The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Games 33/34: Capitals vs. Flyers, December 15/17th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

DING!!!

The Washington Capitals and the Philadelphia Flyers renew their rivalry this afternoon; Round 2, as it were.  The last time these two teams met, on November 1^st, the Flyers won a round – a Ray Emery beatdown of Capitals goalie Braden Holtby – and lost the bout, a 7-0 shutout win by Holtby.

Since then the Flyers, who fell to 3-9-0 with what was a beatdown of its own, has climbed off the canvas and posted an 11-6-3 record to move into sixth place in the Metropolitan Division, six points behind the Caps.

It has been like two separate seasons for the Flyers, separated by that game against the Caps.  In their first 12 contests, ending with that 7-0 loss, Philadelphia was 3-9-0, averaging only 1.67 goals per game and allowing 3.08 goals per game.  Their power play was 5-for-43 (11.6 percent), and their penalty kill was 48-for-57 (84.2 percent).  Since then the Flyers are 11-6-3, averaging 2.60 goals per game and allowing 2.45 goals per game.  Their power play is 16-for-71 (22.5 percent).  Their penalty kill is 68-for-81 (84.0 percent).

However, December has not been especially kind to the Flyers so far.  They are 2-3-1 this month and have slipped into some bad habits doing so.  Their 2.50 goals per game scoring offense is inflated by a six-goal effort in a 6-3 win over Detroit. They scored two or fewer goals in four of their other five games.  They have allowed 22 goals in those seven games.  The power play continues to hum, going 6-for-20 (30.0 percent), but half of those goals were scored in that 6-3 win over Detroit.  The penalty kill is 21-for-25 (84.0) percent, so strike one up for consistency in December for the Flyers.

The December scoring is led by Claude Giroux (2-3-5) and Sean Couturier (2-3-5).  For Giroux it is part of a continuing effort to dig himself out of the hole of a slow start.  He did not record his first goal of the season until Game 16 of the season, the game-winner in a 4-2 win over Edmonton on November 9^th.  However, since then Giroux is 6-10-16 in 17 games.  He is 8-5-13 in 17 career games against Washington.

For Couturier it is part of his validation as a first round (eighth overall) draft pick in 2011.  He, too, had a slow start – he did not have a goal in his first 19 games and recorded only four assists.  However, starting with the game in which he scored his first goal of the season, against Ottawa in a 5-2 win on November 19^th, Couturier is 5-6-11 in 13 games.  He is 1-1-2 in eight career games against the Caps.

Then there is the goaltending.  An issue for the Flyers since goaltenders used horsehair in their leg pads, it remains, at best, a work in progress.  In December, it is rather poor.  Steve Mason and Ray Emery have combined for a 3.98 goals against average and a save percentage of .869.  It has been a team effort.  Neither goalie has a save percentage in December above .900, Mason at .893 and Emery at .809.

Here is how the teams compare overall…

 

1.  As the club’s leading scorer, you would expect that Claude Giroux leads the team in multi-point games.  He does, with five.  But would you have thought Matt Read is second, with four multi-point games?  The Rangers, Red Wings, Sabres, and Islanders are his victims.

2.  When Mark Streit – one of the usual conveyor belt of Flyer big-name acquisitions – skated against the Caps on November 1^st, he was having a tough time acclimating himself to wearing Flyer orange.  He had no goals and only four assists in 11 games, and he did not record a point against the Caps.  He has hardly been better since.  He does have a goal – one – coming in a 4-2 loss to Tampa Bay on November 27^th.  He is 1-6-7 in 20 games since facing Washington.

3.  Rookies do not figure heavily in Flyers’ results, but Michael Raffl might be one to watch.  He is 2-2-4 in his last five games averaging more than 14 minutes per game.

4.  The Flyers bring a six-game home winning streak into this game, and this is one area where their goaltending has been solid.  The Flyers outscored their opponents by a 22-9 margin in those games, and Flyer goalies have a save percentage of .949.  The thing is, though, those six home games cover a 33-day period. It might not reflect the current state of goaltending.

5.  As befits a team sitting in sixth place in their division, Philadelphia is not the most adept squad at possession.  They are under 50 percent in both Corsi-for percentage in 5-on-5 close situations (49.6 percent) and Fenwick-for percentage (48.2 percent).  In both they rank in the bottom half of the league.  They are trending better in December, though.  The Flyers are above 50 percent in Corsi-for percentage in five of six games this month and 50 percent or better in four of six games in Fenwick-for percentage.

1.  Last year the Caps had three games decided in the bonus round out of 48 games played.  So far this season the Caps are 7-3 in the Gimmick.  They have already tied a franchise best in shootout wins (seven) and are within striking distance of the highest number of decisions in the freestyle round (13, off a 7-6 record in 2005-2006).

2.  Only two teams – Edmonton and Winnipeg (six apiece) – have allowed more shorthanded goals than the Caps (four).

3.  Washington has 42 goals scored in the second period this season.  They have only 51 scored in the first, second, and overtime periods combined.

4.  No team has more wins in extra time than the Caps.  They have nine such wins overall, two in overtime, seven in the Gimmick.

5.  The Caps scored seven goals in the clubs’ only meeting so far this season.  They scored only eight goals against the Flyers in three games last season.  The Caps are somewhat consistent in their record against the Flyers since the 2004-2005 lockout. Washington is 8-6-1 at home and 8-4-4 on the road against Philadelphia. 

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Philadelphia: Brayden Schenn

With Vincent Lecavalier out for the Flyers on injured reserve with a non-displaced fracture in his back, Philadelphia is going to have to replace his tied-for-the-team-lead nine goals from somewhere.  “Somewhere” might have to be Brayden Schenn.  The bad news here is that while he is the team’s third-leading goal scorer (seven), Schenn has only one goal in his last 14 games and none in his last ten contests after recording six in his first 18 games.  He has a goal and two assists in seven career games against Washington.

Washington: Nicklas Backstrom

Nicklas Backstrom scored his second career goal against Philadelphia back in 2007, an overtime game-winner in Bruce Boudreau’s first game as head coach for the Caps.  Since then he has been a thorn in the side of the Flyers – 11-24-35, plus-13 in 22 career games against Philadelphia.  Those 11 goals are tied for his highest total against any team and is the most against any club not in the former Southeast Division.  Two of those goals came in the Caps’ 7-0 win in Philadelphia on November 1^st, the first time he recorded two goals in a game since November 1, 2011 against Anaheim.  He comes into this home-and-home set with goals in his last two games, the first time he scored goals in consecutive games since he had them against Florida and, yes, Philadelphia on November 1^st and 2^nd.

Keys:

1.  Play your game… There will no doubt be something of a circus atmosphere to these games, especially the one in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, owing to the hijinks perpetrated by the Flyers in the 7-0 Caps blowout on November 1^st.  Let them feed the elephants.  Just play your game.

2.  Don’t “Give Up the Funk.”  If you know that reference, you’re old.  It refers to a song from the 1970’s associated with a dance craze at the time, “The Bump.”  The Caps might apply “the bump” to Flyer goalies, who might be on watch to see if the Caps are out for vengeance after the assault on their goalie in November.  Just let ‘em know you’re there (without the stick in their side, as another 70’s icon, Reggie Dunlop, might have recommended).

3.  Get out of the gate quick.  Only five teams have allowed more first period goals than the Caps; nine have scored fewer.  That’s a poor mix.  It is made more difficult by the fact that only the Los Angeles Kings have allowed fewer first period goals (12) than the Flyers (14).  Even in the 7-0 smackdown in November, the Caps scored only one first period goal.  They need to do better in their game starts.

In the end…

For fans, it should be entertaining.  Will the Caps retaliate?  Will the Flyers intimidate?  Will Pierre McGuire bloviate?  We have at least 120 minutes (or more) of old-fashioned divisional rival hockey to answer these and other questions.  But as Al Michaels once put it in another context, “this game is being viewed with varying perspectives.  But manifestly, it is a hockey game.”  Yes, this is not the United States taking on the Soviet Union in 1980.  As I-95 rivalries go, though, it’s not nothing.  But that’s what the Flyers will take away from this home and home.

Nothing.

Capitals 4 – Flyers 2

Capitals 3 – Flyers 1

Washington Capitals: A ONE point night -- Game 32: Panthers 3 - Capitals 2 (OT/Gimmick)

Live by the Gimmick, die by the Gimmick.

For the tenth time in 32 games the Washington Capitals failed to decide things in regulation time, failed to decide things in overtime, and hauled themselves into the circus of the trick shot competition.  Last night in Sunrise, Florida, the Caps and the Florida Panthers went ten rounds in the freestyle phase, and after 11 straight misses by the two teams Tomas Kopecky ended the drama in favor of the Panthers to give the home team a 3-2 win over the Caps.

There wasn’t a lot of drama in this one, frankly. More wonder… wonder at how the Panthers were able to get a lead, get a lead again, and keep the Caps from closing things out in the third period.  They got their first lead early in the second period when Dylan Olsen scored on a snap shot from low in the left wing faceoff circle, a goal that goalie Philipp Grubauer might have wanted back. 

Nicklas Backstrom tied it for the Caps in the 17^th minute of the period when Mikhail Grabovski split two Panther defenders behind the Florida net, tracked down a loose puck, and fed Backstrom in the slot for a one timer that banked in off the far post.

The tie lasted 82 seconds.  Alexander Barkov took a weak clearing attempt from Mike Green at the Caps blue line, circled in, and ripped a wrist shot past Grubauer.  That lead lasted 94 seconds.  On a power play, courtesy of the profoundly stupid match penalty taken when Eric Gudbranson head-whacked Eric Fehr, Joel Ward completed a tic-tac-toe passing play with Nicklas Backstrom and Marcus Johansson from point-blank range, the puck barely crossing the line, a result confirmed by video review.

And that was it for the scoring.  At least in the hockey phase of the game.

Other stuff…

-- The Caps lead the league in games decided in the Gimmick (ten), holding a 7-3 record after last night’s loss.

-- It was only the tenth time in 33 games that the Panthers scored first, third  fewest in the league.  Only Carolina and Buffalo have scored first fewer times.

-- Had Alex Ovechkin recorded three goals, he would have had his “50-in-50” and would have reached the 400 goal mark.  As it was, he had only three shot attempts (two on goal), none of them successful.

-- Form the “potential NHL star-of-the-week” file, the goal and assist from Nicklas Backstrom makes him 2-5-7 in last two games.  He is 2-7-9 in his las four contests.

-- 25 shots in 65 minutes?  It was the lowest shot total for the Caps since November 20^th, when they recorded only 18 in a 4-0 loss to Pittsburgh.

-- For Joel Ward, his power play goal was his first goal in 13 games. He had none since scoring goals in three consecutive games November 9-12.

-- The Caps had 11 shots blocked, nine of them taken by defensemen.

In the end, it was a “meh” game for the Caps, proving once more that: a) you can’t win just by showing up, and b) that the Caps test this proposition too often.  It is a game best just tossed in the closet and not remembered any further.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 32: Capitals at Panthers, December 13th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals take the road on Friday to visit balmy Sunrise, Florida, and the Florida Panthers.

It’s John Vanbiesbrouck Bobblehead Night at BB&T Center (which, if you follow the Panthers, stands for “Bad, Bogus, and Terrible” Center).  What better bobblehead could represent the Panthers?  He is a guy who is eligible to join AARP (he turned 50 on September 4^th), a goalie who played 449 games over 11 seasons in New York (of course!) before “retiring” to Florida at age 30 (ok, he was claimed on waivers from Vancouver, four days after the Rangers traded him to the Canucks) to grow bananas in his backyard, palm trees on his front lawn, and go on mall tours to teach fans about hockey.  

The thing is, though, Beezer was part of what made the “glory days” of the Panthers franchise glorious.  In his first season there – in 1995-1996, the third season of the franchise’s existence – he backstopped the Panthers to the Stanley Cup final.  And while the Panthers might have been swept by the Colorado Avalanche in that 1996 final, he went down fighting, yielding the only goal of Game 4 in the 105^th minute – the third overtime.

Bobble on, Beezer.

As for the current version of the Panthers, the only thing that growls – infrequently at that – is the canned panther growl on the public address system.  Florida is not a very good team.  They seem to have transplanted their Southeast Division mojo to their realigned Atlantic Division home rather nicely.

What they have done lately is play better.  They will bring a run of three wins in their last four games, their only loss coming against the Chicago Blackhawks, who seem to have that effect on most teams.

The Panthers’ 3-1-0 run over the last week has not been due to special teams.  Florida did not score a goal in any of the four games and is 0-for-13 dating back to their 4-2 loss to Ottawa on December 3^rd.  Their penalty killing has been about as frustrated, going 7-for-11 (63.3 percent).  A big bite of that is having allowed power play goals on each of Chicago’s three power plays in the Blackhawks’ 6-2 win over the Panthers on December 8^th.  They are 7-for-8 in their three wins.

If the Caps are taking this team lightly, they do so at their peril.  After an abysmal start (3-11-4 in their first 18 games), the Panthers are 7-6-1 in their last 14 games.  They are not measuring for space in the rafters for a Stanley Cup Champions banner, but Florida is at least treading water, so to speak. 

A big part of that was Tim Thomas, who was the goalie of record in 13 of those 14 games (Scott Clemmensen took the loss against the Blackhawks).  The former Boston Bruin hero has a respectable 2.50 goals against average in those 13 games and a .914 goals against average.

Here is how the clubs compare overall, numbers-wise.

1.  The Florida Panthers do not handle the competitive portions of games very well.  Small surprise for a team that is tied for 28th in the league in standings points.  But here is an example.  In 5-on-5 close situations, the Panthers have the second worst shooting percentage in the league (5.1 percent). Only Buffalo, which seems intent on establishing the current era’s standard for miserable play, is worse (4.8 percent).

2.  As if that was not bad enough, Florida has the worst – yes, even worse than Buffalo – save percentage in 5-on-5 close situations (.890).

3.  Only one Panther – Brad Boyes – is on a pace to score 20 goals (21).  Only Scottie Upshall (46) and Tomas Fleischmann (42) are on a pace for 40 or more points.

4.  As part of their recent 3-1-0 run the Panthers beat the Detroit Red Wings twice.  The last time they did that at all, let alone did it in one season (which they have not yet done in franchise history), was a 3-1 win on February 8, 1996 followed by a 4-2 win at Detroit the following season, on October 29, 1996.

5.  If possession is your thing, beware.  In 5-on-5 close situations, Florida has better possession numbers than do the Caps.  Looking at Fenwick-for percentages, there are the Panthers sitting in 17^th place (49.3 percent), while the Caps are at 25^th (47.4 percent).  Corsi-for?  Florida is 17^th (49.6 percent), while the Caps are 22^nd (48.2 percent).

1.  As you probably already know by now, if Alex Ovechkin records a hat trick in this game, it will make 50 goals in his last 50 games.

2.  Meanwhile, Nicklas Backstrom has 40 assists in his last 44 games.  Since Backstrom came into the league in the 2007-2008 season, only four players have more assists than his 331 assist total  – Henrik Sedin (401), Joe Thornton (365), Martin St. Louis (350), and Ryan Getzlaf (333).

3.  Eleven rookie goaltenders have dressed this season.  Philipp Grubauer ranks third among them in goals against average (1.36) and third in save percentage (.959).

4.  Washington has the fifth-best record in the league when trailing after two periods.  Don’t get all excited about that.  A 4-9-1 record is still a 4-9-1 record.

5.  Only Toronto (28) and Buffalo (25) have been outshot in more games than the Caps (22).  The Caps are 11-10-1 in games where they are outshot by their opponent, 5-2-1 when they outshoot them.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Florida: Scott Clemmensen

Tim Thomas left the ice early in Thursday’s practice for the Panthers, and the club called up Jacob Markstrom from their San Antonio affiliate in the AHL.  That means that backup Scott Clemmensen could be getting the call for the Panthers on Friday.  Clemmensen faced the Caps in the teams’ only meeting of the season to date, allowing two goals on only 23 shots in a 3-2 Gimmick win for the Caps on November 2^nd.  He has not been as good since.  In three appearances since facing the Caps, one in relief, Clemmensen is 0-2-0, 3.86, .845 in 140 minutes of work.  He is barely better against the Caps over his career – 4-7-3, 3.77, .861 in 21 career appearances.

Washington:  Marcus Johansson

Ovechkin scores the goals, Backstrom sets the table, and Johansson…  Well, lately it is hard to figure out what Johansson is doing, at least offensively.  In his last ten games, Marcus Johansson has two assists,  He has only one shot on goal in each of his last four games.  More disturbing, he has one even strength goal on 36 shots for the season (2.8 percent).  He does have eight assists at even strength, which is not bad, but he presents little scoring threat from the left side of the top line.  Yes, Ovechkin has 96 shots on goal at even strength for the season, but Johansson’ ability to present even just a little more of a scoring threat could open things up even more for the top line.  He is 3-6-9, plus-4, in 14 career games against the Panthers.

Keys:

1.  Shop.NHL.com.  If you shop on the NHL.com website (do not consider this an endorsement), you will note that the Florida Panthers are represented among the merchandise offerings.  They are an NHL team, and if the Caps take them as lightly as they did, oh, Carolina a little while ago, or if they peek ahead to their home-and-home against the Flyers following this game, it will be a hard night. 

2.  Score first.  This is the NHL, so this goes without saying.  However, there is only one team in the NHL that has fewer wins when scoring the first goal than the five Florida has (that would be ghastly Buffalo, with no wins when scoring first).  But that’s because Florida scores first so infrequently, only nine times in 32 games.  Only Buffalo has scored first fewer times (5).

3.  It’s 18 skaters, not one.  It’s easy to get mesmerized by Alex Ovechkin when he’s in a zone, but the Caps are not going to get four of every five goals off Ovechkin’s stick and still win games.  He’s not going to have a 200 goal season. 

In the end…

On paper, this is a game that should be over by the second intermission.  The thing is, there is that home-and-home against the Flyers on Sunday coming up on Sunday and Tuesday, and there are issues involving those games that could be a bit of a distraction here.  This is where coaches and the team’s leaders need to step up and enforce focus on the matter at hand.  These are two points that the Caps have no business giving away.

Capitals 5 – Panthers 2

Washington Capitals: A TWO point night -- Game 31: Capitals 6 - Lightning 5 (OT/Gimmick)

When the Washington Capitals and the Tampa Bay Lightning took the ice on Tuesday night at Verizon Center, one might have thought it would be a battle of goaltenders.  Tampa Bay’s Ben Bishop was among the league leaders in goals against average and save percentage, and Washington’s Braden Holtby had established himself as the go-to goaltender for the Caps who had climbed into the top-15 in save percentage after a slow start.

Things did not quite work out that way.  Holtby was chased early, and Bishop was abused in the middle and late as the Capitals roared back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the Lightning, 6-5, in a trick shot competition.

Tampa Bay lit up Holtby for three goals on eight shots in 11:07 of ice time in the first period before he was relieved in favor of Philipp Grubauer.  It was a case of Tampa Bay taking advantage of the odd play of Mike Green, who took three minor penalties in the first 9:07, the first two a double minor for hi-sticking.  The Lightning scored two power play goals in those three chances, then added an even-strength goal to make it 3-0.

It might have ended there, but Alex Ovechkin scored late in the first period on a one-timer that you would have to watch in slow motion to see the shot.  Nicklas Backstrom won a draw cleanly to Ovechkin, who blasted a shot between the legs of defenseman Andrej Sustr and past the blocker of goalie Ben Bishop.

Then came the second period.  Backstrom got the Caps back in it with a power play goal at 6:24 when a loose puck slid through the legs of defenseman Matt Carle and onto the stick of Backstrom, who beat Bishop high to the glove side to make it 3-2.

After Tyler Johnson restored the Lightning two-goal lead, the turning point of the game came.  Richard Panik was given a five-minute major penalty for boarding Karl Alzner in front of the scorer’s bench.  Seven seconds after the penalty was called, it was Ovechkin lulling B.J. Crombeen to sleep on another power play, jumping past Crombeen on a timing play to convert a pass from Marcus Johansson to make it 4-3.  Two minutes later, on the same power play, it was Ovechkin again for the hat trick, one-timing a pass from Mike Green with 72 seconds left in the period to tie the game at four apiece.

In the third period Ondrej Palat scored when Tyler Johnson whiffed on a shot in front of Grubauer, and the puck slid to Palat for a wrister that found the back of the net.  It almost ended that way.

Almost.

With Grubauer pulled for an extra attacker in the last minute, the Backstrom and Mikhail Grabovski did the hard work in the corner to win control of the puck and get it out to John Carlson at the left point.  Carlson wired the puck across to Ovechkin, who one-timed the puck through Bishop for his fourth goal and a 5-5 tie. 

After a scoreless overtime, it was left to the freestyle competition.  Through four rounds, Eric Fehr and Mikhail Grabovski scored for the Caps, Nikita Kucherov and Teddy Purcell for the Bolts.  That left it up to Troy Brouwer for the Caps, who beat Bishop to the glove side and put the pressure on Ondrej Palat for the Lightning.  Grubauer turned away Palat’s attempt with his blocker, and as the puck slid slowly by the right post, the Caps’ comeback was complete.

Other stuff…

-- For those of you scoring at home, that makes 48 goals in Alex Ovechkin’s last 50 games.  Since Ovechkin came into the league in 2005-2006, four-goal games have been accomplished 26 times.  Ovechkin is the only player to accomplish the feat three times.

-- Nicklas Backstom had the fourth five-point game of his career.  The four assists he had in this one gives Backstrom 46 helpers in his last 52 games.

-- The 18 minutes in penalties for Mike Green is a career high for a single game.  He had 20 penalty minutes in 35 games last season. 

-- If you look at the possession metrics, it is a story of two games.  The first was the first 11 minutes in which the Lightning scored three goals and held the Caps without a Fenwick event (shot on goal, missed shot) at 5-on-5 – not 5-on-5 close…5-on-5, period – for the first ten minutes.  After that, however, the slope of the Fenwick lines were closer (source: extraskater.com)…

-- We said in the prognosto that Marty St. Louis would get his points.  He did.  A goal and two assists for The Constant Irritant.  We also said Valtteri Filppula could not and the Caps still win.  He did not…no points.  But geez, everyone else did for the Lightning.  After St. Louis, nine other Lightning had points.  Tyler Johnson had the biggest night of his career to date with a goal and two assists.

-- The Lightning were 16-2-0 in games in which they scored at least three goals.  The operative word in that sentence is “were.”   Now they are 16-2-1.

-- The Caps broke a streak for Ben Bishop in which he allowed two or fewer goals in five consecutive games.

-- The points for Backstrom…sweet.  But he was also 15-for-22 in the faceoff circle, 5-for-6 in the offensive end, 7-for-9 in the defensive end.

-- Eric Fehr led the team in hits?  Really?  Yup… he had five.

-- The weirdest scoring line on either team’s score sheet has to be Nate Schmidt’s.  In 14 minutes and change… nothing.  No shots, no shot attempts, no hits, no takeaways, no blocked shots. 

It was one helluva comeback, but before we get too giddy, think on this.  Ovechkin had four goals…Backstrom had five points.  Both finished “even” for the game.  The Lightning let the door swing wide open with the Panik major penalty, and the Caps stormed through it.  Good on them.  But it was not the kind of win you want to point to and say, “they played well.”  The Caps fought furiously to come back, and in one of those instances when the effort expended has a cost, almost let it slip away again when the Lightning scored in the third period.  But this was testament to the skill and determination that Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom still have, and on this night it was enough to sustain the Caps and remind fans just how good they remain.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 31: Lightning at Capitals, December 10th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals return home on Tuesday night to host the Tampa Bay Lightning at Verizon Center.  This will be a matchup of two teams with as much history against one another as former Southeast Division rivals could have with one another.  Tampa Bay is one of three teams that the Caps faced in all 14 seasons of the Southeast Division, the Caps compiling a regular season record of 68-30-6-6. 

The Capitals record book is sprinkled with references to the Lightning…

• Most unanswered goals (9), the last of the four times this was accomplished came against the Lightning on February 3, 1999, a 10-1 win for Washington
• Largest winning margin (9 goals), the last of the four times accomplished coming in that February 3, 1999 game
• Most goals in a period (8), yup… in that February 3, 1999 game
• Most shots in a period (25)…ditto
• Fastest three goals by an individual (2:06), by Peter Bondra in a 6-3 win over Tampa bay on February 5, 1994
• Fastest four goals by an individual (4:12), by Peter Bondra in that same 6-3 win over Tampa bay on February 5, 1994
• Fastest four goals by an individual (24:46), by Peter Bondra in that same 6-3 win over Tampa bay on February 5, 1994

The recent history of the clubs is less kind to the Capitals.  Tampa Bay was the only club in the Southeast that the Caps ever met in the post-season, doing so twice.  Both times the Lightning were victorious, winning in 2003 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals on a power play goal by Martin St. Louis in the third overtime, the other in 2011 when the Lightning swept the Caps in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Now these teams are in different divisions, the Caps in the Metropolitan and the Lightning in the Atlantic.  They have similar records – the Caps at 16-12-2, the Lightning at 17-10-2 – but they are going in different directions.  The Caps have won four of their last five games, while the Lightning are 3-5-2 in their last ten.

The striking thing about the Lightning over their past ten games is their wildly uneven offense.  Tampa Bay has only 19 goals scored in those ten games and were shut out three times in the process (twice by 1-0 scores, one of those in overtime).  In their wins, though, they scored a total of 12 goals, a decent offensive output.

This unevenness is largely a product of having lost Steven Stamkos to a broken right tibia against Boston on Veterans Day.  In his stead, the goal scoring has been picked up by winger Martin St. Louis (4-4-8 over the last ten games) and defenseman Victor Hedman (3-3-6).  St. Louis, as any Caps fan knows, has been a thorn in the side of the club for years.  He is 28-48-76, plus-6, in 72 career regular season games against Washington.  Hedman has much less history against the Caps, posting a 1-4-5, minus-3 scoring line in 20 career games against Washington.

Here is how the clubs compare overall through Sunday's games…

1.  Three is the magic number for Tampa Bay.  The Lightning are 16-2-0 in games in which they score at least three goals, 1-8-2 when they do not.

2.  For a team that has been defensively challenged in recent years, they have performed well in this respect.  Only six teams have allowed fewer goals at 5-on-5 than the Lightning (45).  A big part of that is their first period play.  Through Sunday’s games only three teams have allowed fewer first period goals overall than Tampa Bay (14).

3.  Keeping things close is what the Lightning want to do.  They are 12-4-3 in games decided by two or fewer goals, 5-6 in games decided by three or more goals.

4.  Only Colorado (13) and San Jose (12) have more wins than Tampa Bay (11) when leading after one period.  The Lightning are 11-1-0 in such games.

5.  Whatever Tampa Bay is doing to get to their 17-10-2 record, possession does not seem to be a big part of it.  The Lightning are a rather mediocre possession team, posting a Fenwick-for percentage in 5-on-5 close situations of 50.0 percent (15^th in the league), a Corsi-for percentage in those situations of 50.4 percent (12^th).  Their performance has not been appreciably worse over their current 3-5-2 slide.  Five games at better than 50 percent Fenwick-for, five worse.  Four games over 50 percent in Corsi-for percentage, six worse.  Perhaps the possession issues are catching up to the Lightning.

1.  The Caps have won four of five games, which matches their best five-game stretch of the season, accomplished twice.

2.  This is the first meeting of the former division rivals this season.  Last season the Caps swept the series after losing the first of the four game series, winning all three games and scoring 14 goals in the process.

3.  Leading at the end of one period is something the Caps need to work on.  Six teams have led at the first intermission less often than the Caps, who have done so seven times in 30 games.  Those teams hardly inspire fear – Winnipeg, Edmonton, Florida, Calgary, the Islanders, and Buffalo.

4.  At the other end, the Caps are one of only three teams in the NHL thus far to have not scored an empty net goal.  Only five teams have fewer empty net goals scored against them than the Caps (2).

5.  Possession progress… Against the Rangers, the Caps set a club high fourth straight game with a Fenwick-for percentage in 5-on-5 close situations above 50 percent.  It might not be a coincidence that the Caps scored 11 even strength goals in those games.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Tampa Bay: Ben Bishop

Ben Bishop appears to have taken a firm grip on the number one goaltending role for the Lightning.  He should.  Comparing the intra-club statistics, he has a goals against average that is more than a full goal per game better than backup Anders Lindback (1.98 to 3.10) and a save percentage that is almost 50 points better (.934 to .887).  Bishop is ninth in the league in GAA and tied for sixth in save percentage.  If anything, he has been even better in the Lightning’s 3-5-2 slide.  Bishop is 2-3-1 over that stretch, but he has a goals against average of 1.65 and a save percentage of .948 with one shutout.  Three of his four losses came by shutout by his opposite number, one in overtime.  He allowed only four goals in those three games.  It is a far distance from his career record against the Caps – 0-2-0, 4.41, .884 in three appearances.

Washington: Martin Erat

On November 25^th Martin Erat went public with a demand to be traded.  At the time he said, “I want to be traded. We’ll see how it goes.  Since day one, I didn’t get the chance here. I got traded here to be a top-six player but never got the chance, never played more than 15 minutes in here, and it’s time for me to move on.”  Since then, Erat has dressed for four games, and while he has only played more than 15 minutes once (16:31 in the Caps’ 5-2 win over his former team, the Nashville Predators), he has averaged more than 13 minutes a game and has three assists.  His work with Joel Ward and Jason Chimera centering the third line has been solid.  In addition to the three assists, he has been on ice for only two of the nine goals scored against the Caps over those four games.  Against the Lightning he is 1-4-5, even, in nine career games.

Keys:

1.  Win the fives.  Tampa Bay has an odd record when it comes to special teams.  They are 11-3-0 when allowing opponents four or more power play chances.  The recent run of 5-on-5 success is something the Caps might need to extend here, since getting a bunch of power play chances might not have the benefits one would expect.

2.  More than Marty.  Martin St. Louis has been a thorn in the side of the Caps over his career, but Valtteri Filppula has had a fine start to his career in Tampa.  Signed by the Lightning away from the Detroit Red Wings last summer, Filppula is third on the team in goals and points, tied for second in assists.  He is also tied for the team lead in power play goals.  Marty might get his points, but Filppula can’t and Caps still win.

3.  Second chances.  Ben Bishop is playing at such a high level at the moment it seem inconceivable that first shots are going to do a lot of damage.  The Caps are going to have to get greasy and make Bishop unfold his large frame (6’7”) to make second and, if needed, third stops.

In the end…

The Caps are catching the Lightning at a good time.  Tampa Bay has lost three of four games and seven of their last ten.  On the other hand, the Caps have won four of five.  And, they are doing more of the things they need to do – win at even-strength, get more scoring than just Alex Ovechkin, get defense involved in the play – to sustain a level of performance.

Capitals 4 – Lightning 2

Washington Capitals: A TWO point night -- Game 30: Capitals 4 - Rangers 1

It took a little while, but the Washington Capitals finally solved Henrik Lundqvist.  The Caps had not scored a goal on the New York Rangers goaltender in 180 minutes coming into tonight’s contest at Madison Square Garden.  Lundqvist tacked on another 20 minutes and change for good measure, but the Caps finally broke through and defeated the Rangers, 4-1.

Lundqvist carried his scoreless minutes streak against the Caps into the second period of this game, but not for too long.  In the third minute of the period a Steve Oleksy drive was deadened in front of the Rangers’ net by defenseman John Moore, but the puck was left loose amid a pile of bodies.  Martin Erat took a swipe at it, and Lundqvist got his left pad on the shot.  But in his effort to make the save Lundqvist was sprawled on his back with the puck lying to his left.  Jason Chimera was first to it and stuffed it into the net just before he was cleaned out by Justin Falk, giving the Caps the 1-0 lead and ending Lundqvist’s shutout streak against the Caps at 202:28.

Scoring seemed to agree with the Caps, because they did it again less than half a minute later.  Jay Beagle won a race to a loose puck in the corner to Lundqvist’s right.  He threw the puck out to the top of the zone where Steve Oleksy was camped.  Oleksy let fly with a harmless looking wrist shot that snaked its way past several bodies and over the left shoulder of Lundqvist to give the Caps a 2-0 lead.

Late in the period Derick Brassard carried the puck into the Caps’ end, and after coming to a full stop he left the puck for defenseman Ryan McDonagh.  When McDonagh tried to return the puck to Brassard, the pass was too long, and Brassard could only deflect the puck to Troy Brouwer.  As Brouwer collected the puck, Mikhail Grabovski anticipated the play and broke out between McDonagh and Brassard.  Brouwer led Grabovski perfectly with a lead pass, and Grabovski was in alone on Lundqvist.  McDonagh hooked Grabovski as he was preparing to shoot, and Grabovski’s hindered attempt was turned aside by Lundqvist.  But when play was stopped after continuing for several seconds, a penalty shot was signaled.  Grabovski wasted little time.  He skated in, wound up, and drilled a slap shot from the hash marks that flew high over Lundqvist’s glove and under the crossbar to put the Caps up, 3-0.

The Caps made it 4-0 late in the third period by following up on a narrowly missed chance.  It started when Troy Brouwer rang a shot off the post off a feed from Grabovski at the right wing faceoff dot.  The puck made its way all the way to the Ranger blue line where Nate Schmidt collected it, stepped up and let fly with a shot that beat Lundqvist through his pads.

The Rangers spoiled the shutout barely a minute later when Benoit Pouliot deflected a Michael Del Zotto drive down and past goalie Philipp Grubauer, but it was much too little, much too late for the Blueshirts as the Caps finished things up with a 4-1 win.

Other stuff…

-- Grubauer turned aside 30 of 31 shots to pick up his first NHL win.  He was not called upon to make many difficult saves, but he was solid throughout in a difficult arena in which to play.

-- It was the third consecutive game in which a Capitals defenseman scored a goal, but just as important, it was the fourth straight game in which a Caps defenseman figured in the scoring.  Over their last four games Caps defensemen have five goals and four assists.

-- The Caps managed the Rangers’ shot totals very well.  Even though New York finished with 31 shots on goal, they had only 17 after two periods.  The Caps had that total in the second period alone.

-- In the prognosto we noted one of the keys was to find shooting lanes.  The Caps managed to get 64 percent of their shot attempts on net (36 of 56) and had only nine shots blocked.  There seemed to be periods in which the Rangers would block nine shots in the recent past.

--  Another key was getting on rebounds (even though it was Lundqvist leaving them, not, as we assumed Cam Talbot).  Jason Chimera did, and even Nate Schmidt’s goal was a long rebound of sorts, off a post.

-- Then there was balance.  Once more, it was not just “The Ovie Show.”  Alex Ovechkin was extremely active and dangerous, but he finished with what for him was a comparatively low shot attempt total (six attempts, four on goal).  But four different Caps had goals, and six different Caps had points.  Even Jay Beagle got into the scoring column with an assist.

-- In a nugget that strikes us as a bit odd, and perhaps a scoring fluke, the Caps were credited with 23 hits spread among 16 different skaters.  No Cap finished with more than two, and only Mike Green and John Carlson were hitless.

-- For the fourth time in five games the Caps held an opponent to two or fewer power play opportunities.  The Rangers had two, neither of which bore fruit.  The Caps are 10-for-11 killing penalties over those five games (90.9 percent).

-- This was only the second time in 13 home games that the Rangers allowed more than 30 shots.  They won the other instance, a 5-2 win over Vancouver back on November 30^th.

-- This was the tenth time this season that the Caps recorded three goals in a game.  They are 9-1-0 in those games, the only loss coming against Ottawa.  They scored three first period goals in that game but lost, 6-4.

-- The Grabovski-Brouwer-Eric Fehr line was quite active.  They had 11 of the Caps’ 56 shot attempts.

In the end…

The Caps played a nice, tight, efficient game.  They have the ability to do this on a more sustained basis, and they need it on those nights when the top line doesn’t get points.  The added highlight here is the activation of the defense, which has been featured often in the scoring lately.  The Caps also played stand up hockey in their own end, letting Philipp Grubauer get a good look at the shots he faced and denying the Rangers opportunities otherwise.  If not for another video-confirmed goal (someday the Caps will be on the good side of one of those calls), Grubauer would have had a shutout for his first NHL win.  It was a good night all around for the Caps, who have now won both sides of a back-to-back set three times in five tries so far this season.  It made for a nice weekend and a fine start to the week.

Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was -- Week 10

Week 10 was a light week for the Washington Capitals, but it did not lack for action or drama.

Record: 1-1-0

It was the first two-game week since Week 2, and it ended better than did that one.  The Caps were flat against Carolina, a product of what might have been a disturbing attitude.  The loss to Carolina dropped the Caps further behind the Metropolitan Division-leading Pittsburgh Penguins, but the win over the Nashville Predators to end the week preserved the Caps’ position in second place in the Metro.  That lead is precarious, a one-point margin over the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes, but the Caps have games in hand against both clubs.  The Caps can extend that margin on Sunday when they visit the Rangers in New York.

Offense: 3.00/game (season: 2.83 / rank: 9^th)

In a short week, it might be expected that the scoring totals would be light.  What the Caps had, for good or for bad, was balance.  Six different players scored one goal apiece – Mike Green, Alex Ovechkin (both on power plays), Troy Brouwer, Eric Fehr, Karl Alzner, and Nate Schmidt.  The goals for Alzner and Schmidt were especially noteworthy.  For Alzner it was his first goal at Verizon Center in 148 games as a Capital.  For Schmidt it was his first NHL goal.  The 32 shots on goal against Nashville was the first time in four games that the Caps finished with more than 30 shots on goal.

Defense: 3.00/game (season: 2.83 / rank: T-22^nd)

From the “broken record” file… shots on goal remain an issue.  The Caps finished the week allowing 68 shots in two games, which meant that their average shots per game actually went down (to 35.0 allowed per game), but only Toronto has allowed more shots per game (37.0) than the Caps.

The good news was that the Caps had a solid possession week.  They finished the week with a Corsi-for percentage in 5-on-5 close situations of 56.8 and a Fensick-for percentage in those situations of 53.9.  That is a bit inflated for the end-game possession numbers in the Carolina game.  The Caps started that game well enough, holding Carolina to 15 total Fenwick events for a long stretch of the second period.  But Carolina had a flurry, scored three goals, and the competitive portion of that game was over.  The Caps got some mop-up possession numbers at the end.  The Nashville game was much better in that the Caps had a persistent edge in Fenwick events, even after jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first period.  It was not until midway through the third period of that game that the Predators close the gap in that regard, and by that time, it was too late.  The Caps pulled away in Fenwick events at the end, following their last goal in the 5-2 win.

Goaltending: 3.00 GAA / ..912 save percentage (season: 2.71 / .921 / 1 shutout)

Braden Holtby has been nurturing a disturbing trend.  He can be very, very good.  Or, he can be very, very not.  He allowed four goals on 23 shots in 40 minutes of work against Carolina, giving way to Philipp Grubauer, who stopped all nine shots he faced in relief in the Hurricanes’ 4-1 win.  The thing about Holtby, though, is that he seems to take poor performances personally.  In his last ten games following one in which he allowed four or more goals, Braden Holtby is 9-0-1, including his win against Nashville to close the week.  Grubauer’s week provides an interesting footnote.  In three career NHL appearances he has appeared in relief twice. He is a perfect 23-for-23 stopping shots in those games.

Power Play: 2-9 / 22.2 percent (season: 23.2 percent / rank: 4^th)

It was a decent week for the power play.  It bordered on the superb for Mike Green, who finally got off the schneid, goal-scoring wise, when he potted his first goal of the season – on a power play – for the Caps’ only goal in their 4-1 loss to Carolina.  It came on his 65^th shot on goal of the season.  As for the power play in general, a 22.2 percent week isn’t bad, it isn’t extraordinary.  Two goals on 13 shots in 13:52 of man-advantage ice time is a workman-like week.  Green figures in the ice time as well.  He assumed a more active role on the power play, getting 7:54 of the 13:52 of ice time, compared to the 6:08 that John Carlson received on the man advantage.

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Penalty Killing: 4-5 / 80.0 percent (season: 83.3 percent / rank: T-14^th)

The key here was opportunities.  The Caps allowed only five power play opportunities for the week and were an Andrej Sekera goal from being perfect in killing them.  That was a difficult power play for the Caps, who allowed the Hurricanes more than a minute of offensive zone time and could not deal with Tuomo Ruutu setting a screen in front of Braden Holtby.  You could see Holtby desperately trying to find a lane to see through, and he ended up guessing wrong, leaning one way to get a view and having the goal sail past him on the other side.  Still, it was not a bad week on the penalty kill, if only for not having to kill too many.

Even Strength Goals For/Against: 4-5 (season: 54-60; 5-on-5 GF/GA ratio: 0.93 / rank: 19^th)

After a run of “even” weeks, the Caps slipped here.  They allowed three even strength goals to Carolina – two when the game was competitive -- and two to Nashville.  Those two came after the Caps went out to three-goal leads.  The made the game interesting, but not as much competitive.  The Caps did a decent job of holding down opponents’ even strength shots, allowing 57 in all.  That number is deceptively high.  Carolina had only 23 for the game in the first game of the week (18 in the first two periods), and Nashville had 34 in the game to end the week (11 in the third period).  Still, the comparison is against a low standard.  The Caps need to clamp down further on opponent’s chances at even strength.

Faceoffs: 64-130 / 49.2 percent (season: 48.3 percent / rank: 23^rd)

It was a better week than what the Caps experienced recently in the circle.  This is not the same as saying it was a good one.  The problem is that the Caps were underwater in the ends. They were 22-for-45 in the offensive end (48.9 percent) and 20-for-43 in the defensive end (46.5 percent).  Much of that is the product of a poor night against Carolina, 44.0 percent in the offensive end and 45.0 percent in the defensive zone.  Nicklas Backstrom and Martin Erat had interesting mirror image weeks.  Backstrom was 10-for-17 in the offensive end (58.9 percent), but only 5-for-15 in the defensive end (33.3 percent).  Erat was 6-for-10 in the defensive end (60.0 percent), but was shutout on five draws in the offensive end.

Goals For/Against by Period:

It was a”doughnit” week for the Caps in Week 10.  Three first period goals, three in the third.  They were shutout in the second period for the week.  Given the Caps’ success in the second period of games this season (they are still eighth in goals scored in the middle frame), it was a bit odd.  On the other side, the good news is that the Caps allowed only one third period goal, not bad for a team that has allowed the tenth highest total of third period goals this season.

In the end…

The Caps tread water this week.  They are still in second place in the Metropolitan Division, but it is not a strong hold that they have on it.  It was an odd symmetry for the week – one poor game, one good one.  For a week with little on the schedule, that made for a lot to talk about and break down.  What we are left with, though, is wondering which team the Caps are – the one that was flat against the Hurricanes, or the one that jumped on the Predators’ throats early in the second game of the week. 

The difficult is that the same issues remain.  The Caps struggle at even strength, they don’t get enough secondary scoring, too much of the offense still runs to – not through, to – Alex Ovechkin.  It’s nice that he leads the league in goals, but having more than twice as many as the next Capital (and you would not think Joel Ward would finish the year with the second highest goal total) makes for the sort of imbalance that makes it difficult for the Caps to win games in which he does not score a goal.

Like this week.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 30: Capitals at Rangers, December 8th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals get right back to it on Sunday night, heading to New York City after their 5-2 win against Nashville last night to take on the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

Both teams will take the ice in the back half of back-to-back games.  The Rangers dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, so at least the Rangers will have the luxury of spending the night in their own beds.  The Caps jetted off to Manhattan following their game against Nashville.

The Rangers have alternated wins and losses over their last eight games (4-3-1), culminating with their overtime loss to the Devils on Saturday.  Over those eight games the Rangers outscored their opponents, 22-21, and the scoring for the Blueshirts has been rather tightly bunched.  Six Rangers have five or more points in this eight-game stretch, and they are familiar names… Brad Richards (3-4-7), Ryan McDonagh (2-6-8), Rick Nash (4-3-6), Derek Stepan (1-4-5), Chris Kreider (4-1-5), and Mats Zuccarello.

Who?

Mats Zuccarello… With four goals and six assists over these last eight games, Zuccarello is the Rangers’ leading scorer.  Those ten points exceed his entire total for last season in 15 games played and is almost as many as he compiled over the past two seasons in 25 games played (5-6-11).  In three career games against the Caps he has one assist.

Of more immediate concern to the Rangers is a player who does not generally figure much in the offense.  Marc Staal took a hit from New Jersey’s Reid Boucher last night in the third period of the Rangers’ overtime loss to the Devils.  The incident left Staal feeling, in the words of head coach Alain Vigneault, “[not] quite right.”  It is not clear whether Staal sustained a concussion in the hit; he missed 36 games to one in the 2011-2012 season.

The Rangers have been fortunate to date concerning injuries on the blue line, Staal’s immediate future notwithstanding.  Only seven defensemen have dressed for New York so far this season (compare that to 12 for the Caps), and if Staal is out, it could open the way for Michael Del Zotto, a healthy scratch last night (one of seven this season), to return to the lineup.  Del Zotto, who seems to be to Ranger fans what Jeff Schultz was to Caps fans (that is, a lightning rod for criticism), has struggled this season.  He does not provide a lot of offense (2-3-5 in 22 games), and he is not an especially good possession player (under 50 percent at 5-on-5 in both Corsi-for and Fenwick-for percentages; source: extraskater.com).  In 15 games against the Caps he is 0-5-5, plus-4.

Here is how the two teams compare overall…

 

1.  The Rangers are the only club in the NHL that has not yet participated in the Gimmick.

2.  Rangers special teams have been quite efficient in their recent 4-3-1 run of alternating decisions.  The power play is 6-for-28 (21.4 percent), while the penalty kill is 17-for-19 (89.5 percent).  It is also worth noting the plus-9 that the Rangers have enjoyed in special team opportunities over that eight-game stretch.

3. For a team that doesn’t score much and doesn’t give up much, the Rangers do not have a lot of one-goal decisions on their ledger this season.  Only four teams have fewer one-goal games than the 12 played by the Rangers so far (5-6-1).

4.  If the Caps have had issues at 5-on-5 this season, the Rangers have had issues in bold letters.  Only Philadelphia and Buffalo have scored fewer goals at 5-on-5 than New York.  Despite having a more respectable 18^th place ranking in 5-on-5 goals allowed, the Rangers are 26^th in their ratio of goals scored to goals allowed at 5-on-5.

5.  What the Rangers are is a competent possession team.  They rank 11^th overall in Fenwick-for percentage in 5-on-5 close situations.  When finishing a game at or better than 50 percent in such situations, the Rangers are 10-6-0 (3-5-0, however, at home).

1.  This the fifth set of back-to-backs played by the Caps so far this season.  In the four previous sets, what the Caps did in the first game, they did in the second.  They beat both Philadelphia and Florida on November 1-2, they lost to both Phoenix (in a Gimmick) and Colorado on November 9-10, they lost to Montreal and Toronto (in another Gimmick) on November 22-23, and they beat Montreal and the Islanders on November 29-30.

2.  When the Caps scored on a power play against Nashville, it marked the first time in almost a month that they scored power play goals in consecutive games.  Their previous two-fer was November 7^th and 9^th against Minnesota and Phoenix, respectively.

3.  The Caps have done well of late managing the other team’s power plays.  In three of their last four games the Caps allowed the opposition two or fewer power play chances and have allowed only 16 chances in their last six games.

4.  It is hard to come back in games in the NHL when you fall behind, but there is only one team in the league that has more wins than the Caps (4) when trailing after one period.  Don’t put too much stock in it; the team is Buffalo.  Five of their six wins came after trailing after one period.

5.  Washington is a “real-time” warrior.  If you go to the “real time” statistics at NHL.com, you will find that the Caps are a top-five club in blocked shots, missed shots, and takeaways.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

New York: Henrik Lundqvist

Let’s face it.  Job One in this game is “Solve Lundqvist.”  The Rangers’ netminder has 180 consecutive minutes of shutout hockey against the Caps going back to when he allowed the game-winning goal to Mike Ribeiro in overtime of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals last spring.  That is 84 consecutive shots turned away over three games – the series tying and series clinching wins in the playoffs last spring, and a 2-0 shutout of the Caps on October 16^th.  It is entirely possible that Lundqvist will not get this start, since he got the call in the Rangers’ 4-3 overtime loss to New Jersey last night.  If he gets the night off, that means that the Caps will face Cam Talbot for the first time.  He might be ripe for the taking.  After eight straight appearances in which he allowed two or fewer goals, he was lit up for four on 29 shots in a 5-2 loss to Winnipeg in his last appearance, last Monday.

Washington: Braden Holtby

One would think is unlikely (not impossible) that Philipp Grubauer would get the call against the Rangers, so that means Braden Holtby appears likely to get the back-to-back call.  Fortunately, he had a comparatively easy time of it against Nashville, the Caps winning by a 5-2 margin on Saturday night.  The concern here is that in four instances of playing both end of back-to-backs so far in his career, Holtby is 2-1-1, 3.30, .902 in the second game, not an especially sterling level of performance.  He has one such instance of playing back-to-backs this season, winning both games, both of them in extra time.  He posted a 3-2 shootout win over Montreal and a 3-2 overtime win over the New York Islanders on November 29-30.  He is 2-3-1 against the Rangers in regular season games in his career with a 1.95 goals against average and a .943 save percentage.

Keys:

1.  Find shooting lanes.  You can take the Tortorella out of New York, but you can’t take the Tortorella out of the Rangers…not entirely.  In their lone meeting this season so far, the Rangers blocked as many Caps shot attempts as the Caps recorded on goal (22).  The Caps need to make the goaltender work harder.

2.  You can’t spell “rebound” without “bound.”  Talbot looked a bit leaky in his game against Winnipeg last Monday.  If he is getting the call, the Caps need to have boundless enthusiasm for getting to the net to whack at any loose change he might leave lying about.

3.  Balance.  See what happens when it’s not just “The Ovie Show?”  The Caps had shooting and scoring balance from the forward lines and defense against Nashville.  Having credible threats on more than just one line and maybe more than one (if that) defenseman puts more pressure on an opponent.

In the end…

It is not a statement game, but it does have repercussions.  The Rangers have had the Caps number lately – two playoff series wins, and they haven’t beaten the Rangers in a game settled in the hockey portion of the competition since April 7, 2012.  And, the winner of this game will be in second place in the Metropolitan Division (unless the Caps lose in extra time).  The odd part of this game is that the Rangers, who play in arguably one of the most difficult arenas in the league for opponents, have the worst home record in the Metropolitan Division (5-6-1).  They are 1-4-1 in their last six home contests and have scored only 11 goals in doing it.  This game actually sets up pretty well for the Caps.

Capitals 3 – Rangers 2

Washington Capitals: A TWO point night -- Game 29: Capitals 5 - Predators 2

If you’re a fan of the Washington Capitals, that’s the way it’s supposed to happen.

The Caps scored early, scored late, and scored in-between.  At the other end they held the Nashville Predators to two inconsequential goals and won, 5-2, at Verizon Center on Saturday night.

Troy Brouwer got things started for the Caps in the seventh minute by first corralling a loose puck at the top of the offensive zone and keeping the offensive pressure on for the Caps, then circling around the net to the top of the crease where he backhanded a rebound of an Eric Fehr drive past the right pad of goalie Marek Mazanec.

Later in the period, Alex Ovechkin notched his league-leading 22^nd goal on a power play.  Nicklas Backstrom won a faceoff to Mazanec’s right, pulling the puck back to Ovechkin at the top of the left wing circle.  Ovechkin wasted no time, winding and firing a slap shot that handcuffed Mazanec and popped over his left pad to make it 2-0, Caps.

Just over three minutes after the Ovechkin goal, Nicklas Backstrom won a faceoff back to Karl Alzner at the left point.  Alzner sent the puck across to Mike Green at the right point, but Green having no clear shooting lane, he sent the puck back to Alzner.  From the middle of the ice, Alzner let fly with a shot through a screen that Mazanec saw too late.  All he could do was wave at it with his glove as it flew by, and the Caps were up, 3-0.

It would have been a letter-perfect first period for the Caps, but Nashville got one back in the last minute of the period.  Roman Josi split a pair of Capital defenders at the blue line and wristed a shot that seemed to surprise goalie Braden Holtby, whose glove was not quick enough to corral the shot that found the top corner on the far side.  The puck might have changed direction ever so slightly by nicking the shaft of Mike Green’s stick on the way in.

After a scoreless second period, The Caps came out early in the third period and scored on Nate Schmidt’s first NHL goal.  The play started when Martin Erat dug the puck out of a pile in the right wing faceoff circle and skated it into the corner.  He turned and threaded a pass through the circle and a clot of bodies to Schmidt on the opposite point.  Schmidt fired a slap shot that beat Mazanec cleanly on the blocker side, and he had his first NHL goal to make it 4-1.

Nashville scored on the next shift, a wrist shot by Eric Nystrom finishing a 2-on-1 rush.  That would be as close as the Predators would get, tbough.  Eric Fehr closed the scoring in the 15^th minute of the period.  Mikhail Grabovski skated the puck into the Nashville zone and dropped the puck for Fehr at the left point.  Fehr stepped in and from the top of the faceoff circle ripped a wrist shot past Mazanec to make it 5-2.

Other stuff…

-- For Alzner and his goal it was a first…on several levels.  It was his first goal of the season.  It was his first goal in 63 games.  It was his first career goal at Verizon Center in 148 games.

-- Four even strength goals was not a season best for the Caps, but it was close.  The Caps had five against the Flyers on November 1^st in a 7-0 win.

-- For those of you who keep track of such things, this was the Fenwickiest game of the season for the Caps in 5-on-5 close situations.  The notable part of the Caps’ 68.6 percent to the good effort was that they held the Predators to just six Fenwick events in these situations.  Maybe because the game wasn’t close after the 13:09 mark of the first period when the Caps took a 2-0 lead.  It was indicative of something the Caps haven’t had much of this season – strong early starts.

-- And now, your odd Eric Fehr stat of the evening.  Fehr had two points last night, a goal and an assist.  And when Eric Fehr gets two points, the Caps win.  This was the 18^th consecutive game in which Fehr recorded at least two points and the Caps won.  The last time the Caps lost a game when Fehr recorded two or more points was on February 11, 2009, when he had a goal and an assist in a 5-4 loss to the New York Rangers.

-- Troy Brouwer broke an 11-game streak without a goal with his first period tally.  It was his second even-strength goal of the season, the last one coming on October 19^th against Columbus.

-- With his goal tonight, Alex Ovechkin has 56 goals in his last 82 games.  In his 65-goal season in 2007-2008 he did not record his 22^nd goal until Game 31.  He got his 22^nd goal in his 27^th game of this season.

-- In his last ten games following one in which he allowed four or more goals, Braden Holtby is 9-0-1.

-- The five goals allowed by Marek Mazanec was the most he allowed in a single game in his young career (14 appearances).

-- The third line of Martin Erat centering Joel Ward and Jason Chimera certainly was an active one.  The trio combined for 16 shot attempts and ten of the 33 total shots on goal for the Caps.  Erat and Ward, both former Predators, had assists on Nate Schmidt’s goal.

In the end…

That’s the way it’s supposed to happen.  It doesn’t of course, but there haven’t been a lot of games like this for the Caps this season.  It was the fifth time this season the Caps scored five or more goals, but it was only the third time they did so and won by more than one goal.  The Caps got primary scoring with an Ovechkin goal and two assists from Nicklas Backstrom.  They got secondary scoring from Troy Brouwer (a goal) and Mikhail Grabovski (two assists), and they got unexpected punch from the blue line, Nate Schmidt and Karl Alzner getting goals.  At the other end Braden Holtby had a couple of hiccups, goals he might want back and frankly might not have allowed in a closer game, but was otherwise solid.  It saved the week for the Caps, ensuring a .500 result.  Now, let’s see if they can make it an even better weekend as they head to New York for the back half of this back-to-back set.