The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 74: Lightning at Capitals, March 20th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

Four days ago, the Washington Capitals and the Tampa Bay Lightning met in Tampa.  On Wednesday night, they meet again, this time in Washington.  Not much has changed in the intervening days, so go read this again for a refresher. 

But there are some fun facts and nifty nuggets of information you might like or use to impress your friends. This will be the 64^th meeting of the teams in Washington in the history of the series.  Tampa Bay has won only 12 times in regulation.  The 12^th time was the last time the teams met in D.C., a 4-2 win for the Bolts last February 20^th. Odd thing about that game; the Lightning had only 19 shots on goal.  It was the second time in a span of four games in Washington that Tampa Bay generated only 19 shots.  Including that game, the Caps are 22-3-2 in their last 27 regular season games against Tampa Bay in Washington, dating back to March 2007.

Over those 27 games, the Caps…

• Outscored Tampa Bay, 108-68
• Outshot the Lightning, 853-789
• Converted 25 of 97 power play chances (25.8 percent)
• Killed 69 of 85 shorthanded situtations (81.2 percent)
• Won 864 of 1,586 faceoffs (54.5 percent)
• Out-hit the Lightning, 644-529
• Went 4-2 against Tampa Bay in extra time (2-1 in overtime, 2-1 in the Gimmick)
• Shut out the Lightning twice
• Were shut out by the Lightning twice, both times in extra time (January 4, 2011 in overtime and April 13, 2014 in a Gimmick)
• Scored five or more goals 11 times, winning all of them
• Allowed five or more six times (not including the freestyle competition), losing only three times
• Won by three or more goals six times, lost by three or more goals once (5-2, November 10, 2007)
• Took ten or more minutes in penalties 16 times, going 12-2-2 in those games
• Drew ten or more minutes in penalties 15 times, going 12-1-2 in those games

And individually in those games…

• Alex Ovechkin is the only Capital to have appeared in all 27 games against the Lightning in Washington; only Nicklas Backstrom (24) and Mike Green (20) appeared in 20 or more of them
• Ovechkin leads with 25 goals; next on the list is Alexander Semin (nine);   Backstrom is next among current Capitals (seven)
• Backstrom leads in assists with 24; Ovechkin is next with 21
• Ovechkin (46) and Backstrom (31) are the only Caps with 30 or more points in those games
• Ovechkin leads in power play goals (eight) and points (18)
• No Capital had a shorthanded goal over those 27 games
• Green and Ovechkin are the only Capitals with overtime goals
• Unsurprisingly, Ovechkin leads in shots on goal (141), more than twice as many as the next Capital (Backstrom: 59)
• Dennis Wideman led the team in average ice time (24:21 in three games)
• Boyd Gordon led the team in faceoff winning percentage (63.9/39 for 69)
• Ovechkin led the team in hits (64), twice as many as John Erskine (32)
• John Carlson led in blocked shots (49)
• Backstrom led in takeaways (20)
• Green took the most penalties (10) and penalty minutes (30)
• Matt Bradley took the most major penalties (three)

It is a tale of dominance not seen often in the NHL.  However, this will be the back half of a back-to-back set of games, too, against the league’s best team.  It is the last such instance this season for the Caps.  Some tidbits from the first 12 instances…

• The Caps swept three BtB’s, the three coming in successive instances in November and December (against Detroit and the New York Rangers, Carolina and Buffalo, and Buffalo and Ottawa)
• While the Caps were 7-4-1 in the opening game of a BtB (pending Tuesday’s game in New Jersey), they were 5-5-2 in the back half of BtB’s.
• This will be only the third time this season that the Caps play the back half of a BtB at home; the beat Buffalo in a Gimmick, 4-3, on December 15^th, and they beat the Rangers, 6-5, in overtime, on February 24^th

And there you have it.  The game on Saturday was a nail biter right up until Jakub Vrana hit a post, and the Lightning scored the first of two empty net goals shortly thereafter.  This game should be as close with additional hot sauce added being whether the Lightning can back up their physical approach displayed in Tampa on the opponent’s ice sheet.  We don’t think so.

Capitals 4 – Lightning 3

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 73: Capitals at Devils, March 19th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals begin the new week with the last game of their penultimate road trip of the regular season, visiting Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, to face the Devils in a Metropolitan matchup.

The Caps will be trying to avoid losing consecutive games for the first time since the All-Star Game break in late January.  Losers to the Tampa Bay Lightning last Saturday, the Capitals are still 15-6-1 in the 22 games since then.  The Devils are returning home from a six-game road trip, their longest since a seven-game trip to end October and begin November.  That seven-game trip finished 1-6-0 and set the Devils, who began the trip with a 5-2-1 record, into a tail spin from which they did not recover.  The six-game trip they just completed hardly went better, the Devils finishing 2-4-0, including a 3-0 loss to the Caps at Capital One Arena that started the trip.  And even when winning, New Jersey lost.  They beat the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night after having been eliminated from playoff contention earlier in the evening.

If there is some small comfort for the Devils, it is that this game will begin a stretch of six home games among the last nine games on their schedule.  A good thing, for while the Devils have the second-worst road record in the league at 10-25-3 (Ottawa is 9-25-2), the Devils are actually a decent (not to say “good”) team at home, their 17-12-6 record on home ice ranked 21^st in the league.

Kyle Palmieri has been the most dangerous Devil on home ice this season, recording a team high 14 goals and 27 points.  Palmieri was originally a first-round draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks, taken 26^th overall in the 2009 entry draft, two picks after the Caps selected Marcus Johansson, who passed through New Jersey before heading on his way to Boston last month.  Palmieri spent five unremarkable seasons in Anaheim before he was traded to New Jersey for a second-round pick in the 2015 entry draft and a third-round pick in the 2016 entry draft. 

He has flourished in Newark, a phrase one wonders has ever been uttered.  He set a career high of 30 goals in 2015-2016, his first season with the Devils, after not clearing 14 goals in any of his five seasons with the Ducks.  He has been a reliable 20-plus goal scorer since, and with 27 goals in 69 games this season is poised to set another career high.  He has hit a cold patch at home, though.  After recording 11 goals in his first 16 games on home ice this season, he has just three in his last 16 home games.  It matters.  New Jersey is 10-0-0 in home games in which Palmieri has scored at least one goal, 7-10-5 in the 22 home games in which he did not light the lamp.  Palmieri is 5-3-8, minus-1, in 17 games against the Caps in his career.

Once upon a time, Drew Stafford was a budding offensive star.  Taken 13^th overall in the 2004 entry draft by the Buffalo Sabres, he enjoyed an almost uninterrupted string of years in which his goal totals improved, from recording 13 in 41 games as a rookie in 2006-2007 to 31 goals in 62 games 2010-2011 with the Sabres.  However, his goal scoring dried up thereafter.  Stafford managed only 69 goals in 246 games over the next four seasons in Buffalo before he was part of a blockbuster trade in February 2015 that sent him, Tyler Myers, Joel Armia, Brendan Lemieux and a first-round pick in the 2015 entry draft to the Winnipeg Jets for Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian and Jason Kasdorf.  He spent parts of three seasons in Winnipeg without improving his production (34 goals in 144 games) before being traded to Boston for a sixth-round pick in the 2017 entry draft.  He lasted 18 games with the Bruins, recording four goals, before departing as an unrestricted free agent, which led him to New Jersey, for whom he has only 10 goals in 107 games over the last two seasons.  He has two goals in 48 games this season, both on the road, the latter one coming on January 2^nd.  He is 0-5-5, minus-6 over his last 33 games.  In 31 career games against Washington, Stafford is 11-7-18, minus-3.

The Devils have dressed 12 defensemen this season.  One of them is a name Capitals fans might recognize.  Connor Carrick was taken by the Caps in the fifth round (137^th overall) in the 2012 entry draft, a draft that Caps fans might remember for entirely different reasons.  It was the one in which they took Filip Forsberg, who they later traded in one of the more controversial deals in team history, and it was the one in which they drafted Tom Wilson, who was not universally hailed as a stroke of genius pick at the time (this is why fans – and bloggers – aren’t in hockey management positions).  It also happened to be the draft in which the Caps took defenseman Christian Djoos (two rounds and 58 picks after Carrick).

Carrick spent parts of two seasons in Washington, dressing for 37 games (1-5-6, minus-11) before he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs with Brooks Laich and a second round pick in the 2016 entry draft for Daniel Winnik and a fifth-round pick in the 2016 entry draft.  He played parts of three seasons for the Leafs before he was traded to the Dallas Stars last October for a conditional seventh-round draft pick.  This past February he landed in New Jersey in an exchange of defensemen, Carrick and a third round 2019 draft pick going to the Devils for Ben Lovejoy.  In 11 games for the Devils, “five” has been the magic number for Carrick – five assists, five points, and minus-5.  He is getting quite a look, though, averaging a career high 19:39 per game so far with the Devils.  Carrick is 0-2-2, plus-1, in six career games against the Caps.

1.  Only Tampa Bay and the Capitals have had more shorthanded situations faced on home ice (121 and 120, respectively) than the Devils (117) in the Eastern Conference.  But they are efficient in killing them off, their 84.6 percent penalty kill ranked second in the East, behind Tampa Bay (87.6 percent).

2.  No team in the league has taken more minor penalties on home ice than the Devils (137, five more than Tampa Bay).

3.  The Devils are one of three teams yet to score a goal in the Gimmick on home ice this season, coming up empty on six shots. Dallas and San Jose are the other teams without a home trick shot goal.

4.  In the 2018 portion of the season, covering their first 19 home games, the Devils scored more than four goals five times.  In the 2019 portion of the season, they have done so once in 16 home games, over which they have been held to two or fewer goals eight times.

5.  New Jersey has had eight players this season record at least ten goals.  Two of them – Brian Boyle (13) and Marcus Johansson (12) – were traded, and another (Taylor Hall: 11) has been out with an injury since Christmas.

1.  Washington has dressed only two rookie skaters this season – Travis Boyd and Nathan Walker.  It is the fewest number of rookie skaters dressing for the Caps since the shortened 2012-2013 season, when no rookie skaters dressed for the club.  The last time fewer rookie skaters dressed in a full season was 2011-2012, when Cody Eakin was the lone rookie to appear.

2.  If Travis Boyd appears in four more games, he will become the 17^th rookie skater since 2005-2006 to appear in at least 50 games in his rookie season for the Caps.  It is quite a change from last season when four rookie skaters appeared in at least 50 games: Jakub Vrana (73), Chandler Stephenson (67), Christian Djoos (63), and Madison Bowey (51).

3.  Goalies are a different matter with regard to rookie status.  Since 2005-2006, the Caps have dressed a rookie in goal at least once in eight of 14 seasons.  However, those eight seasons cover only four rookies.  All of them played more than one “rookie” season owing to rookie qualification standards.  Semyon Varlamov was a rookie twice (2008-2009 and 2009-2010), Michal Neuvirth twice (2008-2009 and 2009-2010), Braden Holtby twice (2010-2011 and 2011-2012), and Philipp Grubauer taking the prize, qualifying as a rookie in four consecutive seasons (2012-2013 through 2016-2017).

4.  When the Caps allowed six goals to Tampa Bay on Saturday night, it was the 10^th time this season that they allowed an opponent six or more goals (not including Gimmicks).  It is the most instances allowing six or more goals since it happened 12 times in the 2005-2006 season, and it is only the second time in the last 23 seasons that it happened at least ten times.  At least they have three extra time losses among this year’s instances, the three points being the most earned in a season from games allowing at least six goals since they won two such games and earned four points in 1992-1993.

5.  If the Capitals win this game, they will get to .500 in standings points earned in the all-time series against the Devils on the road (currently 45-46-7 with seven ties).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

New Jersey: Travis Zajac

When Travis Zajac assisted on a Blake Coleman power play goal on March 9^th against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, he became only the fourth player in New Jersey Devils history to reach 500 points with the club, joining Kirk Muller (520), John MacLean (701), and Patrik Elias (1,025).  It gave the Devils a 2-0 lead just before the first intermission.  However, in a fashion too familiar to Devils’ fans, New Jersey lost the lead and the game, 4-2.  It was a result consistent with the latter half of Zajac’s career, which has been spent largely on the outside looking in at the postseason (two appearances in the last nine seasons, including this one), after going to the show in each of his first four seasons. 

It is a hard way to climb the all-time franchise rankings to become a top-five player, or nearly so, in a number of categories: fifth in games played (913), sixth in goals (184, one short of fifth-place Kirk Muller), seventh in assists (318, 19 short of fifth-place Scott Stevens), fourth in points (502), fifth in even strength goals (123), seventh in power play goals (51, one short of fifth-place Zach Parise), tied for fourth in shorthanded goals (11), and sixth in shots on goal (1,677, 22 short of fifth-place Parise). Six times, Zajac has received votes for the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward, twice finishing in the top ten.  His numbers do not pop off the page on a season to season basis, but he is one of the most consistent players in the game.  He is 7-20-27, plus-2, in 45 career games against the Capitals.

Washington: John Carlson

There have been 96 defensemen to dress for games on the road against the New Jersey Devils franchise since they opened for business in New Jersey in the 1982-1983 season following tours as the Kansas City Scouts and Colorado Rockies.  Only 19 of that group have recorded a goal in New Jersey.  John Carlson can count himself among them, but one is all he has in 15 games played in the state where he started his hockey journey as a youth.  It was March 25, 2016, the only goal scored by either team in that game, an overtime game-winner 2:17 into the extra frame. 

Since that goal, Carlson is fourth among the league’s defensemen in assists (139) and points (177), while he is ninth in goals (38).  He is similarly high-ranked in the team’s all-time defensemen: fourth in games played (679), sixth in goals (89), third in assists (308), fifth in points (397), fifth in plus-minus (plus-77), third in even strength goals (63), tied for seventh in power play goals (25, with Sylvain Cote), tied for second in overtime goals (two), first in blocked shots (1,383), fourth in game-winning goals (18), tied for sixth in multi-goal games (three), and fourth in shots on goal (1,516).

At the moment, Carlson and San Jose’s Brent Burns are the only defensemen to have topped the 60 point mark in each of the last two seasons.  And, since the 2010-2011 season (Carlson’s first full season in the league), only Ryan Suter and Keith Yandle have more 30 points seasons among defensemen (nine apiece) than does Carlson (eight, tied with seven other defensemen).  Carlson has been hot of late, taking a six-game points streak into the new week (2-5-7, plus-2), and he has averaged a point a game over his last 15 games (4-11-15).  He has been a consistent offensive contributor over the course of the season, recording points in 42 of 71 games, the Caps posting a 28-10-4 record in them.  In 34 career games against the Devils, Carlson is 4-19-23, plus-24.

In the end…

The Metropolitan Division has gotten tight, and it might be the best division in the league at the moment.  Since the All-Star Game break, seven teams have 30 or more standings points through Sunday’s games, and the Metro has four of them: Philadelphia (34), Carolina (31), the Caps (31), and Pittsburgh (30).

This game has the potential to be a pool of quicksand for the Caps, who face a struggling Devils team with little to play for but pride, a game coming between contests against the league’s best team (Tampa Bay) that might be an opponent down the road.  And, it is not as if the Caps have been dominating against this team this season.  They were steamrolled in the first meeting this year, on this ice sheet, in a 6-0 Devils win.  They beat the Devils, 6-3, at the end of November, but that game featured two empty net goals to give the Caps the final margin of victory.  And, there was the 3-0 shutout of New Jersey earlier this month that also featured an empty net goal.  Pride can be a great motivator, but all things considered, the Caps’ motivation to keep pace with their elite Metro brethren is stronger.

Capitals 5 – Devils 2

Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was - Week 24

Week 24 was a roller coaster of a week with ups and downs and twists and turns against rivals old and new.  In the end, the ride came to a stop right where it started with a two-win two-loss week and the Caps still in charge in the Metropolitan Division.

Record: 2-2-0

A four-game week featuring three of the best and/or hottest teams in the league and the other an old rival who remains desperate to get back into the playoff conversation would make for a difficult week for any team, including a division leader such as the Caps.  That Washington split the week was not the worst of outcomes in that context.

Looking back on the week and trying to look ahead, the Caps beat Winnipeg to earn a split in the season series at a win apiece, each team winning on home ice.  The loss to the Penguins was, as it always is, hard to swallow, but the significance is that the Caps lost three of four in the season series to the Pens (1-2-1).  The Caps took their third game in a row this season against the Flyers with one game remaining in the series, that on March 24^th in Washington.  Washington wrapped up the week with the first of three meetings against the Tampa Bay Lightning to be played over a two-week period.  The loss to the Bolts gave the Caps a 5-4-1 season record against four playoff or near-playoff quality teams.

The two wins for the week pushed the Caps past the 90-point mark for the 11^th consecutive full season of hockey (not including the shortened 2012-2013 season).  They remain on a pace to finish this season with more than 100 points, which would be the fifth straight season topping 100 points.

Offense: 3.50/game (season: 3.39/7th)

It was a good week on paper for the Caps, even if the goal total was padded a bit by a pair of empty net goals.  They all count.  The Caps have been remarkably consistent over the past few weeks.  Not only have they scored at least three goals in 12 of their last 13 games, they have scored exactly three goals in eight of those games, going 6-2 in them in the process.  Both of the losses in three-goal games came this week against two of the more high-powered offenses in the league in Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay.

As for the Caps, they spread things around on an individual basis.  Nine players accounted for the 14 goals scored in Week 24, five of them with two apiece: Jakub Vrana, Lars Eller, Brett Connolly, John Carlson, and Alex Ovechkin. 

Ovechkin’s two goals brought him to 655 for his career, one short of Brendan Shanahan for 13^th place on the all-time NHL goal scoring list.  His power play goal in the 6-3 loss to Tampa Bay on Saturday was the 246^th of his career, tying him with Phil Esposito for fifth place on the all-time list and brining him to within one of Luc Robitaille for fourth place on that list.

Vrana’s two goals and Tom Wilson’s lone goal of the week put both players in the 20-goal club for the first time in their respective careers and brought the Caps’ total of 20-plus goal scorers this season to four.  Last season, the Caps had only three 20-plus goal scorers all season (Ovechkin with 49, Evgeny Kuznetsov with 27, and Nicklas Backstrom with 21).  Vrana and Wilson joined Ovechkin (48) and T.J. Oshie (21) in the 20-goal club this season.  Three other players are within striking distance: Connolly (19), Kuznetsov (18), and Backstrom (18).

Carlson led the team in overall scoring for the week (2-3-5), while Dmitry Orlov led the club in assists (four).  Orlov also had a team-best plus-4 rating for the week.  For Carlson, the five-point week pushed him past the 60-point mark for the second straight season. He became the fourth defenseman in Caps history to post consecutive 60-point seasons.  Mike Green was the last to do it, in the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons, while Larry Murphy (1985-1986 through 1987-1988) and Scott Stevens (1986-1987 through 1988-1989) each did it three years in a row.

Defense: 3.50/game (season: 3.11/20th)

The Caps faced four productive offenses in Week 24, and the results were better than the goals per game would suggest.  For instance, they allowed 123 shots in the four games, an average of 30.8 per game, a number that is below the team’s average for the season (31.9 shots allowed per game).  Further, there were the shot attempts at five on five.  The Caps enjoyed a considerable advantage in that regard, winning that battle three times in four games, finishing a week with a plus-33 and a shot attempts-for percentage of 54.81.  That shot attempt differential was fourth-best among teams playing four games in Week 24.

Goaltending: 2.80 / .908 (season: 2.93 / .907 / 4 shutouts)

That the goaltending was more or less a typical week overall is not the best news when looking at the detail, although quality of competition needs to be considered.  Pheonix Copley got the call to open the week, and he had a very effective game against the Winnipeg Jets.  He allowed a single goal on 34 shots faced to win his fifth straight decision.  It was the best performance he had in that five-win run, over which he has a goals against average of 2.92 and a save percentage of .908.

Braden Holtby got the call in the other three games, and his results were uneven.  He was, for the most part, very good in his first game of the week, facing the Penguins.  That is, except for a span of 1:48 in the second period during which the Pens scored on three consecutive shots to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-0 lead that they would not relinquish.  Take that away, and he was 25-for-26.  He was consistently solid against the Flyers in his second game of the week, holding a club that scored 33 goals in its previous eight games to a pair of goals on 24 shots.  Against Tampa Bay he suffered the fate a lot of goaltenders have this season, giving up four goals on 33 shots (the 40^th time this season a goaltender allowed four or more goals to the Lightning). 

Overall, the netminders finished games better than they started them.  There were 34 saves on 38 first period shots faced (.895 save percentage) and 36 saves on 41 second period shots faced (.878), influenced by that three-goal surge the Penguins had in the second game of the week.  Third periods were much better, with 39 saves on 41 shots (.951), although there were the three empty net goals that do not count against the save percentages.

Power Play: 2-for-11/18.2 percent (season: 21.8 percent/9th)

It was something of an odd week for the Capitals, but panning out for a wider shot, it might have been simply a reflection of the league these days.  The Caps had a four-game week, which should have meant a high power play opportunity total, even if the average of opportunities per game was not.  Eleven chances in four games (2.75 per game) seemed light in that context.  However, the Caps tied for the fifth-highest number of chances overall and tied for the fourth-highest total among teams playing four games.

That the Caps converted only two of those chances was disappointing, considering that three of their opponents in Week 24 ranked among the bottom 13 teams in the league in penalty killing at week’s end (Pittsburgh: 19^th, Winnipeg: 23^rd; and Philadelphia” 26^th).  The Caps were 1-for-7 against those three teams.  The bright spot was in converting one of four chances on the road against the best penalty killing team in the league in Tampa Bay (85.6 percent).

The Caps looked disjointed on the power play at times over the week and it showed up in the form of inability to get shots to the net.  Washington managed only 12 shots on goal in 18:27 of man advantage ice time, including getting blanked in shots in four minutes of power play time against Winnipeg.  It was not a problem of getting the puck to the preferred target.  Alex Ovechkin had nine of the 12 power play shots on goal, converting one of them.  Three other players had one apiece: John Carlson (a goal), Evgeny Kuznetsov, and T.J. Oshie.

Penalty Killing: 15-for-17/88.20 percent (season: 79.8 percent/21st)

The Caps played with fire in this category all week.  No team was shorthanded more often in total or in times per game for Week 24 than Washington.  That the Caps allowed only two goals, both of them to Pittsburgh, was an achievement.  In fact, those are the only power play goals that the Caps have allowed over their last eight games, going 26-for-28 in that span (92.9 percent, tied for third among all teams).

The Caps did a reasonably good job of limiting shots, considering all the time they spent shorthanded.  In 26:38 spent shorthanded (third-highest for the week, behind only Anaheim and the Rangers), the Caps allowed two goals on 20 shots.

Faceoffs: 91-for-223 / 40.8 percent (season: 45.5 percent/31st)

At this point, with ten games left in the season, one hopes that the Caps do not find themselves having to win an important draw in the last seconds of a game, because if they do, there just is not enough success memory here to give anyone confidence they can do so.  In the larger scheme of things, faceoff do not matter in the sea of plays a team will experience over the course of a season.  But there can be that instance in which an outcome boils down to performing the game’s most basic play well.

Week 24 was another week of poor performances in the circle.  That they finished barely over 40 percent is not unusual, but the two games under 40 percent made it four times in seven games they failed to hit that mark for a game, and they have only two games over 50 percent in their last 16 contests.

The Caps did not hit 50 percent in either end in any game this week, while twice in the four games they were over 50 percent in the neutral zone.  Not surprisingly, it was in the neutral zone where they fared best overall (44.0 percent), while going 40.5 percent in the offensive zone and 36.7 percent in the defensive end.

Individually, Chandler Stephenson was the only player among the five taking at least ten faceoffs to win at least half of his draws, going 6-for-11 for the week (54.5 percent).  If one is looking for a silver lining here, Evgeny Kuznetsov won 14 of 27 offensive zone draws to finish over 50 percent there for the week (51.9 percent).

Goals by Period:

It was a balanced week in this category with the goals scored and goals allowed spread almost evenly among the periods.  The Caps scored first in the first period in three of the four games (winning two of them) and took a lead to the first intermission twice (winning once), that Pittsburgh game being the problem, the product of a brief, but intense second period collapse.  Third periods were odd in that they featured so many empty net goals.  Each game for the week featured at least one, the Caps scoring empty netters in their two wins and allowing empty netters in both losses (a total of three goals, two by Tampa Bay).  It brought to five the consecutive games played by the Caps that featured at least one empty net goal.

What still stands out, though, is how little of the Capitals’ offense comes in the third periods of games.  With 67 third period goals scored so far, only nine teams have fewer, and among them only the St. Louis Blues and Columbus Blue Jackets are currently playoff eligible.  And, when one considers that the 86 third period goals allowed by the Caps is tied for third-most overall, that minus-19 third period goal differential should be cause for some concern.

Year-over-Year:

The Capitals have spent a lot of the 2019 portion of the season hovering around numbers comparable to those they put up in equal volumes of games the previous season, and it is no exception at the end of Week 24.  One win and two points better than last season, special teams production virtually identical to last season, the Caps resemble last year’s team in the big respects.  That might not be surprising for a club that had so few changes in their roster, year over year.  The Caps continue to be ahead of last year’s pace in the grittier aspects of the game – hits, blocked shots, turnovers for and against.  Two categories continue to trail last year’s pace – penalties/penalty minutes and faceoffs.  This is neither surprising, nor should it be expected to change much in the last few weeks, given that the changes reflect absences – Tom Wilson at the start of the season (suspension) accounting for most of the difference in penalties/penalty minutes and Jay Beagle, who took his faceoff skills to Vancouver in the off season.

In the end…

Week 24 for the Caps was the first of four weeks of a brutal schedule that features 12 of 14 games against playoff eligible teams or teams on the edge trying to get in.  That the Caps split the four games for this week was a decent result, given that three of the games were on the road.  However, the unforgiving nature of the remaining schedule does place their top-seed in the Metropolitan Division in jeopardy.  When one considers that the Caps were one shot away from earning at least a point in Pittsburgh and a pipe struck in the last minute away from earning at least a point in Tampa Bay, one cannot help but think that the Caps are going to have to stop leaving spare change in the cushions as the schedule heads into its final three weeks if they are to keep their top seed, or perhaps even keep home ice advantage for the first round.

Three Stars:

• First Star: John Carlson (2-3-5, plus-1, one power play goal, nine blocked shots, 25:21 in average ice time)
• Second Star: Alex Ovechkin (2-2-4, minus-1, 18 shots on goal, 37 shot attempts, 15 hits, 246^th career power play goal, tying Phil Esposito for fifth place all time; became the 49th player in league history to record 1,200 career points)
• Third Star: Brett Connolly (2-2-4, even, game-winning goal)

A NO-Point Night: Washington Capitals -- Game 72: Lightning 6 - Capitals 3

The Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lighting met for the first time in almost ten months on Saturday night, the first time since the Caps defeated the Lightning in the Eastern Conference final on their way to a Stanley Cup championship.  Things started poorly for the Caps, and it was a hole from which they could not escape, falling 6-3 to the league leaders.

First Period

The Battle of the Titans got off to a poor start for the Caps, who found themselves behind by a pair of goals before the game was 11 minutes old, victimized by goals 1:58 apart mid-way through the period.  Tyler Johnson got the Lightning on the board first when he and Braden Point broke in on a 2-on-1 rush.  Point fed Johnson on his left, and Johnson snapped a shot that appeared to click of the inside of both of goalie Braden Holtby’s pads before settling behind the goal line to make it 1-0 at the 8:35 mark.

Less than two minute later the Lightning got a break when Alex Killorn settled the puck along the left wing boards and flung it at the Caps’ net.  The puck hit defenseman Dmitry Orlov in the right leg and ricocheted past Holtby’s blocker to make it 2-0, 10:33 into the period.

John Carlson got the Caps back into the game on a goal that goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy might want back.  Alex Ovechkin separated Braydon Coburn from the puck behind the Lightningand worked it around the corner wall, where it found its way to Evgeny Kuznetsov.  From above the right wing circle, Kuznetsov spun and fired the puck at the net, but it was blocked out to Carlson on the left side.  With open ice in front of him, Carlson stepped up and fired a shot that beat Vasilevskiy cleanly on the near side to make it 2-1 at the 12:06 mark.

Tampa Bay regained the two-goal lead less than four minutes later when Killorn bull rushed down the slot, knocking defenseman Nick Jensen aside, and getting two shots off on Holtby, scoring on the blocker side on the rebound 15:56 into the period.  That was how the teams went to the first intermission.

-- The Caps had an early lead in shots and shot attempts, but by the end of the period, Tampa out-shot the Caps, 16-9, and they out-attempted them, 23-17.

-- Five of the Caps’ nine shots came from defensemen: Michal Kempny (two), John Carlson (two), and Dmitry Orlov (one).

-- Tampa out-hit the Caps, 14-9, and they were not charged with a giveaway.

-- Tom Wilson and Alex Ovechkin had three hits apiece to lead the Caps.

Second Period

The Caps opened the second period by killing off a Tampa power play that started as a 5-on-3 for 1:28 and ended with a 5-on-4 for 12 seconds.  That would be what passed for suspense until the Caps were awarded a power play just short of six minutes into the period.  Washington capitalized on the man advantage on an odd play.  John Carlson took a shot from the point that appeared to hit T.J. Oshie in the back, the puck caroming to the left wing circle where Alex Ovechkin was waiting.  Ovechkin wasted no time snapping the puck past Vasilevsky on the near side to make it a 3-2 game at the 7:33 mark.

Tampa got another power play late in the period when Evgeny Kuznetsov was whistled for a slashing penalty, but the Caps killed off that chance, and then they earned one of their own late in the period, courtesy of a Ryan McDonagh roughing call.  However, the Caps did not convert on the first 1:11 of the man advantage, so it would carry over into the third period.

-- The Caps out-shot Tampa Bay, 13-5, in the second period and out-attempted them, 25-6.

-- Through two periods, the Caps held the Lightning to one power play shot on goal in 4:00 of power play time (J.T. Miller).

-- Travis Boyd and Andre Burakovsky skated only six shifts apiece through two periods.

Third Period

The period opened with the Caps on the last minute-plus of a power play, but they failed to convert.  It was a lost chance they would regret as the Lightning extended their lead in the third minute of the period, Erik Cernak beating Holtby on what looked like a stoppable shot to make it 4-2, 2:45 into the period.

With the clock ticking in the second half of the period, the Caps got back within a goal.  A Dmitry Orlov drive went wide to Vasilevskiy’s right, caromed off the end wall, and rebounded out the other side where Ovechkin was waiting.  He swatted the puck off the near post and behind Vasilevskiy to make it 4-3 at the 12:56 mark.

Washington got a chance to tie the game late when Ondrej Palat took a tripping penalty to put the Caps on their fourth power play of the game.  The Caps would come up empty, though, and the teams played on. 

Jakub Vrana was a ping away from tying the game with under four minutes left, ringing a shot off the post, but that would be as close as the Caps would get to tying the game.  Killorn completed his hat trick in the last minute into an empty net, and Yanni Gourde wrapped things up with another empty netter in the last second to provide the final margin, 6-3, Bolts.

Other stuff…

-- Alex Ovechkin recorded his 246^th career power play goal, tying Phil Esposito for fifth-place all-time and one behind Luc Robitaille for fourth place.

-- It was Ovechkin’s 131^st multi-goal game of his career, tying Teemu Selanne for second place since 1987-1988, trailing only Brett Hull (158).

-- Alex Killorn’s hat trick was the first by a Tampa Bay player in 126 games played against the Caps in franchise history.

-- Ovechkin had seven shots on goal and 16 shot attempts.  Would not be surprised if he can barely lift his arms.

-- Tampa Bay out-shot the Caps, 35-33, but the Caps out-attempted them, 62-50.

-- John Carlson had a goal and an assist, his 81^st multi-point game as a Cap, fifth all-time among Capital defensemen.

-- Tom Wilson had what, for him lately, was an uncharacteristic game – no shots on goal, one shot attempt, seven hits, 12 minutes in penalties, and a minus-2.

-- The last time the Caps faced the Lightning, Andre Burakovsky scored two goals in 11 minutes of ice time in the Caps’ 4-0 series clinching playoff win last spring.  On this evening, he got nine shifts, 7:30 in ice time, and recorded two shots on goal with no points.

-- The Caps held Tampa Bay to three shots on goal in six minutes of power play time.

-- That was the first time in almost three months (since November 27^th) that Tampa Bay failed to score a power play goal on home ice while getting four or more opportunities.

In the end…

The score looks bad, but the Caps were a coat of paint on a pipe from tying the game late.  Add in the general orneriness of the teams, and this looked like Game 1 of a ten-game playoff series – the three the teams will play in the regular season and the seven they could play later.  Tampa Bay looked in stretches like the 55-win team they are – deep, balanced, skilled, and fast.  But there were stretches when the Caps were every bit up to the task of stopping them and exerting pressure of their own.  This is going to be a fun ride over the next two weeks with the teams meeting twice more.  Buckle up.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 72: Capitals at Lightning, March 16th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

When last the Washington Capitals skated on the ice sheet at Amalie Arena in Tampa, they were celebrating a Game 7 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference final that sent the Caps to the second Stanley Cup final appearance in team history.  The win, a 4-0 shutout, completed a comeback from a 3-2 deficit in games, the third straight series in which the Caps found themselves behind in games at some point.  The rest, as they say, is history.  The Caps went on to win their first Stanley Cup, and the Lightning went home to ponder what might have been.

On Saturday night, we will get a glimpse of what might be as the Caps, the hottest team in the league, face off against the Lightning, with by far the league’s best record, in what might be a preview of a repeat of last season’s conference final.  Washington will go into the game with an 8-1-0 record over their last nine games since February 24^th, the best record in the league over that span.  On the other side, the Lightning are pursuing a record.  With 54 wins in 71 games, they are on a pace to finish the season with 62 wins, which would tie the 1995-1996 Detroit Red Wings for most in NHL history and make them only the third team in NHL history to finish a regular season with 60 or more wins (the 1976-1977 Montreal Canadiens had 60 wins).

There is nothing the Lightning do poorly.  It starts with having the best scoring offense in the league (3.82 goals per game).  The league had 13 players with 80-plus points through Thursday’s games, and the Lightning had three of them – Nikita Kucherov (115/1^st), Brayden Point (86/T-8^th) and Steven Stamkos (81/13^th).

Kucherov and Stamkos are names well known to hockey fans, Point somewhat less so.  It does not mean that his production should be considered surprising, though.  Now in his third NHL season, the former third-round draft pick (79^th overall in 2014), has displayed consistent and significant improvement in production.  He started in impressive fashion, finishing among the top ten in his 2016-2017 rookie class in goals (18/T-9^th) and points (40/8^th), despite appearing in only 68 games.  He improved on those numbers last season, finishing 32-34-66 while dressing for all 82 games.  His 12 game-winning goals led the league.  This season, he already has set a new career best for goals scored (38), assists (48) and points (86) in 69 games and could become only the fourth player in Lightning history to finish a regular season with at least 100 points (Kucherov has done it twice, including this season, and Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis each did it once).  He does score points in bunches.  With 11 games this season with three or more points, he trails only Winnipeg’s Mark Schiefele (13) and teammate Kucherov (17).  Point is 3-3-6, minus-3, in six career games against the Capitals.

Victor Hedman is not having quite the season he had last year (17-46-63, plus-32), but he is having a fine season nevertheless (9-36-45, plus-15, in 63 games).  If he records five more points, it will be his third straight season with 50-plus points, a club that has a single member among defensemen at the moment, San Jose’s Brent Burns.  Although he turned just 28 years old in December, Hedman is already arguably the best defenseman in Lightning history.  He has 25 more goals (91) than any defenseman in franchise history (Dan Boyle: 66), is more than 100 assists clear (318) of the second place blueliner (Boyle: 187), and has more than 150 points more (409) than the runner up in team history (Boyle: 253). The odd part of Hedman’s numbers this season is that the Lightning are an unremarkable team when he scores goals (5-4-0), but much better when he is setting up others (24-1-1 in the 26 games in which his points came only on assists).  Hedman went through a season-long six game streak without a point from February 12^th through February 25^th, but since then he has points in six of eight games and is 2-6-8 over that stretch.  In 33 career games against the Caps, Hedman is 2-11-13, minus-6.

In his first 56 appearances last season, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy went 40-12-3, 2.45, .925, with seven shutouts.  His path seemed clear toward backstopping the Lightning to a championship, but the tunnel was one of those wall paintings of a tunnel that Wile E. Coyote would run into in Road Runner cartoons.  He finished the regular season with a record of 4-5-0, 3.74, .884, and one shutout in his last nine appearances.  His postseason was similar, if not quite as severe, going 8-2, 2.20, .927 over the first two rounds, but then going 3-4, 3.16, .906 in the conference final against the Caps.  This season, Vasilevskiy has been brilliant once more as the regular season rolls toward its finish.  Of 38 goalies with at least 1,750 minutes played, he ranks fourth in goals against average (2.27), second in save percentage (.929), and is tied for second in shutouts (six, with Ben Bishop). 

The difference so far this season is his getting a lighter workload.  Through March 14^th last season, Vasilevskiy had appeared in 57 games and logged 3,352 minutes, both among the top five goalies in the league at the time.  This season, he has appeared in 45 games and logged 2,724 minutes.  The reason for the lower games and minutes played is a 14-game absence for a fractured foot in November/December, but it might prove to be a blessing in disguise if he is fresher for the postseason than he was last year.  He is 13-1-2, 1.77, .943, with three shutouts in his last 16 appearances.  Vasilevskiy is 3-4-2, 2.46, .920, with one shutout in nine career appearances against the Caps.

1.  Tampa Bay has not lost consecutive games in regulation since early November.  Since then, they are 41-8-3.

2.  The Lightning are the only team in the NHL that is a top-five team in both scoring offense (3.82 goals per game/1^st) and scoring defense (2.62/4^th).

3.  Tampa Bay is the only team in the league in the top-five on both sides of special teams.  Their 29.0 percent power play and 85.8 percent penalty kill are tops in both categories.

4.  The Lightning have 29 wins at home.  That is equal to or better than seven teams’ totals wins.  They have two losses in regulation in their last 23 games on home ice (19-2-2).

5.  Tampa Bay has lost only two one-goal decisions in regulation this season, both on the road (at Buffalo, 2-1, on November 13^th; and at Nashville, 3-2, on November 19^th).

1.  Over their 8-1-0 run, the Caps have outscored opponents, 37-21, tying them with Pittsburgh for the best goal differential over that period (plus-16).

2.  In that nine-game run, no team has more even strength goals than the Caps (30), and they also rank tied for fifth in power play goals scored (six).

3.  The Caps’ shot attempts-for differential at 5-on-5 ranks second in their 8-1-0 run (plus-130, second to Calgary with plus-134).  Their shot attempts-for percentage at fives ranks first (58.06).

4.  Washington has not scored fewer than three goals in any of their last nine games in going 8-1-0.  Only once in their last eight road games have they scored fewer than three goals, two in a 5-2 loss to Buffalo on February 23^rd.

5.  Over their last seven games, the Caps are 22-for-24 on the penalty kill (91.7 percent).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Tampa Bay: Ryan McDonagh

After seven-plus seasons as a New York Ranger in which he was a largely dependable defenseman who drew the tougher matchups in the defensive end and contributed in the offensive end (averaging 8-30-38 per 82 games as a Ranger), he was shipped to the Tampa Bay Lightning at the 2018 trading deadline with J.T. Miller for Vladislav Namestnikov, Brett Howden, Libor Hajek, a 2018 first round draft pick, and a conditional 2019 second round draft pick.  His first experience with the Lightning did not go especially well.  McDonagh was 2-1-3, plus-1, in 14 games to close the regular season, and then he went 0-5-5, plus-2, in 17 postseason games. 

This season, he has returned to something resembling his profile with the Rangers – 8-28-36, plus-32 (second among all skaters), in 71 games.  That plus-minus number is interesting.  McDonagh was a minus-4 in a 6-5 win at home over Philadelphia back on December 27th.  Since then, he has had only two “minus” games in 17 home contests (both a minus-1).  However, in those 17 home games he has only two goals and two assists.  One cannot say his offensive production has been missed, given that Tampa Bay is 13-2-2 in those contests.  McDonagh is 2-17-19, plus-13, in 27 career games against the Caps.

Washington: Dmitry Orlov

The Capitals have had a lot of success recently, but it seems to have passed Dmitry Orlov by.  When last season ended, Orlov seemed on the brink of becoming a solid two-way defender for the Caps for years to come.  This year, while his assist total has remained solid, his goal scoring from the blue line has dried up.  The three goals he has this season in 71 games ties his lowest total for any of his six full seasons in the NHL, and he has not finished a season with fewer than six goals since he posted three in 54 games in the 2013-2014 season. 

Orlov went 16 games without a goal to start the season before recording a pair in a 5-2 win in Minnesota against the Wild on November 13^th.  He then went another 30 games without a goal before potting one in an 8-5 loss in Chicago to the Blackhawks on January 20^th.  He is now on a 23-game streak without a goal overall, and he has gone 46 straight games at home without a goal dating back to last season.  And, his ice time has been an indicator of success, or lack of it.  In the 26 games in which Orlov skated at least 22:20 this season, the Caps are 13-8-5, but in the 12 games in which he skated under 20 minutes, Washington is 9-3-0.  Orlov is 0-5-5, plus-1, in 17 career games against Tampa Bay.

In the end…

This is the first meeting of the clubs this season, but it will be the first of three meetings in the space of two weeks.  It almost has that playoff feel about it.  The Caps have had more than their share of success in Tampa, though.  They go into this game 5-1-2 in their last eight games there, outscoring the Lightning by a 27-22 margin.  And does not include the three wins in four games in Tampa during the postseason over which they outscored the Lightning, 16-7, capping it off with the 4-0 shutout that sent the Caps to the Stanley Cup finals.  Memories are long in hockey, especially when one comes out on the losing side of the ledger in high-stakes games.  As if Tampa was not simply good enough to make the Caps’ evening difficult on Saturday night, there might be some message sending they would like to provide to the visitors.  We think the Caps will mark it “return to sender.”

Capitals 4 – Lightning 3

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 71: Capitals at Flyers, March 14th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals continue the Pennsylvania leg of their four-game road trip on Thursday night with a visit to Philadelphia to face the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.  The Caps will be looking to repeat the result they achieved on March 6^th, when they beat the Flyers, 5-3, on that ice sheet.  From the other side, the Flyers will be trying to keep their flickering playoff hopes from being all but extinguished with a dozen games left in the season.

The Flyers have done their best to keep those dim playoff hopes from winking out, going 6-1-1 over their last seven games since February 23^rd.  Over those eight games, the Flyers outscored their opponents, 33-22.  The 13 standings points they have earned in that span are one off the league best in that span, a total shared by four teams (although the Flyers have played one fewer game than all four of those teams).

What the Flyers have done in their successful run of late is get dependable goal scoring from a core of players.  Of the 33 goals scored by the team over those eight games, four players have four or more and account for more than half the total (17).  James van Riemsdyk leads that group with five, while Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, and Sean Couturier have four apiece.  Couturier, who until last season had never recorded more than 15 goals in any of his first six NHL seasons (all with the Flyers), has demonstrated that last year’s 31-goal season was no fluke.  He goes into this game with 28 goals in 67 games and is on a pace (33) to set a new personal record.   His record over his last 27 games has been amazing – 13-23-36, plus-20, since January 8^th, and he has not had consecutive games without a point in that span of games.  It might the helpful to watch Couturier closely when the Flyers have a power play.  He has five of his six power play goals this season on home ice.  In two games against the Caps this season, Couturier is without a goal, but he does have four assists.  He is 6-13-19, plus-10, in 27 career games against the Caps.

Claude Giroux leads the team in points in their eight-game run (3-9-12).  Giroux has spent more time in a Flyers uniform – 807 games – than all but three players in franchise history (Bobby Clarke: 1,144 games and Bill Barber: 903 games).  His next goal (his 235^th) will tie Rod Brind’Amour for tenth place on the Flyers’ all-time goal scoring list.  Only Clarke stands ahead of him in assists (852) as a Flyer (Giroux has 516), and Giroux is fourth in points (750) in Flyers history.  If this season pales some compared to last year, it is because he had a career year in 2017-2018. He had his first 30-goal season (34), his first season with more than 65 assists (68), and posted his first 100-point season (102).  As it is, Giroux has already reached the 20-goal mark for the seventh time in his 12-year career and is on pace to finish with 87 points, which would be his fourth season topping 85 points.

Carter Hart is expected to return to the Flyers’ net Thursday for the first time in three weeks after suffering an ankle injury in a 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.  Including that game, the Flyers are 6-2-1.  In Hart’s absence, Brian Elliott and Cam Talbot combined for a 2.71 goals against average and a .919 save percentage, slightly better than the 2.79 and .917 that Hart has compiled in his 22 appearances to date.  However, Hart is the goalie of the future, especially given the fact that Elliott will turn 34 years of age next month, and Talbot will turn 32 years old in June.  Both are unrestricted free agents after this season.

Hart is going to be trying to get back on the ice a more efficient and effective goaltender than he was leading up to his injury hiatus.  In his last five appearances, including the one in which he was injured, he was 2-3-0, 4.50, .876, and was pulled ten minutes into his last appearance before the one in which he was injured after allowing three goals on nine shots against Tampa Bay.  If there is one thing that can be said of Hart, it is that as a rookie, he has not leaned on the friendly confines of home ice to build a disproportionately fine record.  However, he has been sheltered to an extent by his coaches so that he does not get a lot of road action.  He is 10-4-1, 2.76, .919 at home this season , while he is 3-4-0, 2.89, .911 on the road.  This will be Hart’s first appearance against Washington.

1.  The Flyers have a winning record at home this season at 18-13-4, but they are under water in goal differential, scoring 107 goals but allowing 111 at Wells Fargo Center.  Part of their problem is that in the East, only Columbus has lost more games by three or more goals on home ice this season (ten) than the Flyers (seven, tied with Montreal and Pittsburgh).

2.  The Flyers have a weakness on the penalty kill on home ice.  At 77.0 percent, they rank 24^th in the league and have the third-worst penalty kill in the East, better only than Pittsburgh (74.7 percent) and Detroit (74.5 percent).

3.  Philadelphia leads the league in faceoff winning percentage on home ice (56.9 percent), two full pints better than Toronto (54.9 percent).

4.  If a shorthanded goal is going to be scored, chances are that the Caps will score it.  The Flyers have allowed five shorthanded goals at home this season while scoring only one (Michael Raffl, on February 9^th against Anaheim).

5.  The Flyers remain an ornery team in one respect.  No team in the NHL has logged more misconduct penalties on home ice this season (three ten-minute and two game misconducts).

1.  When the Caps allowed the Penguins five goals on Tuesday night it broke a string of four games against Metropolitan Division teams on the road in  which the Caps allowed opponents three or fewer goals.  After allowing 13 goals in their first two road games against Division opponents, the Caps have averaged allowing 2.56 goals per game in Metropolitan Division road venues.

2.  The Caps have taken 126 minor penalties on the road this season, third-most among Eastern Conference teams (Tampa Bay: 131; Carolina: 130).

3.  Only the New York Rangers among Eastern Conference teams has spent more time shorthanded (202:27 in 33 games) than the Caps 196:16 in 35 games).

4.  Scoring road power play goals does not seem to be a prerequisite for playoff eligibility.  The Caps have scored 16 power play goals on the road this season.  Five teams have scored fewer, and two of them are playoff eligible (New York Islanders: 15; and Nashville: 14), while the lurking Flyersand Montreal have 13 apiece.

5.  The Caps have steadily improved their possession numbers over the second half of the season so that they now rank 14^th in shot attempts-for percentage at 5-on-5 (49.18).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Philadelphia:  Travis Konecny

Sean Couturier has been a man on fire lately, but in terms of goal scoring on home ice this season, he is the only player with more goals at Wells Fargo Center (15) than Travis Konecny (14).  He is one of those players who flies under the radar for this club.  Consider that over his three NHL seasons, only Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek have appeared in more games (233 and 230, respectively) among forwards than Konecny (220).  His 57 goals in that span is topped only by Voracek (58), Giroux (68), and Couturier (73) among active Flyer forwards.  Only Couturier has more game-winning goals (12) among active forwards over the last three seasons than Konecny (nine).  Only Giroux has more overtime goals (four) than does he (three).  And, he has done this while averaging less than 15 minutes a game (14:44), eighth among 19 Flyer forwards appearing in at least 50 games over the last three seasons.  He comes into this game on a nice run of late, going 11-9-20, plus-8, in his last 22 games overall.  Konecny is 6-5-11, plus-5, in his last 12 games on home ice.  In nine career games against Washington, Konecny is 2-0-2, plus-1.

Washington: Nicklas Backstrom

Nicklas Backstrom recorded the first multi-point game of his career in Philadelphia on November 23, 2007, posting a pair of assists in regulation before potting the game-winning goal 1:55 into overtime to stop a five-game losing streak and make Bruce Boudreau a winner in his NHL coaching debut.  It also happened to be Backstrom’s 20^th birthday.  Nicklas Backstrom has since been among the most consistent players in the NHL, and he is on the brink of hitting some marks that bear that out.  He has 18 goals and with two more would hit the 20-goal mark for the fourth straight season and sixth time in his career. His next assist will be his 50^th, the sixth straight time and ninth time in 12 seasons he will have reached that mark.  Backstrom needs three points to hit 70 points for the sixth straight season and ninth in his career. 

Over the 12 seasons in which he has been in the NHL, Backstrom ranks 11^th in points per game with 0.98 points per game played (minimum: 250 games).  That is more than John Tavares (0.94), more than Joe Thornton (0.92), more than Jonathan Toews (0.87), more than Tyler Seguin (0.86).  That 0.98 points per game is just a tick better than what he is averaging this season (0.97), despite getting largely second line responsibilities.  No player in that span has more assists than Backstrom (639) over his 12 seasons in the league.  He goes into this game 5-6-11, plus-5, over his last eight games and has four multi-point games in that run.  Backstrom is 18-35-53, plus-13, in 43 career games against the Flyers.

In the end…

The trick for any successful team is to keep a loss from becoming a losing streak.  This is something that the Caps have been very adept at over the last seven weeks.  Washington has not lost consecutive games since the All-Star Game break and has gone 14-5-1 in that stretch.  The key to that here might be to button up a defense that allowed four goals (plus one into an empty net) after not allowing as many as four goals in any of its previous six games (a total of nine).  That will be a tall order against a club that has 53 goals scored in its last 14 home games, seven of those games finishing with four or more goals for the Flyers.  It does not get easier.

Capitals 5 – Flyers 3