swooped in to swat the puck behind Price from the goal line to Price’s right just 46 seconds into the period.

Before the game was three minutes old, the Caps had a 3-0 lead when, on a power play, Ovechkin declared his office open for business.  Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom played catch on the right side of the power play formation until Kuznetsov found a lane through the middle of the ice to Ovechkin in the left wing circle.  Ovechkin one-timed the puck past a twirling Price to make it 3-0 at the 2:51 mark.

Neither the Caps nor Ovechkin were done with the first period yet, though.  With under two minutes in the period, the Caps worked the puck around the perimeter, Evgeny Kuznetsov to Aaron Ness, and back to Kuznetsov circling to the top of the left wing circle.  Kuznetsov’s blast from the top of the circle was redirected by Ovechkin past Price at the  18:10 mark to take a 4-0 lead to the first intermission.

Second Period

Montreal came out with a new goalie – Al Montoya in relief of Price – and a new attitude, pressuring the Caps from the start.  It made for a period dominated by Braden Holtby in the Caps’ goal.  It paid off when Brendan Gallagher got loose at the top of the paint and converted a feed from below the goal line by Paul Byron to get the Canadiens on the board 4:50 into the period.

Ovechkin would restore the four-goal margin late in the period.  Circling through the right wing circle, Ovechkin fed Kuznetsov, who moved to the middle to create space.  It was enough to feed Ovechkin heading to the net from Price’s left.  As he reached the top of the paint, Ovechkin pulled the puck to his backhand and slid it toward Montoya.  It hit two Canadiens’ skates before it slithered across the line just before Oshie could tap it in.  Then, late in the period, Nathan Walker made history again.  He made it 79 seconds into the game when he stepped onto the ice as the first Australian to play in an NHL game.  And at the 18:05 mark of the second period, he made some more.  Jay Beagle won a draw in the offensive zone to the left of goalie Al Montoya.  Devante Smith-Pelly settled the puck at the top of the right wing circle and fired.  The puck hit Walker on the way through and eluded Montoya to give Walker his first NHL goal and the first “Australian” goal in NHL history.

Third Period

No scoring in this period, but by this time, who cared?

Other stuff…

- For some players, hat tricks are thought of in terms of games.  Alex Ovechkin recorded hat tricks in consecutive periods, following up his three-goal third period against Ottawa on Thursday with a three-goal first period on Saturday. 

-- Ovechkin might have made it a career-high five-goal night in the last minute, but on an odd-man rush, he passed up a shot to feed Evgeny Kuznetsov, who fed Jakub Vrana, who whiffed on the opportunity.  As it was, it was Ovechkin’s fourth career four-goal game.

-- Ovechkin has seven goals in two games.  In the last thirty years, it is the most goals in the first two games of an NHL season.  Three players opened the season with five goals: Mike Gartner in 1988, Wendel Clark in 1992, and Brendan Shanahan in 1994.

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov had four assists, the second four-assist game of his career.  He had four helpers in a 6-3 win over the Blue Jackets in Columbus on January 19, 2016.  It was the fourth four-point game of his career.

-- Eleven skaters had points for the Caps, 14 skaters finished as “plus” players.  Only Brett Connolly was on the minus side of the ledger (minus-1).

-- The Caps enjoyed a whopping 41-26 edge in faceoffs.  Jay Beagle (11-for-14) and Lars Eller (12-for-19) were especially dominant.

-- Nathan Walker, all 5’9”, 186 pound of him, led the Caps in hits with four.

-- Ovechkin had more than a third of the Caps’ total shots on goal (eight of 23).

-- With 38 saves on 39 shots, Braden Holtby improved his record against Montreal to 11-1-2, 1.57, .944, with two shutouts.

-- Score effects in one graph (from Corsica.hockey)...

In the end…

It would be hard to script a home opener better than that.  Maybe raising a Stanley Cup banner, but a four-goal game from the Captain, a sterling effort from the star goalie, and an unprecedented debut isn’t bad.  Two games in, and Alex Ovechkin has more than a third (six) of all the even strength goals he scored last season (16), and in doing it he has not forgotten the address of his office.  His hat trick goal was perhaps the most telling.  And he took advantage of an old teammate in doing it.  With the Caps working the puck around the perimeter, Ovechkin is working his way across the high slot, fighting for position with a Canadien defenseman – former Cap Karl Alzner.  He worked his way into position to free his stick to get enough of the Evgeny Kuznetsov shot to elude Carey Price.  If this is now in Ovechkin’s repertoire, it could be a big season for the captain and the Caps.

Washington Capitals 2017-2018 Previews -- The Kids

The Next Generation

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

-- Alexander Graham Bell

Replace the word “door” with the word “window,” and you might be describing where Capitals Nation stands as training camp moves along.  The two-year window to win a Stanley Cup as it was described by Washington Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan has come and gone, slammed shut in each year by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

With the window closing on that Capitals team for good, changes came.  Players departed in free agency, adding to the sense of loss fans might have felt.  But pro sports never stands still, and turnover is a fact of life, more so it seems in the NHL than in other sports.  And the departures from the Caps over the off-season open a new window, that being one of opportunity.  Six of the 18 skaters taking the ice in the Caps’ last game of the 2017 postseason did not return for the 2017-2018 season.

The departures make for a rare opportunity for prospects to stake a claim on a roster spot.  Consider that last season the Caps had six rookies dress for the club, but only two – Jakub Vrana and Zach Sanford – dressed for more than 20 games, and Sanford was traded before year end.  This season it is possible, if not likely, that the Caps could have five or more rookies appear in more than 20 games.  We have already taken a look at Madison Bowey and Christian Djoos on defense, and Jakub Vrana among the forwards.

Bowey, Djoos, and Vrana (still a “rookie” having played in only 21 games last season) will be given every opportunity to claim a jersey on a regular basis in the starting lineup.  To this trio, one might see forwards Riley Barber, and/or Nathan Walker dressing for at least 20 games this season.   And there is the further possibility that rookies further down the developmental ladder will get at least a cup o’ coffee with the club. Forward Travis Boyd, and defensemen Jonas Siegenthaler and Lucas Johansen might fall into this group.

Only once in the post-2004-2005 lockout period have the Caps had more than four rookie skaters appear in 20 or more games in a season, and that was in the 2005-2006 season when the team employed five rookie skaters as it was coming out of the lockout and at the depths of their rebuild. (Alex Ovechkin, Brooks Laich, Nolan Yonkman, Jakub Klepis, and Mike Green).  Only once in the last six seasons have the Caps had as many as four rookies skate in 20 or more games (2013-2014: Tom Wilson, Nate Schmidt, Connor Carrick, and Alexander Urbom).

Odd Rookie Fact…

You might think that the recipe for a Stanley Cup does not include a large portion of rookies, and you would be right, but only to a point.  Since the 2004-2005 lockout, four of the 12 Stanley Cup champions employed four or more rookie skaters appearing in at least 20 games in that season: 2006 Carolina Hurricanes (4), 2011 Boston Bruins (5), 2012 Los Angeles Kings (4), and the 2016 Pittsburgh Penguins (5).

Fearless’ Take…

Jakub Vrana has the skill set to be an impact rookie.  He certainly has displayed those skills over his last three seasons (one in Europe, two with Hershey).  Overall, he had 47 goals in 132 games in Sweden and the AHL over the last three seasons.  He had a decent, if uneven, performance in his short, 21-game tour with the Caps last season (3-3-6, three power play goals, two game-winning goals).  Bowey has made steady progress through the developmental channel and displayed a talent for leadership as alternate captain and captain of the Kelowna Rockets in Canadian juniors.  Barber spent three years with a good Miami (Ohio) University program in the NCAA (note: the Penguins had 16 players from last spring’s playoff winning roster spend at least some time in the NCAA  ) and was captain of the 2014 national team for the world junior championship.  If one cannot see the future, one can see the past, and in their past this looks like a crop of prospects that has prepared well for their chances.

Cheerless’ Take…

It just doesn’t pass the sniff test, Fearless.  The Caps lose Justin Williams, Karl Alzner, Nate Schmidt, and Daniel Winnik, and they are going to be as good, let alone better, with Vrana, Bowey, Djoos, and Barber or Walker replacing them?  Maybe down the road (maybe never), but this season?

The Big Question…  Just what is the upside of the rookie crop in 2017-2018?

Vrana has 21 games of experience coming into this season, but Barber has just three games in the NHL, and the others mentioned are true rookies, none with any NHL experience.  This kind of turnover can make for a rocky transition from being on a short list of serious contenders one season to being one of many contenders the following season, and if these prospects are not ready for prime time on a regular basis, the Caps could find themselves fighting for their playoff lives in March and April.

There is every reason to think that the upside for these players is high.  Vrana is a top-six, if not a top line offensive forward.  We compared Vrana to Peter Bondra in our Vrana preview.  Bowey can be a solid, if not elite top-four defenseman.  If there is a comparison to be made there it might be Calle Johansson.  Barber can be a productive bottom-six forward.  Jeff Halpern might the comparable here.  Djoos has potential in the offensive end, and in a league that emphasizes speed more than brawn these days might not be at all that much a disadvantage with his slight build.  But one cannot help but wonder if his comparable is a player like Sami Lepisto.  Nathan Walker is an intriguing player, but harder to predict (or find a comparable) with respect to his upside.

But anything approaching any "upside" for any rookie in this class seems a heavy lift, especially since there could be a substantial number of them that would be integrated into this roster.  

In the end…

At this point, it is all speculation.  But that is what fans do.  And it is always tempting to see the best and be optimistic about the contributions of the incoming rookie class.  But what we feel confident about is that if the Caps are to contend for a championship, it will depend more on the improvement of young veterans like Evgeny Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky, Dmitry Orlov, and Tom Wilson than it does on the 2017-2018 rookie class.  And in no way should that be considered surprising.

Washington Capitals: What If This Day In Caps History Didn't Happen Like This Day In Caps History -- July 16th

There are distinct mileposts in a team’s history. For teams that have won championships, the dates when they clinched a title are foremost among them. For teams that haven’t, others have to do. In the case of the Washington Capitals, the dates that stand out in team history more often than not are those when important deals were transacted. And in almost all of those cases for the Caps, they involved a player arriving in Washington. There was September 9, 1982, when the Caps obtained Rod Langway in a trade that might be the most consequential deal in the history of the club, quite literally saving hockey in Washington. There was July 11, 2001, when the Capitals traded for arguably the best player in the league at the time in Jaromir Jagr. There was June 26, 2004, when General Manager George McPhee stood at the podium at RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, and announced that with the first pick in the 2004 entry draft, the Caps selected Alex Ovechkin.

But there is a date in Capitals history important for the player who left town. That date was July 16, 1990. The St. Louis Blues had tendered an offer of a four-year, $5.1 million contract to Capitals restricted free agent defenseman Scott Stevens. Weighing the choice of matching the offer or accepting as many as five first round draft picks in return, the Capitals opted for the latter, allowing Stevens to depart. He signed his contract with the Blues on July 16, 1990.

This deal occupies its own special place in Caps history. In fact, it could be its own “wing” of the museum, if you will. The departure would make Stevens arguably the most prolific and consequential draft pick in team history for the lineage his departure sprouted: 

Things have progressed even more since this superb tree was developed at Japers' Rink (for example, Nathan Walker, who could land a spot on the Opening Night roster, is a part of this tree, and boy, it that a road to behold/1).

But the subject of our thought exercise is not the Stevens departure, but what would have happened had the Caps matched the Blues' offer and retained him for another four years. The immediate effects would have been felt on the ice. The question is, would they have been significant? In the 1990-1991 season the Caps had a revolving door at the blue line, owing to injuries and trades, dressing a total of 14 defensemen in the regular season, but only four of them appearing in more than 60 games – Calle Johansson, Kevin Hatcher, Mike Lalor, and Mikhail Tatarinov (parenthetically, current Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville was one of the 14, dressing for nine games with the Caps). One would think that Stevens, who dressed for 73 or more games in seven of his first eight seasons with the Caps, would have been another reliable fixture in the lineup. One would also think that Stevens, who topped 50 points in five of those eight seasons, would have given the Caps three such performers on the blue line (Johansson had 52 points, and Hatcher had 74).

But it might have been in the postseason in which Stevens’ presence could be most keenly felt. The Caps had six defensemen appear in at least ten of the team’s 11 postseason games in 1991. Hatcher, Johansson, Al Iafrate, and Calle Johansson were solid performers. Rod Langway, even at the tail end of his career, was still a solid stay at home defenseman. The other two defensemen – Mike Lalor (who came to the Caps in the Geoff Courtnall trade of which we spoke in the previous installment in this series) and Ken Sabourin were the others. It is Sabourin who deserves some attention here. Mid-way through the regular season, the Caps were lollygagging along with a 22-25-2 record when they made a trade to get nastier. It was a two-stage effort, the first picking up John Kordic and Paul Fenton from Toronto for future considerations. Then, the Caps shipped Fenton to Calgary for Sabourin. The shake-up was an effort to address the problem that, in General Manager David Poile’s words, the Caps “have not played tough enough.”

Sabourin played in 28 regular season games, and then got a sweater for 11 games in the postseason (he did not record a point in those 11 games and was minus-4). One wonders, if Stevens was still with the club, do the Caps make that deal? Stevens was the more skilled defenseman by leaps and bounds (which is no insult to Sabourin, a solid player in his own right) and did not lack for orneriness. That combination of attributes might have been the missing ingredient in the Caps’ five-game loss to Pittsburgh in the second round.

But thinking over the four years that Stevens might have spent in Washington had the team matched the Blue’s contract offer, it is interesting to compare Stevens’ durability and production with the changes that characterized the blue line over that period. A total of 26 defensemen dressed for the Caps over that period, Hatcher and Johansson the only ones to spend all four full seasons with the Caps (Al Iafrate spent two full seasons and parts of two other seasons with the club, the last part of 1990-1991 after arriving in Washington from Boston and leaving late in the 1993-1994 season for Toronto). Only Hatcher had more points in those four seasons than Stevens would record with St. Louis and New Jersey in real time (247 to 243), Stevens ranking tenth in points among 353 defensemen who dressed over those seasons.

This is not to say that the Caps would have been a Stanley Cup contender over those seasons, let alone a Stanley Cup champion. But it is hard to see how the team was made better in the short term of that four year contract, especially when one considers that the first of the five first round draft picks the Caps got in compensation did not dress for the Caps until the 1994-1995 season (Sergei Gonchar, drafted in 1992).

About those draft picks, though. On their own, the quartet of Gonchar, Trevor Halverson (1991), Brendan Witt (1993), and Mikka Elomo (1995; the Caps traded their 1994 pick with Mike Ridley to Toronto for Rob Pearson and a first round draft pick that became Nolan Baumgartner) had an uneven history with the club, neither Halverson nor Elomo (a total of 19 games between them with the Caps) getting much ink in the history book, while Gonchar (second highest goal scorer among defensemen in team history) and Witt (the second most penalized defenseman in team history) had solid careers with the club. Both Gonchar and Witt played for what would be the only Capitals team to play in a Stanley Cup final, in 1998, but they were feature players in a club that was largely an annual spring disappointment.

Even looking at the Stevens “family tree,” there are a lot of familiar names in addition to those we already mentioned – Matt Pettinger, Semyon Varlamov, Jeff Schultz, Kris Beech (in what would be his second tour with the club), and Mike Ribeiro among them. But they are well-known characters in those annual episodes of disappointment, too. Volume and quality are, in the context of the family tree, not synonymous.

In the end, there is no logical argument that springs to mind in favor of letting Scott Stevens go being a good move in a hockey sense. And despite the prolific nature of the deal, resulting in more than a dozen players dressing for the Caps over a period spanning more than two decades, there is the disappointment that has grown alongside the Stevens Family Tree over those same years. It is a truly bitter “what if” to contemplate.

1/  Follow along… After the Caps traded Filip Forsberg, who is fruit of this tree, for Martin Erat and Michael Latta, the Caps later traded Erat and John Mitchell to Phoenix for Chris Brown, Rostislav Klesla, and a fourth round draft pick. Klesla was immediately traded with Michal Neuvirth to Buffalo for Jaroslav Halak and a third round draft pick. Halak was later traded to the New York Islanders for a fourth round pick in the 2014 draft. The Caps traded that pick (which belonged originally to Chicago) and their own fourth round pick to the New York Rangers for a third round pick in the same draft that was used to select Nathan Walker. The tree lives on.