Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was - Week 25

We started last week's installment by saying that "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."  Well, here we are again, in same place, taking the same trip, in Week 25.

Record: 1-1-1

For the first time since Weeks 20 and 21 last season, the Caps finished with consecutive non-winning weeks.  As they did in that instance, they finished consecutive weeks earning half of the available standings points.  The odd thing about the week, perhaps, was that the win came on the road.  The 4-1 win in New Jersey against the Devils was the Caps’ 22^nd road win of the season, tying for the fifth-most road wins in a season in team history (the 2015-2016 team has the most: 27).

Having lost both home games in Week 24, the Caps failed to match the 22 road wins for the season, finishing the week stuck on 21 wins at Capital One Arena.  That means that this team cannot work its way into the top ten in team history in road wins for a season, the most they could finish with being 25.  The two losses at home for the week snapped a five-game home winning streak and were the first instances of losing consecutive games on home ice in more than two months (January 18^th and 22^nd, the end of a four-game home losing streak).

Offense: 3.00/game (season: 3.37/5th)

If it was not a prolific week for the Caps, it was balanced.  Seven players shared the nine goals scored; Evgeny Kuznetsov and Brett Connolly the only Capitals with two.  Connolly, T.J. Oshie, and Carl Hagelin shared the team lead in points with three apiece.  Kuznetsov had the late game-tying goal in the 5-4 overtime loss to Tampa Bay in the middle game of the week, giving him eight goals in eight home games and goals in three of four games overall before he was kept off the board against Minnesota to close the week.  Connoly’s first goal of the week, in the Caps’ 4-1 win in New Jersey over the Devils, was his 20^th of the season, giving him the first 20-goal season of his eight-year career.  Oshie’s three points for the week gave him 15 points in his last 18 games (6-9-15) and 48 points for the season, surpassing his total for last year (47).

The Caps were a productive team on home ice over the past six weeks, posting 36 goals in their previous eight home games going into the week.  They managed to add to their string of games on home ice with three or more goals when they put up three against Tampa Bay in the first game of the week.  However, the streak came to an end at nine games when the Caps dropped a 2-1 decision to the Minnesota Wild on Friday night.

Defense: 2.67/game (season: 3.09/20th)

It was a good week defending for the Caps.  They held all three opponents under 30 shots on goal and allowed a total of 76 in the three games.  It is part of a larger trend lately.  From January 1^st through February 24^th, they Caps allowed 836 shots in 25 games, an average of 33.4 shots per game, and held opponents under 30 shots eight times.  They had a record over that span of 11-10-4.  Since then, the Caps have allowed 322 shots in 12 games, an average of 27.7 shots per game, and have held opponents under 30 shots eight times.  The Caps have a record of 8-3-1 in those 12 games.

The trend extends to shot attempts at 5-on-5.  The Caps had a positive shot attempt differential at 5-on-5 in all three games in Week 25, extending their streak to six games, and making it 11 out of 12 games in which they had a positive shot attempt differential.  Over those 12 games, the Caps have a shot differential of plus-150, which is fourth-best in the league over that span.  Compare that to the 25 games from January 1^st through February 24^th.  The Caps had only eight games with a positive 5-on-5 shot differential, and overall they were minus-147, third-worst in the league over that span.

It might be too facile to conclude that the difference is the trading deadline acquisitions of Nick Jensen and Carl Hagelin, but that is the demarcation point between the poor performance in this category and the fine performance since.  It is at least coincidental that those under-the-radar pick-ups have paid dividends in areas where the Caps were weak earlier this season.

Goaltending: 2.68 / .895 (season: 2.92 / .907 / 4 shutouts)

And the backup shall lead them.  Well, for one week, anyway.  Pheonix Copley had a fine game in New Jersey against the Devils to start the week, stopping 20 of 21 shots on goal in the Caps’ 4-1 win.  It was Copley’s sixth straight win, over which he has a goals against average of 2.61 and a save percentage of .913.  He has benefitted from good goal support in that stretch, the Caps scoring 26 goals in the six games (4.33 per game).

Braden Holtby drew the difficult opponent for the week, the league-leading Tampa Bay Lightning in the first of the two games he played for the week.  He was a perfect 15-for-15 in the combined first and third periods of that game.  Unfortunately, he allowed four goals on 11 shots in the second period, and after the Caps crawled back late in the third period to force overtime, he was victimized by some leaky defense that allowed Victor Hedman to hold the puck…and hold it…and hold it, until he snapped a shot past Holtby to deny the Caps and Holtby the win.  Holtby was stout in the third game of the week, allowing only two goals on 27 shots to the Minnesota Wild.  The Caps could manage only one shot on 22 shots, though, and Holtby was a loser for a second consecutive game.  It was his third loss in a row (0-2-1), the first time he suffered losses in three consecutive appearances since he dropped three in a row (0-2-1) to Edmonton, Montreal, and Dallas in late October and early November.

Goal support has become a minor issue with the goaltenders.  Since January 1^st, in games in which he earned the decision, Copley has backstopped a team that averaged 3.42 goals per game, going 7-3-2 in the process.  IN the 25 games in which Holtby earned the decision, the Caps averaged 3.08 goals per game.  This is not unusual on its face, since Copley was more likely to draw an easier opponent.  Seven of his games were against teams not currently playoff eligible, while 11 of the 25 games in which HOltby earned a decision were against teams not playoff eligible through Week 25.

Power Play: 1-for-10/10.0 percent (season: 21.3 percent/9th)

It might have been expected that the Capitals’ power play would struggle some with a pair of top-ten penalty killing teams in New Jersey (83.9 percent/ninth at the end of the week) and Tampa Bay (88.3 percent/second).  And they did, going 1-for-7 against those teams.  The Caps did not manage so much as a single power play shot on goal on their lone power play against the Devils.  They went to the other end of the spectrum against the Lightning, to little avail, scoring their lone goal on 16 shots.

The headscratcher was the game against Minnesota, a team that finished the week ranked 25^th in the league in penalty killing 77.9 percent).  The Caps came up empty on three power plays against the Wild and managed only a single shot on goal, that one from John Carlson.

The Caps have had trouble getting into any rhythm on their power play lately.  They have alternated games with power play goals with games without one over their last eight contests and are 4-for-26 over that span (15.4 percent).  The truth is, the Caps have been a rather middle-of-the-road power play team since January 1^st, posting a 19.0 percent conversion rate, 15^th in the league.

Penalty Killing: 3-for-6/50.0 percent (season: 79.1 percent/23rd)

It might have been a “moldy meat sandwich” on the penalty kill in Week 25.  Between two slices of artisanal bread in which the Caps allowed only three power plays overall and blanked the Devils and Wild on them in the process, the Caps allowed three power play goals on three Tampa Bay power play chances in the middle game of the week.

The three power play goals scored by the Lightning were the most by an opponent at Capital One Arena this season and only the second time this season that the Caps allowed an opponent three power play goals (December 14^th at Carolina in a 6-5 Gimmick win).  It was the first time that the Caps allowed three power play goals on home ice since the New York Islanders pinned three on the Caps in a 6-3 Caps win on March 16, 2018.

The Caps’ inconsistency in their penalty killing for the week extended to their efficiency in limiting shots.  They held the Devils and Wild to no goals on two shots (both by New Jersey) in six minutes of power play ice time, but they allowed Tampa Bay three goals on four shots in 2:51 of power play ice time.

Faceoffs: 90-for-181 / 49.7 percent (season: 45.7 percent/31st)

So close.  The Caps came within a single faceoff – the last one against the Wild in the last second of Friday’s contest, in fact – of being 50 percent for the week.  Odd thing about that; it was former Capital Eric Fehr who won the last three faceoffs of that contest that put the Caps underwater for the week.

The Caps were over 50 percent in faceoff wins against Tampa Bay and Minnesota.  If you don’t think that is a big deal, it is the first time this calendar year that the Caps were over 50 percent on faceoffs in consecutive games.  In fact, it was the first time that the Caps were over 50 percent in faceoff wins in consecutive games since they had three straight games over 50 percent against Columbus, Arizona, and Minnesota, November 9-13.

However, the Week 25 results were built on performance in the neutral zone, where the Caps were 30-for-54 (55.6 percent).  They were 50.0 percent in the defensive end and 45.8 percent in the offensive zone.  The good thing there, though, if not the faceoff performance, was the faceoff volumes.  The Caps took 83 offensive zone draws for the week and only 44 faceoffs in the defensive end.

Individually, it was a good week for players taking at least ten draws.  Three of the five – Nicklas Backstrom, Lars Eller, and Nic Dowd – were 50 percent or better.  Only T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov won fewer than half of their draws.

Goals by Period:

It was a deceptive week in that while the Caps won the second periods of games for the week, it was the four-goal second period against Tampa Bay that put them in a hole out of which they had to scramble to earn a standings point.  And, while they scored and allowed a single goal in the third period, it was that third period goal allowed that was the game-winner for the Wild in the Caps’ regulation loss for the week.

The Caps hit the 100 goals scored mark in the second periods of games this season, tied with Pittsburgh for most in the league.  Only Tampa Bay has a better second period goal differential (plus-36) than the Caps (plus-25).  The Caps also have a fine plus-17 first period goal differential. However, those 87 third period goals allowed is fourth-most in the league, and they have a minus-19 goal differential in the third period overall.

Year-over-Year:

The loss to the Wild to close Week 25 caused the Caps to slip, ever so narrowly, behind the record of last year’s club, the difference through 75 games being a game won by last year’s club and an extra time loss by this year’s team to account for the one-point difference.  This club is better in other respects and rather significantly in a few.  For example, the Caps have an eight-goal improvement in goal differential, year-to-year (form plus-13 to plus-21).  They have a positive change in shot differential of plus-237, year-to-year (minus-222 to plus-15).  Shot attempts differential is plus-186 (from minus-290 to minus-104).

Special teams remain almost unchanged, although there is some change in the spread in both power play and penalty kill from last year owing the recent struggles of the power play and a better penalty kill.

In the end…

The Caps are going through a rough patch at the moment, 2-3-1 over their last six games and two straight weeks of treading water in standings points, and three of the last five weeks.  They have managed to avoid suffering outright losing weeks, running to eight the number of consecutive weeks without one.  It has been that ability to grind out points than has kept them ahead by a razor-thin margin in the Metropolitan Division.

That division lead will be challenged as the team head into the last two weeks of the regular season, the Caps having to contend with injury (Michal Kempny) and illness that seems to be running through the locker room.  But the schedule is unforgiving with a Sunday game against the desperate Philadelphia Flyers, a home-and-home with the surging Carolina Hurricanes, and the last game of the season series against Tampa Bay over the next four games.  Splitting the eight points available might not be the worst of outcomes, under the circumstances, but it might not be enough for the Caps to maintain their hold on the division lead. 

Three Stars:

• First Star: Brett Connolly (2-1-3, plus-5, game-winning goal, recorded 20^th goal of the season for first time in his career)
• Second Star: Carl Hagelin (1-2-3, plus-2, led all forwards in shorthanded ice time (4:53), despite appearing in only two games)
• Third Star: Pheonix Copley (1-0-0, 20 saves on 21 shots, sixth straight win)

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 76: Flyers at Capitals, March 24th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

Washington Capitals take to the ice on Sunday afternoon in the third game of their four-game home stand, hosting the Philadelphia Flyers in the last game of their season series.  The Caps come into the game having lost each of the first two games of the home stand, a 5-4 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night and a 2-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Friday night.

The Flyers will be going into this game as the back half of a back-to-back set of games, following up on their Saturday afternoon contest at home against the New York Islanders.  They are in desperation mode, going into the Islander game five points out of a playoff spot with eight games left to play.  Despite the desperate straits in which the Flyers find themselves, they are just 8-6-1 in their last 15 games, a record that has allowed them to pick up only one point over that span on the team immediately in front of them, the Montreal Canadiens.

And if the Flyers are going to make a bigger dent in their deficit, they are going to have to defend better.  Despite allowing 49 goals over those 15 games (3.27 per game), the issue is not goaltending.  Over the last 15 games, the three goalies to dress for the team – Brian Elliott, Carter Hart, and Cam Talbot – have had a tightly grouped save percentage, ranging from .913 (Elliott) to .918 (Talbot) and a respectable .915 in the aggregate. 

Hart seems to have regained his swagger after spending some time out of the lineup with an injury and then struggling against the Caps in his return on March 14^th (27 saves on 31 shots in a 5-2 loss).  In his last three games, he has stopped 114 of 118 shots (.966), but that shot total is indicative of the problem – 39.0 shots faced per 60 minutes.  But these last three games for Hart have not been all that unusual.  Through Friday’s games, there were 49 instances this season of a rookie goaltender facing at least 30 shots and logging a save percentage of .940 or better while playing at least 50 minutes.  Hart has 11 of those instances.  No other rookie goalie has more than eight (New Jersey’s MacKenzie Blackwood).  If he gets the call, this will be Hart’s second career game against the Caps.

Claude Giroux has had a lot of success lately spreading the puck around.  He has 15 assists in his last 15 games (18 points overall, tied for the team lead in that span).  Only five players have more assists since February 18^th, when that 15-game run started, and only Edmonton’s Connor McDavid has more (18) in fewer games (13).  It is not surprising, given that Giroux is second on the franchise list of assist leaders (522, trailing only Bobby Clarke’s 852), and he is 12^th in that category among active players.  However, he is about to climb a rung on the all-time Flyer list of goal scorers.  His next one will be his 235^th career goal, tying him for 10^th place with Rod Brind’Amour.  His next point will give him 80 for the season, making it his fourth career season with 80 or more points.  Coupled with the 102 points he recorded in last year’s career season, he has 181 points over the last two seasons, fifth in the NHL, trailing Sidney Crosby by one point for fourth place through Friday’s games.  Giroux is 20-20-40, plus-6, in 40 career games against the Capitals.

If the Flyers are going to have a late surge, they will need more secondary scoring, and that shines a light on forward Ryan Hartman.  Obtained from Nashville with a fourth-round 2020 draft pick for Wayne Simmonds at the trading deadline, his production has been somewhat disappointing.  Not nearly as much as Simmonds’ performance with the Predators to date (1-1-2 in ten games), but underwhelming nonetheless (1-2-3, minus-4, in 11 games through Friday).  Hartman has not been a top-shelf scorer in his five NHL seasons, but he was on a pace to make a run at his third straight 30-point season in what would be his third full NHL season before the trade. 

Hartman is skating for his third NHL team in 13 months.  He was drafted 30^th overall in the 2013 entry draft by the Chicago Blackhawks, for whom he had a cup of coffee in the 2014-2015 (five games) and 2015-2016 (three games) seasons.  He broke through with the Blackhawks in 2016-2017, going 19-12-31, plus-13 in 76 games.  However, after going 8-17-25, plus-5, in Chicago through 57 games the following season, Hartman was traded to Nashville with a 2018 fifth round pick for Victor Edjsell, and first and fourth round picks in the 2018 draft.  Just as he has in Philadelphia, he struggled some in Nashville after the late-season trade, going 3-3-6, minus-4, in 21 games.  And now, he is trying to avoid repeating that history with the Flyers.  Hartman is 1-3-4, even, in nine career games against Washington.

1.  The Flyers have been one of those teams whose performance aligns with production on defense. They rank 27^th in scoring defense (3.30 goals against per game) and rank 21^st in shot attempts-for percentage at 5-on-5 (48.54).

2.  It is hardly surprising in that context that seven of the eight defensemen to dress for the Flyers this season are at or below 50 percent in individual shot attempts-for percentages at fives.

3.  Only four teams have allowed more goals at 5-on-5 than the Flyers (165): San Jose (166), Chicago (172), New Jersey (173), and Ottawa (199).

4. The Flyers are 40-minute strugglers.  They have a minus-19 goal differential in the first periods of games and a minus-minus-9 goal differential in the middle frame.  They do have a plus-9 goal differential in the third periods of games this season.

5.  Philadelphia wins close, but they lose big.  Only five teams have more one-goal wins than do the Flyers (17), but only four teams have more three-goal losses than Philadelphia (18).

1.  Even with the 2-1 loss to Minnesota on Friday night, the Caps have only five one-goal losses in regulation this season.  Only two teams have fewer: San Jose (three) and Tampa Bay (two).

2.  Only four teams have had more power play chances on home ice than the Caps (126): Florida (133), Colorado (135), Tampa Bay (136), and Nashville (136).

3.  On the other side, only Anaheim has been shorthanded more often on home ice (127) than the Caps (124).

4.  Washington has not lost consecutive games on home ice since January 14^th and 18^th against St. Louis and the New York Islanders.

5.  The one goal that the Caps scored against the Wild on Friday night was their lowest offensive output on home ice and the first time they scored fewer than three goals since they were shut out, 1-0, by Boston on February 3^rd.  The Caps had scored 40 goals over nine home games until Friday.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Philadelphia: Shayne Gostisbehere

In the Flyers’ 8-6-1 run of late, they do not have a single point from a defenseman on the power play.  Given that Shayne Gostisbehere averaged 2:58 with the man advantage, more than the combined power play ice time averages of the other six defensemen to dress over that stretch (2:25), his performance stands out.  In fact, he has not had a power play point since recording a pair of assists in a 5-4 win at Minnesota on February 12^th, his streak now at 17 games.  There might be another number of more concern for the Flyers: 20.  It seems more ice time is not better ice time for Gostisbehere and the Flyers.  In the 38 games in which he skated at least 20 minutes this season, Philadelphia is 12-22-4, but they are 21-8-4 in the 33 games he skated less than 20 minutes.  He has been scoring points overall lately, going 2-15-17, plus-1, in his last 24 games, while averaging 18:46 in that span and logging more than 20 minutes 11 times (the Flyers being 4-6-1 in those games).  Gostisbehere is 1-7-8, plus-3, in 14 career games against the Caps.

Washington: Alex Ovechkin

When Alex Ovechkin takes the ice on Sunday afternoon, it will have been 40 days since his last goal on home ice.  Not that the Caps have spent a lot of time at home since Ovechkin had a goal in the Caps’ 6-4 win over the Los Angeles Kings on February 11^th, but it is six games and counting for Ovechkin without a goal at home, tied with his longest streak of this season, one that straddled the 2018 and 2019 portions of the season.  In fact, that goal against the Kings is his only goal on home ice since he had a hat trick against San Jose on January 22^nd, a span of 11 home games with that single goal.  He has mitigated that dry spell with a fair number of assists (11 in those 11 games since facing the Sharks), but it is odd given that Ovechkin has 327 goals scored on home ice in his career. Only 17 players in the league have more total goals scored than that home total since Ovechkin came into the league in 2005-2006. If Ovechkin is going to break out, it could be against this team.  He has 34 career goals against the Flyers, more than any player since he came into the league but one (Sidney Crosby has 41 goals in 15 more games played against the Flyers than Ovechkin).  Overall, he is 34-24-58, minus-6, in 52 games against Philadelphia.

In the end…

The Caps will start their Sunday in first place in the Metropolitan Division, but pending the results for the New York Islanders in a back-to-back set of games Saturday and Sunday, they might not finish the day in first place.  And, if the Penguins beat Dallas on Saturday, the weekend could come to a close with the Islanders, Caps, and Penguins separated by two standings points (in that order).  Winning would take care of that scenario for the Caps, who if they do beat the Flyers would hold, at worst, a one-point lead on the Islanders and three on the Penguins with all three teams having six games remaining.  NASCAR should hope for such finishes.

Capitals 5 – Flyers 3

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 75: Wild at Capitals, March 22nd

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals open the weekend phase of their four-game home stand by hosting the Minnesota Wild on Friday night at Capital One Arena.  While the Caps dropped a 5-4 overtime decision to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night to open the home stand, they will take a nine-game points streak on home ice (7-0-2) into this contest.

The Wild are struggling to stay above water in the Western Conference standings.  Through Wednesday’s games, they were sitting one point behind the Arizona Coyotes for the second wild card spot in the West.  Minnesota has had a difficult time of it lately going 2-4-3 in their last nine games overall, although they do have a 5-1-1 record in their last seven road contests.

Minnesota has had some success as a road team this season.  While they have the fifth-best road record among Western Conference teams, they are only six points behind the conference-leading St. Louis Blues with two road games in hand.  They have done it by being a reasonably good defensive team, the 101 goals allowed on the road being the fourth-fewest among conference teams.  They have struggled some in the offensive end, though, the 100 goals scored tied for ninth among teams in the West.

Zach Parise leads the Wild in goals (15) and points (33) on the road this season.  Now in his 14^th season, evenly split in years between the Wild and the New Jersey Devils, Parise is among the most efficient offensive players in Wild history.  He ranks third all-time in goals scored (165), eighth in assists (168), and fourth in points (333), despite having dressed for only 442 games with the club (13^th).  What he has added this season that he did not have in his previous six seasons with the Wild is durability.  Parise has appeared in 72 of the Wild’s 74 games this season, 30 more than he dressed for last season, and he seems likely to surpass the 74 games in which he appeared for the Wild in 2014-2015.  He did appear in all of the team’s games in his first year in Minnesota, but that was the shortened 2012-2013 48-game season.  Parise has been streaky of late.  Over his last 19 games he has had points streaks of three games (twice, including coming into this game on one) and four games, and he has had streaks without a point of three and four games.  In 33 career games against the Caps, Parise is 8-16-24, minus-3.

If Zach Parise represents the old guard, then perhaps center Luke Kunin represents the new order.  The second year center is the youngest skater to appear for the Wild this season, having turned 21 years old last December.  Kunin was taken by the Wild with the 15^th pick overall in the 2016 entry draft (the Auston Matthews/Patrik Laine draft) out of the University of Wisconsin.  Lunin spent another year with the Badgers, posting 22 goals and 38 points in 35 games, before starting his pro career with 12 games that season with the Iowa Wild in the AHL.  Last season he split time between Iowa and Minnesota, and he started this season in Iowa.  He was recalled by the big club in early December when Mikko Koivu was injured.  Kunin has dressed for 41 games this season, going 5-10-15, minus-3, in 41 games.  Despite appearing in only those 41 games, Kunin is in the top-30 among rookie point getters.  His points frequency has picked up with time, going 4-6-10, plus-3, in his last 20 games.  He did not record a point in his first and only appearance against the Caps to date.

Among the 17 goalies to dress for the Wild in their history, only Niklas Backstrom has appeared in more games (409) than Devan Dubnyk (292).  Dubnyk is also chasing Backstrom in wins (162 to 194) and shutouts (22 to 28).  He is chasing no goaltender in the NHL this season in games played (61, two more than Marc-Andre Fleury), and his 3,500 minutes are second only to Fleury (3,515).  His goals against average of 2.59 is respectable (13^th among 39 goalies with at least 1,750 minutes), although his save percentage is more middle of the pack (.912, 17^th in that group).  He has been better on the road, however.  His 17 road wins is tied for league-best, while his GAA of 2.51 ranks tenth, and his save percentage of .916 is 14^th among 39 goalies with at least 90 minutes played on the road.  His season has taken a turn, though.  From February 21^st through March 7^th, he was 6-0-1, 1.69, .943, with one shutout in seven appearances.  However, since he capped that seven game run with the shutout, a 25-save gem in a 3-0 win in Tampa over the Lightning, Dubnyk is 1-4-0, 3.04, .901 in his last five appearances.  In nine career appearances against Washington, Dubnyk is 2-6-1, 3.82, .872.

1.  Minnesota is struggles on offense at even strength.  Their 148 even strength goals this season overall ranks 27^th in the league.

2.  The Wild are even worse on offense in overtime.  They have three overtime goals in 74 games.  Only Colorado (two) and the New York Rangers (one) have fewer. 

3.  Speaking of overtime, the Wild have gone to extra time 13 times this season.  Only twice have they done so on the road, and they lost in the freestyle competition each time, those coming one month apart in Buffalo (5-4 on February 5^th) and in Nashville (5-4 on March 5^th).

4.  No team in the league has lost more games when out-shooting the opposition than Minnesota (20, tied with Buffalo, Columbus, Carolina, and St. Louis).

5.  Only two teams have fewer wins when scoring first than the Wild (17) – Detroit (15) and the Rangers (14).  And, when allowing the first goal, the Wild have the seventh-highest number of losses in regulation (25).  Always a good predictor of results, who scores first seems especially true of the Wild.

1.  The Caps have the fewest losses in regulation in the league when out-shooting opponents (seven).  Having out-shot opponents only 31 times in 74 games (20-7-4) contributes to that result.

2.  Washington has yet to allow a goal at 4-on-4 this season.  They one of three teams that can make that claim (Pittsburgh and Colorado are the others).

3.  Only Toronto (186) and Tampa Bay (185) have more goals scored at 5-on-5 than the Caps (179).

4.  When the Caps scored in the final minute against Tampa Bay on Wednesday night, it was only the second 6-on-5 goal scored by the Caps this season.  Only Montreal (one), Tampa Bay (one), and Arizona (none) have fewer.

5.  There is a certain symmetry about the Caps’ performance on faceoffs this season.  Only the New York Islanders have won fewer draws (1,915) than the Caps (1,953), and no team has lost more faceoffs than the Caps (2,328).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Minnesota: Bruce Boudreau

Bruce Boudreau, by contemporary standards, got comparatively late start as a first time NHL head coach, taking the reins of the Washington Capitals at age 53.  But despite the late start, Boudreau ranks 24^th in all-time regular season wins among NHL coaches (537), and he could pass Billy Reay for 23^rd place (542) before season’s end.  With 238 games behind the Wild bench in his career there, he ranks third in all-time franchise games coached, trailing Jacques Lemaire (656) and Mike Yeo (349).  His 128 wins to date trail Lemaire (293) and Yeo (173).  The odd thing about his career, though, is that Boudreau is also in the top five coaches in Anaheim Ducks history in games (352), trailing only Randy Carlyle, who had 598 games in two separate stints sandwiched around Boudreau’s tenure.  His 208 wins there trail only Carlyle (320).  And, his 329 games coached for the Caps ranks third in team history, trailing only Bryan Murray (672) and Ron Wilson (410).  His 201 regular season wins trail only Murray (343) and Barry Trotz (205) among the 18 coaches in Capitals history. 

However, there is that 43-47 postseason record that has dogged Boudreau over his career, too.  He has reached the postseason in ten of his previous 12 NHL seasons, but he has advanced from the first round as a head coach only four times, the last of which came in 2015, when his Anaheim Ducks lost in the Western Conference final.  That might have been a particularly bitter postseason for Boudreau, whose Ducks swept Winnipeg in the first round before dispatching the Calgary Flames in five games in the second round.  Anaheim ran into the Chicago Blackhawks in the third round and lost at home in Game 7, 5-3, after falling behind 4-0 before the game was 34 minutes old.  Boudreau is 2-6-3 in 11 games coaching against the Capitals.

Washington:  Tom Wilson

The last three seasons: 7-14-21.  That is the progression in goals scored by Tom Wilson, who by now is a given as a critical element in the success of the Washington Capitals.  He has, if not a unique, than a rare combination of production and orneriness.  With 56 career goals and 921 penalty minutes, he is one of only 35 players in league history to record at least 50 goals and at least 900 penalty minutes in his first six seasons.  He is the only player in the league to have done it since the 2004-2005 dark season.   And, he could be an award winning real estate agent with all the properties he has claimed in the heads of other teams and their fan bases.  Here is an odd Wilson fact to impress your friends.  Nine times this season, Wilson has recorded a goal and taken at least one penalty.  The Caps have won all of them.  The Caps are 21-4-0 in the 25 such games Wilson has had in his career.

Wilson had a bit of a dry spell in mid-January, when he went five consecutive games without a point, his longest streak this season.  However, he is 8-7-15, plus-8, over his last 26 games.  The Caps are 11-0-1 in the 12 games over that span in which he recorded a point, 5-7-2 when he did not.  Wilson is 3-3-6, plus-5, in 11 career games against Minnesota.

In the end… 

The Caps have had an intense week with a pair of hard-fought games against the Tampa Bay Lightning.  It would be not be unexpected for the team to exhibit a bit of a letdown against a club they do not face often and against which they do not have a particularly noteworthy rivalry.  Even if you are thinking of the Caps-meet-former-coach angle, consider that among the players dressing for the last game Bruce Boudreau coached in Washington, back in November 2011, only four players remain (Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson, Dmitry Orlov, and Alex Ovechkin).  However, the Caps still have only a three-point lead in the division and only five points clear for holding a home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.  They still have to wrap up their season series with the Lightning, have two games left with Carolina, and face the Islanders in the season finale.  It means that when two points are available, it is best to take them.

Capitals 4 – Wild 2

A ONE-Point Night: Washington Capitals -- Game 74: Lightning 5 - Capitals 4 (OT)

The Washington Capitals hosted Lightning on Wednesday night in the second game of their season series, looking to even the series at a game apiece. It was a wild one, arguably the best regular game in the NHL this season, but in the end the Lightning eked out a 5-4 overtime win.

First Period

The Capitals broke on top in the eighth minute of the period off a Tampa Bay turnover.  Alex Killorn made the mistake of trying to make a spin-o-rama pass at his own blue line and managed only to put the puck on the stick of Carl HJagelin.  From the blue line, Hagelin slid the puck up to Lars Eller, who broke in alone on goalie Andrei Vasilevsky and snapped a shot over Vasilevskiy’s glove to make it a 1-0 game 7:32 into the period.

Despite having two power plays in the period, the Caps could not increase their advantage and went to the first intermission up a goal on the visitors.

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov had the only shot on goal over two power plays in the first period for the Caps.

-- The Caps out-hit the Lightning, 15-4, in the first period, which mirrored the 15-5 shot advantage.

-- John Carlson skated 8:59 in only eight shifts.

Second Period

Tampa Bay took just over a minute to even the score in the second period.  On a power play that carried over from the first period, Steven Stamkos found Nikita Kuchderov, who used defenseman John Carlson as a screen and snapped a shot from the right wing circle low and past the right pad of goalie Braden Holtby to make it 1-1, 1:19 into the period.

Less than a minute after that, Tampa Bay was awarded another power play, and they made it 2-for-2 just four seconds into that man advantage.  Off a faceoff win in the offensive end, Steven Stamkos circled into the slot and snapped a shot past the left pad of Holtby at the 2:12 mark to give the Bolts the lead.

Four minutes later, it was 3-1. Off a scramble in front, Anthony Cirelli spun in the right wing circle and wristed a shot at the net that hit John Carlson’s skate and was redirected into the net at the 6:45 mark.

The Caps narrowed the gap to a goal when Lars Eller hustled at the blue line to keep the puck in the offensive end, circled through the left wing faceoff circle, and sent the puck across the slot. The pass was muffled by Alex Killorn, but not enough, as the puck made its way to Carl Hagelin.  From the edge of the right wing circle, Hagelin flipped a shot over the lunging Vasilevskiy to make it 3-2, 10:30 into the period.

The Caps tied it on a hard work effort from T.J. Oshie.  On a power play, John Carlson laid off the puck to Alex Ovechkin in the left wing circle.  Instead of shooting, Ovechkin fed the puck to Oshie in the low slot.  Oshie’s first attempt was thwarted by Vasilevskiy, but he jumped on the rebound and flipped it over the sprawled goaltender to tie the game 13:40 into the period.

The tie lasted less than two minutes.  With Dmitry Orlov off on a slashing penalty, Kucherov got his second of the game, converting a cross ice pass from Stamkos to give Tampa Bay the lead once more, 15:01 into the period.

It would be the end of the scoring in the second period, but not the end of the excitement as the teams paired off for some mutual aggression late in the period.  Michal Kempny and Cedric Paquette got into it, and Kempny appeared to injure his leg in the process.  He had to be helped off and down the tunnel to the locker room.  Jakub Vrana and Yanni Gourde also made their displeasure with each other known. 

-- Washington had more shots on goal (37) than Tampa Bay had attempts (31) through two periods.  The Caps had 53 shot attempts.

-- The Caps had a 24-9 edge in credited hits through two periods.

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov led the team with six shots on goal through 40 minutes.

Third Period

The Caps were frustrated at every turn, peppering Vasilevskiy with shots, but unable to solve him.  But then, in the last minute, a John Carlson drive was turned aside by Vasilevskiy and into the left wing corner.  Nicklas Backstrom dug it out and sent it around the end wall to Evgeny Kuznetsov along the right wing wall.  Kuznetsov gathered the puck, stepped up, and snapped a shot through the pads of Vasilievskiy to tie the game with 52.6 seconds left.  The Caps earned a standings point.

Overtime

The Lightning ended things on a sour note for the Caps when Victor Hedman skated down the left side, backed the defense off, cut to the middle, and as Dmitry Orlov went to the ice, stuffed the puck past Holtby’s left pad for the game-winner.  Bolts, 5-4.

Other stuff…

-- T.J. Oshie’s goal was his 200^th point as a Capital and 99^th goal with the club.

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov’s last-minute goal was his 20^th of the season and 100^th as a Capital.

-- The Caps finished with 58 shots, a new team record.  The Caps are now 6-6-4, with one tie in the 17 games in franchise history in which they recorded 50 or more shots on goal.  They have lost the last six such games, the last four of them in extra time.

-- Washington had 86 shot attempts.  The fourth line of Nic Dowd, Chandler Stephenson, and Andre Burakovsky had one of them (Burakovsky had a shot blocked).

-- Alex Ovechkin (11 shots), Evgeny Kuznetsov (nine), and Matt Niskanen (seven) combined for 27 shots on goal, just one short of Tampa Bay’s total.

-- The Caps allowed three power play goals for the second time this season, the other being December 14^th against Carolina in a 6-5 Gimmick win.  The last time that the Caps allowed three power play goals at home was October 11, 2017, in a 3-2 loss to Pittsburgh.

-- Carl Hagelin had his second multi-point game of the season (1-1-2), both with the Caps and second in four games.  He is 1-4-5 over those last four games.

-- This game turned on special teams.  Tampa Bay had three power play goals on four shots.   The Caps had one power play goal on 16 shots.

-- John Carlson skated 29:28 in ice time, matching his high for the season (October 19^th vs. Florida).  Alex Ovechkin skated 27:34, almost two minutes more than his previous season high (25:57 last Saturday vs. Tampa Bay).

-- Jakub Vrana had his first NHL regular season fight when he squared off with Yanni Gourde in the second period.

In the end…

It was an odd game.  Exciting, thrilling, but odd.  While folks might look upon this contest and think, “wow, imagine these teams in the playoffs,” one is not likely to see nine power plays in a postseason game or 15 penalties called, as was the case in this game.  Nine goals were scored in this game, but only three of them came at 5-on-5, the Caps holding a 2-1 advantage.  That would seem to be closer to the sort of game one would see between these teams in the postseason, but this one sure was a wild ride.

A TWO-Point Night: Washington Capitals -- Game 73: Capitals 4 - Devils 1

The Washington Capitals wrapped up a four-game road trip with a visit to New Jersey to face the Devils on Tuesday night.  It was a case of a skilled veteran team taking advantage of a young team without a lot of depth, the Caps taking a 4-1 decision to win the season series, three games to one.

First Period

Early in the first period, Brett Connolly collected a loose puck at the Devils’ blue line and worked in deep to the end wall, where he slid it to Nic Dowd.  Curling out from behind the net, Dowd found Andre Burakovsky along the left wing wall.  Burakovsky eased out from the wall and fired a shot through the legs of Eric Tangradi and over the left shoulder of goalieMacKenzie Blackwood and into the far top corner to give the Caps a 1-0 lead 2:52 into the game.

The Caps held that lead until the last minute when a mistake was turned in the tying goal.  Off a turnover, the Devils gained the offensive zone and worked the puck in deep.  Joey Anderson’s centering attempt clicked off Evgeny Kuznetsov and out to the blue line and the stick of Kenny Agostino.  Wasting no time, Agostino sent a slingshot low to the ice and past the right pad of goalie Pheonix Copley to make it 1-1 with just 1.0 seconds left in the period.

-- Washington did not record a shot on goal in the last 8:00 of the period.  New Jersey had only three in that span of time.

-- New Jersey out-shot the Caps, 7-4, and they out-attempted them, 15-10 in the first period.

-- Dmitry Orlov led the Caps with three hits.

-- Burakovsky’s first period goal was his 12^th, matching his total for last year.

Second Period

The Caps broke the tie in the sixth minute.  Carl Hagelin found Christian Djoos along the left wing wall.  From the point Djoos wound up and fired, but not a shot, rather a pass to Brett Connolly who was closing on the net from the other side.  Connolly redirected Djoos’ feed behind Blackwood to give the Caps a 2-1 lead 5:57 into the period.

Washington doubled their lead in the twelfth minute.  Evgeny Kuznetsov broke out of the defensive zone, and Jakub Vrana found him with a pass.  Kuznetsov skated in with T.J. Oshie on a 2-on-1, held the puck, and ripped a shot through the pads of Blackwood at the 12:16 mark.

The Caps took barely a minute to make it a three-goal lead.  Nicklas Backstrom skated the puck down the middle into the offensive zone and laid it off to Alex Ovechkin on the right side.  Ovechkin stepped up and then fed Tom Wilson on the left side.  Wilson snapped a shot that hit the inside of Blackwood’s left pad and caromed into the net to make it 4-1, 13:28 into the period.

-- Connolly’s goal was his 20^th of the season, the first 20-goal season of his eight-year career.

-- The Caps were out-shot, 8-6 in the period, and they were out-attempted, 15-10 in what was a rather quiet period.  Except for all the goals, that is.

Third Period

It was quiet.  Very quiet.  You could cut the quiet with a knife.  A butter knife.  Or maybe a fork.  Perhaps one of those plastic spork things…

Other stuff…

-- Nicklas Backstrom’s assist on Tom Wilson’s goal was his 50^th assist of the season.  It is Backstrom’s sixth straight season with 50 assists.  That makes him only the 26th player in NHL history to record 50 or more assists in six consecutive seasons, and one of two active players, Joe Thornton being the other (he did it in seven consecutive seasons from 2002-2003 through 2009-2010).  And if you are wondering, the longest consecutive 50-assist streak Sidney Crosby ever had was two season (four times).

-- Alex Ovechkin had no shot attempts.  None.  Alert the media!

-- This was the seventh game this season in which Brett Connolly scored a goal on his only shot on goal.

-- The Tom Wilson one-two-three… one goal, two blocked shots, three hits.  He was the only Capital with more than one blocked shot.

-- Christian Djoos had an assist, giving him points in consecutive games.  Okay, so the first one was the last time he dressed, back on February 23^rd against Buffalo.

-- That is six straight wins for goalie Pheonix Copley and with 20 saves on 21 shots, it is the first time he registered consecutive appearances allowing fewer than two goals (33 saves on 34 shots against Winnipeg on March 10^th).

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov led the team with four shots on goal and six shot attempts.

-- Nicklas Backstrom had an assist.  That is 36 games this season in which he had one.  The Caps are 27-6-3 in those games.

-- This was the Caps’ 14^th win this season by three or more goals, matching their total of last season.  It was the third time this season they beat the Devils by three or more goals after losing the first game in the season series, 6-0.

-- Dmitry Orlov had five of the Caps’ 15 credited hits.

In the end…

Business tended to.  Now, back home for the rematch against Tampa Bay.

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