Washington Capitals Recap: A TWO-Point Night: Capitals 3 - Islanders 2 (OT)

It took extra time on Thursday night, but the Washington Capitals made sure their trip to Brooklyn was a happy one as the Caps squeezed past the New York Islanders, 3-2. It was the Caps’ third win in three tries against the Islanders this season.

It was a game that did not start out in a promising way for the Caps, who surrendered the first goal late in the first period. John Tavares got the Islanders on the board when he took a pass from Nick Leddy just inside the Caps’ blue line, circled through the right wing faceoff circle, and wrong-footed a wrist shot past goalie Braden Holtby at the 15:41 mark.

It was part of an early game funk for the Caps that resulted in head coach Barry Trotz making some adjustments among forward lines. It had the intended effect less than two minutes into the second period. It started with Justin Williams and Leddy fighting for the puck in the corner to the left of goalie Thomas Greiss. Williams fought Leddy to a draw, allowing Evgeny Kuznetsov to swoop in and gather up the puck. Circling behind the Islander net, Kuznetsov spun and sent a pass back out to the left of Greiss where Alex Ovechkin was waiting. Ovechkin wasted no time snapping the puck into the net, and the game was tied 1:25 into the period.

Less than two minutes later, the Caps scored a more conventional power play goal. With the top line reunited, T.J. Oshie held the puck just inside the blue line as Nicklas Backstrom filled in down the middle. Oshie led Backstrom perfectly with a pass, and Backstrom slid the puck off to his left where Ovechkin was gliding in. Ovechkin took one step to his right and fired a laser past Greiss to make it 2-1 just 2:52 into the period.

The one-goal lead held up through the rest of the second period, and when the Caps worked through the first 18 minutes of the third period without damage, it looked as if they would get out with their one-goal lead intact. However, a cross-ice clearing attempt by Marcus Johansson did not have enough energy and was settled by Travis Hamonic at the right point. Hamomic fired the puck at the Washington net. Holtby made the stop, but the puck squirted out to Frans Nielsen to Holtby’s left. With time to pick his spot, Nielsen snapped the puck over Holtby’s left shoulder and into the top of the net to tie the game, 2-2, with just 1:44 left in regulation.

That would be how the teams went to overtime, and it looked as if the five-minute session would not be sufficient to settle matters. In the final minute, with the open ice allowed by the 3-on-3, John Carlson drew the puck to the right point, crossing paths with Justin Williams as he did. Carlson then fed Williams high in the offensive zone, and Williams blistered a one-timer that sailed through a screen and past Greiss for the game-winner in the Caps’ 3-2 win.

Other stuff…

-- The Caps’ 42nd win in 56 games is an NHL record, breaking the Detroit Red Wings’ 41 wins in 56 games in the 1996-1996 season.

-- The win was the Caps’ 21st on the road, matching their home win total. Only the Chicago Blackhawks have more home wins (22) than the Caps’ have road wins this season.

-- With his two goals, Alex Ovechkin tied Gilbert Perreault for 38th place on the all-time goal scoring list with 512 career goals. Next up…Jeremy Roenick (513).

-- The Caps had a good night in the circle, going 36-for-63 in faceoffs overall (57.1 percent), and a very good night in the offensive zone, where they were 17-for-26 (65.4 percent).

-- Alex Ovechkin recorded ten shots on goal.  That makes three games in his last four in which he hit the ten-shot mark. No other player in the NHL has more than two such games all season (Evgeni Malkin has two).  He has more shots on goal in his last four games (35) than 297 skaters to have dressed for games this season.

-- Justin Williams had a goal and an assist to extend his points streak to three games and four in his last five.  Over those five games he is 3-3-6, plus-3.

-- Ovechkin’s two goals gave him six multi-goal games this season, putting him in a tie with Tyler Seguin for most in the league.

-- You have to work hard at making a play look as easy as Nicklas Backstrom’s assist on Ovechkin’s second goal.  And no player in the league builds as solid a resume in as understated a fashion.  With that assist, Backstrom has points in nine of his last 12 games, over which he is 4-9-13, plus-2.

-- The trapezoid behind the opponent’s net is always going to be known as “Wayne Gretzky’s Office,” but Evgeny Kuznetsov seems to want to start a franchise of his own.  The back pass from behind the net to the uncovered weak side has become something of a signature move for Kuznetsov, who recorded a point for the 12th time in 15 games and his third game in a row.  He is 3-18-21, plus-8, over his last 15 games.

-- Braden Holtby might want the John Tavares goal back, but he looked sharper than he did in any game since he stopped 33 of 35 shots against the Philadelphia Flyers in a 3-2 win back on February 7th.

In the end…

If there is one place the Caps have struggled a bit this season, it has been in the 3-on-3 overtime.  In games settled during the five-minute session, this win lifted their record to 4-3 (they are also 3-1 in the Gimmick).  This win was gratifying in one important sense.  At this time of the season – the “dog days of February,” if you will – and against an opponent that the Caps had already beaten twice, this might have been a game in which focus was flagging.  Early on, that looked to be the case.  But Barry Trotz took swift action to shake things up among his lethargic forwards, the players shook off the fog, and they tended to business.  Again.  It is a trait this team just keeps demonstrating.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 56: Capitals at Islanders, February 18th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals returned to winning ways on Tuesday night when they defeated the Los Angeles Kings, 3-1, at Verizon Center.  The Caps get a chance to start another winning streak on Thursday evening when they visit Brooklyn to take on the New York Islanders in the third of four meetings between the clubs this season.

The Caps have had success against the Islanders so far this season, winning the first two meetings, the first by a 4-1 margin in New York on January 7th and the second by a 3-2 margin on February 4th in Washington.  Power plays have contributed no goals to the series so far, but both teams come into this contest with their power plays making recent contributions.  The Caps are 3-for-16 over their last four games, their going 0-for-5 against the Kings ending a three-game streak featuring power play goals.  The Islanders are on fire on their man advantage, riding a six-game streak with goals on the power play (7-for-22/31.8 percent).

Penalty killing for the clubs has been iffy for the Caps in recent games.  They have allowed at least one power play goal in nine of their last 13 games (41-for-51 /80.4 percent).  Meanwhile, the Islanders are 39-for-43 (90.7 percent) over their last 15 games.

Nicklas Backstrom lead the Caps in points in the two games against the Islanders to date (1-3-4), part of a first line with T.J. Oshie and Alex Ovechkin that has four of the team’s seven goals in the series (Ovechkin has two, Oshie one).  The likely third line of Jason Chimera, Marcus Johansson, and Tom Wilson has chipped in a goal (Chimera) and a pair of assists as the other multi-point line in the series.  The Caps have three points from defensemen in the two games, Nate Schmidt recording the only goal among the blueliners.

With just three goals in the two games played between the teams so far, there is not a lot of scoring to go around for the Islanders.  Mikhail Grabovski is the only Islander with more than one point, recording a goal and an assist.  Josh Bailey and Brock Nelson have the other goals.

In goal, Braden Holtby has had all the minutes for the Capitals, Jaroslav Halak getting all the minutes (except for empty net time) for the Isles.  Holtby has had the advantage so far, posting a 1.50 goals against and a .951 save percentage to 3.04 and .900 for Halak.

Scoring first has not mattered thus far in the series.  The Caps drew first blood in their 4-1 win in January, but it was the Islanders getting the first score in the February matchup.  Leading at the second intermission mattered in both games, though, with the Caps carrying a lead into the third period in both games before going on to win.

Here is how the teams compare overall:

1.  The Islanders bring a 4-2-0 record into this game since losing to the Caps on February 4th.  They have been doing it largely with offense, recording 23 goals in those six games, 22 in their last five contests.  They have allowed 17 goals on their 4-2-0 run.

2.  John Tavares leads the team in goals (four) and points (11) over the six-game span.  He has inched up to 24th in the league in scoring, which might not sound like a lot, but he is just three points out of 15th place.

3.  The goaltending duties have been split down the middle by Jaroslav Halak and Thomas Greiss over the last six games, each with three decisions, Greiss a perfect 3-0-0, Halak 1-2-0.  Greiss has had the far better time of it in the numbers, posting a 1.29 goals against average in his three games to 5.32 for Halak, and recording a .952 save percentage to Halak’s .833.

4.  No team has allowed fewer power play goals at home than the Islander.  Their total of nine is tied with Montreal and Carolina.  They have the league’s best home penalty kill at 89.3 percent.

5. The Islanders are 51.6 percent Corsi-for at 5-on-5 in their recent 4-2-0 run.  It surpasses their 50.9 percent mark for the season (14^th).  As a home team the Islanders rank 12^th in the league (52.4 percent; numbers from war-on-ice.com).

1.  The Caps are 5-1-0 since defeating the Islanders back on February 4th, but the record does not reflect how close the games were.  Five of the seven games were decided by one goal (one in a Gimmick), and the other two feature empty net goals by the Caps in the last minute of play for two-goal wins.

2. The Capitals are tied for the league lead in wins by three or more goals this season, but they haven’t had one in almost a month, since defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets, 6-3, on January 19^th.

3.  If Alex Ovechkin records a point in this game it would give the Caps three players with 50 or more points, a league best.  As it is, they, the Dallas Stars (Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin), and the Chicago Blackhawks (Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin) are the only teams with two 50-point players.

4.  The Caps rank first overall on the power play (23.7 percent), but they are 21st in total power play opportunities this season (173).

5. The Caps are an underwater team in possession on the road this season, ranking 15^th in Corsi-for at 5-on-5 (48.9 percent), but they do better in suppressing shot attempts.  As a road team they rank 10^th with 54.1 shot attempts per 60 minutes (numbers from war-on-ice.com).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

New York: Kyle Okposo

At the end of this season, Kyle Okposo will be an unrestricted free agent.  At an annual average value of $2.8 million on his current deal, he would be in line for a substantial raise.  A 27-year old averaging 22 goals per 82 games over his nine year career and not yet 28 years old (he will be 28 in April) will be in demand.  At the moment he is on a run that has him with points in eight of his last 12 games (5-8-13), including a hat trick in the Islanders’  8-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on February 7^th.  And, his scoring goals matters to the islanders.  They are 10-1-0 in the 11 games over which he registered his 15 goals of the season.  Okposo is 7-8-15, plus-3, in 23 career games against Washington.

Washington: John Carlson

John Carlson struggled with his offense from the blue line in the games immediately following Christmas.  He went without a point in six consecutive games and in the midst of that missed 12 games to a lower body injury.  However, he is slowly working himself back to a productive role.  He has points in three of his last four games.  He is still a top-ten defenseman in points per game, sitting in 10^th place with 0.70 points per game (minimum: 30 games).  What he has been, though, is a very inconsistent possession player on a game-to-game basis.  Variability across games is to be expected, but Carlson’s swings have been considerable.  Over his last 20 games, for example, he has been under 40 percent Corsi-for at 5-on-5 seven times, above 60 percent four times, while his aggregate is 46.7 percent.  As the Caps head into their final third of the regular season, more balance in Carlson’s game seems something to shoot for.  He is 2-8-10, minus-4, in 20 career games against the Islanders.

In the end…

When the Caps beat the Islanders on January 7^th, 4-1, it was the first time since March 2013 that the Caps did not go to overtime on Islander ice (they were 2-2 in four extra time games).  It is something of a sign as to what directions these teams have pursued since the Caps beat the Islanders in a seven game playoff series last spring.  The Caps have the best record in the league, while New York is in third place in the Metropolitan Division, just four points ahead of the sixth-place Carolina Hurricanes (the Isles do have two games in hand).  That does not render them neutered by any means.  They have enough firepower in John Tavares, Brock Nelson, Kyle Okposo, and others to make things difficult for the Caps.  They could win this game, but it would not be the way to bet.

Capitals 4 – Islanders 2

Washington Capitals Recap: A TWO-Point Night: Capitals 3 - Kings 1

No one wins pretty when they face the Los Angeles Kings, even when they win, and the Washington Capitals hardly looked pretty on Tuesday night when they hosted the Kings.  But after spotting the visitors the game’s first goal – a shorthanded one at that – the Caps fought back and scored the game’s last three goals to beat the Kings, 3-1, at Verizon Center.

The Kings got their goal in what was, from a Caps point of view, an ugly series of events.  It started well enough when Jordan Nolan was sent off at the 16:01 mark for a boarding penalty.  It looked even better when Marcus Johansson scooped up a loose puck along the right wing wall, circled out, and with just one King defender back tried to feather a pass to Alex Ovechkin on the left side.  However, that defender was Drew Doughty, and the premier defenseman laid out to get a stick on the passing attempt.  Doughty managed to get the puck out of the defensive zone where Dustin Brown picked it up.  Brown skated the puck inside the Caps’ blue line but got no further.  T.J. Oshie and John Carlson worked to separate Brown from the puck, but with two Caps and one King along the wall, there was space for Anze Kopitar to grab the loose puck and skate in on goalie Philipp Grubauer.  Kopitar’s first shot attempt was stopped by Grubauer, but the rebound came right back the Kopitar, who made good on his second attempt for the shorthanded goal at 16:43.

It looked as if the Kings would be content thereafter to just milk the one-goal lead for the duration of the contest, and when the game remained 1-0 deep into the second period, it looked as if they might be successful.  But, with the clock ticking under a minute to play in the period, the Kings could not move the puck up and out of the defensive zone from along the wall.  A sliding puck was stopped at the blue line by Brooks Orpik, who sent it across to Dmitry Orlov at the right point.  Orlov wound up to fire a slap shot, but it turned into a slap pass to the slot where Andre Burakovsky was setting up.  Burakovsky redirected the puck past goalie Jonathan Quick, and with 49 seconds left in the second period the game was tied, 1-1.

The third period looked as if the teams would carry the tie into extra time.  Then the Caps hitched up their pants and went to work in deep.  Evgeny Kuznetsov circled out from the right wing corner and tried to stuff the puck past Quick, but he lost the puck off the blade of his stick.  Kevin Gravel batted the puck back into the corner, but Burakovsky got to it before Jeff Carter.  Kuznetsov reversed direction on Carter and darted for the net.  His stuff attempt was turned aside by Quick, and it was Justin Williams jumping up to grab the loose biscuit.  Williams circled behind the net and found Kuznetsov at the post to Quick’s right, and Kuznetsov snapped a shot past Quick’s right pad from a severe angle to put the Caps up, 2-1, with 2:02 left in regulation.

The Kings challenged the call of a goal on the ice on the basis of interference with Quick by Williams.  The call on the ice was left to stand, though, and it was then a case of the Caps keeping the Kings off the scoreboard in the last two minutes.  The Caps kept three Los Angeles shot attempts from getting to Grubauer, and Jason Chimera potted an empty net goal with 8.6 seconds left for the final 3-1 margin.

Other stuff…

-- Brooks Orpik returned to the ice after missing 40 games to injury.  His assist on the Andre Burakovsky goal was his first point since recording an assist on October 23^rd in a 7-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers.

-- Burakovsky’s goal was his eighth in his last ten games.  He has points in 12 of his last 14 games, over which he is 8-9-17, plus-8.

-- Jason Chimera recorded his third goal in four games on what would be his only shot on goal for the game.  He now has 16 goals on 115 shots for the season, his 13.9 percent shooting being his best since he was 15.6 percent for the Edmonton Oilers in his first full NHL season in 2002-2003.

-- It should hardly have been a surprise that the Kings won the Corsi battle.  They are, after all, tops in the league in that department.  They unleashed 56 shot  attempts at 5-on-5 to 39 for the Caps (58.9 percent Corsi-for).

-- The 40 shots on goal allowed by the Caps was the most allowed since the Pittsburgh Penguins recorded 45 shots on goal in a 4-1 Caps win on December 14^th.  It was the fourth time in the last five games that the Caps allowed 35 or more shots on goal.

-- The Caps had 32 shots on goal of their own, almost a third of them (10) from Alex Ovechkin.

-- No Capital won as more than 50 percent of their draws taken, and it was Jeff Carter almost single-handedly doing the damage there for the Kings.  He won 13 of 16 draws against the Caps.

-- Washington killed off all three Los Angeles power plays, breaking a streak of three straight games in which they allowed a power play goal.  They failed on all five of their own power play opportunities, breaking a three-game streak in which they recorded a power play goal.

-- Tom Wilson had his first fight in 11 games when he went with Luke Schenn in the second period.  It was just his fifth fight of the season in 55 games after recording 12 in 67 games last season.

-- Philipp Grubauer was the clear number one star of the contest.  He faced a season high 40 shots, and it was the most he faced in an NHL game since he faced 41 shots against the Carolina Hurricanes in a 4-2 win on December 20, 2013.  His 39 saves was one short of his career high, set when he stopped 40 of 45 shots in a 5-2 loss to the New York Islanders in his first NHL start on March 9, 2013.  He has a .945 save percentage in his last nine appearances.

In the end…

This might have been a Stanley Cup finals preview.  If it was, it will be a tight series played by two teams with different systems but similar approaches to the game.  What was on display in this game was a tend-to-business approach by both teams that features an utter lack of memory.  Bad things that happen are not dwelled upon, and good things are not savored past the moment.  Both teams just go to the next faceoff and get back to work.  For the Kings, that now means heading to St. Louis to shake off this loss and face the Blues.  For the Caps, it means heading to Brooklyn on Thursday to take on the Islanders.  Fans of both teams might be looking a bit further ahead, though.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 55: Kings at Capitals, February 16th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

As the Washington metropolitan area emerges from under a crust of snow and ice deposited on Presidents Day, the Washington Capitals prepare to return to their own ice sheet and host the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday evening at Verizon Center.

The Caps will be facing their fourth straight Western Conference team, while the Kings will be skating against their fifth consecutive Eastern Conference team and fourth straight against a Metropolitan Division opponent.

This is something of an odd rivalry.  Like so many of those the Caps had with teams in the early days, the Kings dominated, the Caps managing a single win in the teams’ first 20 meetings (1-16-3).  But a similar sense of futility has infused the rivalry from the Caps’ side in recent years as well.  Washington won four straight against the Kings in the early 1990’s, but since a 6-1 win in February 1994, the Caps are just 6-16-2, with three ties in 27 decisions against Los Angeles.  Since the 2004-2005 lockout, the Caps are 2-2-1 at home against the Kings, winning the last contest at Verizon Center, a 4-0 shutout on February 3^rd last season.

The Kings come into this game like a drunk trying to negotiate a sidewalk, weaving back and forth from curb to storefront as he makes his way.  Starting with a 3-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes back on January 23^rd, the Kings have faithfully alternated wins and losses, going 4-5-0.  In those nine games they outscored their opponents by a 32-28 margin, but that margin is influenced by a 9-2 pasting of the Boston Bruins a week ago.  Five of the other eight decisions were settled by a single goal, the Kings winning two of them.  Special teams have figured prominently in the Kings’ performance over their last nine games, the power play going 9-for-29 (31.0 percent) and the penalty kill going 28-for-35 (80.0 percent).

Scoring 32 goals over a nine-game span, even if nine of them come in a single game, is a bit unusual in the NHL these days, and the Kings have been balanced in doing it.  Seventeen different skaters have goals in that 4-5-0 stretch, led by Dustin Brown and Marian Gaborik with four apiece.  Gaborik will miss this game, having suffered an injury in a knee-on-knee collision with New York Ranger Dominic Moore last Friday. The injury came at a particularly unfortunate time for Gaborik, who had appeared in all of the Kings’ games to date.  In 14 seasons coming into this one, he had appeared in all scheduled games only once, dressing for all 82 games with the Rangers in 2011-2012.

On the other hand, Brown’s goal scoring came at a more fortunate time, both for the team and personally.  Until his recent outburst, Brown seemed to be on a path to finish with the fewest goals in a full season in his career and yet another drop in year-to-year goal production since recording 28 goals in the 2010-2011 season.  In fact, his four goals over his last nine games doubled his production for the season to date, to eight goals, but he is still on a pace (12 goals) to barely surpass last year’s total of 11 in 82 games.  Brown is 2-6-8, plus-1, in 12 career games against the Caps.

Anze Kopitar has done his best to keep the Kings afloat over their 4-5-0 run.  He leads the team in point over that span (3-7-10) and has a healthy lead in points for the club this season (16-34-50).  Kopitar is on a pace to finish the season with 75 points, which would make six 70-point seasons in his last nine.  With five such seasons on his resume, only Joe Thornton, Henrik Sedin, Evgeni Malkin, and Alex Ovechkin have more (six apiece).  He is 7-4-11, plus-4, in 10 career games against Washington.

Here is how the teams compare overall…

1.  Los Angeles is one of the better teams in the NHL at coming from behind.  Their 13-13-1 record when allowing the first goal is second-best in the league to Dallas’ 13-10-3.  Their 6-9-0 record when trailing at the first intermission is fourth-best in the league.

2.  First period scoring is not a feature of Kings games.  The 70 goals scored, for (36) and against (34), is the third fewest in the league,  Only Tampa Bay (67) and Carolina (64) have featured fewer goals.

3.  Los Angeles is one of eight teams this season not to score a 5-on-3 power play goal.

4.  The Kings have the second best record in one-goal games this season (18-7-3).

5.  If possession is king in the NHL, the Kings are…kings.  They lead the league by a healthy margin in Corsi-for at 5-on-5 overall (56.4 percent to 53.5 percent for Dallas).  They lead at home (58.8 percent) and away (54.4 percent).  They strangle teams in the first period (57.8 percent, first in the league).  They finish teams off (54.0 percent, second in the league).  And they do it by suppressing chances.  Their Corsi-against/60 (48.0) is best in the league (numbers from war-on-ice.com).

1.  Marcus Johansson is tied for third in game-winning goals (7), one behind Joe Pavelski and Jonathan Toews.  Alex Oveckin is two back (6).

2.  Ovechkin has six goals in his current four-game goal scoring streak.  If he nets one against the Kings, it will tie is season-long goal scoring streak.   He opened the 2015-2016 season with a five-game streak.

3.  The Caps have five defensemen with more than ten points.  Only Carolina and the New York Rangers have more (six apiece).

4.  The Caps lead the league in scoring offense, due in part to their accuracy.  They lead the lead in aggregate shooting percentage, the only club over 10 percent (10.8 percent).

5.  Washington comes into this game on a decent possession run of their own on home ice.  Over their last eight games they have a Corsi-for of 53.8 percent at 5-on-5 (numbers from war-on-ice.com).

Los Angeles: Jhonas Enroth

Jonathan Quick is one of the best goaltenders in the NHL, but he can’t be when he is injured.  Quick suffered an injury late in the Kings’ 9-2 win over Boston a week ago and did not dress in any of the three games played since.  He did participate in practice on Saturday and pronounced himself as feeling “good.”  Whether that means he makes a return to the ice against the Capitals is uncertain, and that could mean the Caps face Jhonas Enroth, although Peter Budaj is also available.  Enroth, who has carved out a solid eight-year career as a backup goaltender (career high of 37 appearances with Buffalo in 2014-2015).  This season, his first with the Kings, Enroth has appeared in a dozen games, which is consistent with his workload frequency coming into this season.  What he has not done with any frequency, though, is win.  After winning in his first three appearances this season, he does not have a regulation win in any of his last nine appearances (1-5-1, 2.76, .904, his lone win a 3-2 overtime win over San Jose on January 24^th).  Enroth is 2-0-3, 2.91, .916 in five career appearances against the Capitals.

Washington: Nicklas Backstrom

Nicklas Backstrom leads all NHL forwards in power play assists this season (19).  Since he came into the league in 2007-2008, no player has more assists on the man advantage.  In fact, he has a rather substantial lead over the second-place player in that category, 212 to 184 for Joe Thornton.  Over those nine seasons, he and Alex Ovechkin constitute the most dangerous power play duo in the league, Ovechkin with 283 power play points (first) and Backstrom with 262 power play points (second). Backstrom comes into this game on a three-game points streak, all five of his points being assists.  In eight career games against Los Angeles, he is 2-5-7, minus-4.

In the end…

From the frying pan into the fire.  The Capitals lost the the league’s second-best possession team on Saturday, and now they face the cream of the crop in that area.  The Kings have not been below 50 percent Corsi-for at 5-on-5 in any of their last seven games (59.2 percent overall) and have allowed an average of only 36.3 shot attempts at 5-on-5.

This will be a battle of the irresistible force of the Capitals’ offense against the immovable object of the Kings’ system that limits opportunities.  So far this season the Caps are 3-3-0 against the top-five possession teams in the league (0-2-0 against Dallas, 1-0-0 against Nashville, 2-1-0 against Carolina).  However, they are 8-1-0 against the top five teams in Corsi-against/60 at 5-on-5.  They can thrive in such situations, perhaps because they do not panic; they just grab their lunch pails and go to work.  They’ll need a thermos full of strong coffee to help them with this one.

Capitals 3 – Kings 2

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

The Washington Capitals took three of four games in Week 18, two of the wins coming on the road.  But when the week ends on a sour note against a team they might face somewhere down the road – okay, in the Stanley Cup finals (but we get ahead of ourselves) – it casts a bit of a shadow over the week.

Record: 3-1-0

With 18 weeks in the books, the Caps now have 16 winning weeks and a pair of .500 weeks.  Through 18 weeks last season it was 11 winning weeks, two losing weeks and five .500 weeks as the Caps were 28-15-10 overall.  As it is, the Caps finished Week 18 this season with a 40-10-4 record.  They still hold a seven-point lead over the Dallas Stars for the league’s best record with two games in hand.  And, even though the Caps lost their tenth game in regulation this week, they were the last team to do so.  They did it 39 days after the Dallas Stars became the 29^th team to lose their tenth game in regulation time, back on January 5^th.

Those Stars figured heavily in the week as the team responsible for inflicting that tenth loss on the Caps.  Caps fans might chalk that up to a couple of decades of futility in Texas.  Washington has not won a game in regulation time in Dallas since October 1995, recording a pair of overtime wins among their 14 decisions in Big D since then.  Before that, the Caps had a very good week, beating the Philadelphia Flyers at home before going on the road and knocking off the Nashville Predators and the Minnesota Wild.  As it was, the Caps finished Week 18 with 84 standings points.  If you want a benchmark to compare that to, the all-time 54-game leader in standings points was the 1979-1980 Philadelphia Flyers, who recorded a 37-4-13 record (87 points).

Offense:  3.75/game (season: 3.30 /game; rank: 1st)

In this era of the NHL, you have to like a week in which your team scores three or more goals in each game of the week.  So it was for the Caps, who remain at the top of the scoring offense rankings.  They did it with a very efficient shooting week, scoring 15 goals on 109 shots (13.8 percent).  It was a particularly good week for Alex Ovechkin in that regard.  Ovechkin recorded a team-high six goals on a team high 23 shots on goal (26.1 percent shooting), and to complete the shooting trifecta he had 43 shot attempts for the week, 20.4 percent of the Caps’ total (211).

Even with Ovechkin’s week the team had decent scoring balance.  Eight different skaters had goals, although Justin Williams and Jason Chimera were the only ones other than Ovechkin with multi-goal weeks (each had a pair).  The Caps had 14 skaters finish the week with points, four of them with at least three assists: Nicklas Backstrom (5), Evgeny Kuznetsov (4), John Carlson (3), and Karl Alzner (3).

And, if you are interested in year-to-year comparisons, the Caps had scored 155 goals through 54 games last season.  They are 23 goals clear of that number this season (178), an increase of 0.43 goals per game over last year’s club at this point in the season.

Defense: 3.00/game (season: 2.30 /game; rank: 2nd)

It is highly unusual for the Caps to allow so many goals over so many games in a single week.  They finished the week allowing three or more goals in three consecutive games, the first time this season that they did so and the first time they did it since Games 61-63 last season.  The Caps really spread things around in terms of who was up close and personal for a view of the goals scored.  Of the 21 skaters participating over the course of the week, 19 of them were on ice for goals.  Only Paul Carey and Michael Latta were spared the view, and they were on ice for a combined 21:01 for the week.

It was a rough week in allowing shots on goal.  The Caps allowed 35 shots or more on goal in three of the four games, 132 for the week (33.0 pergame).  It was part of an uneven week for the Caps in terms of possession.  The four games divided into two-game segments that were almost mirror images of themselves. In the first two games of the week the Caps posting a 53.6 percent Corsi-for at 5-on-5 overall (78 attempts for, 98 against).  In the second half of the week they were 44.3 percent (78 for, 98 against).  It made for a combined 48.8 percent for the week (numbers from war-on-ice.com).

Goaltending: 3.02 /.909 (season: 2.18 / .924 / 2 shutouts)

You could see it coming early in the week, and by the time the Dallas Stars scored four goals on 21 shots in 40 minutes, it would mark the end of one of the more remarkable runs of goaltending this season and in Caps history.  In his previous 27 decisions coming into the week, Braden Holtby was 24-1-2, 2.07, .931, with two shutouts.  In four games and 220 minutes of work in Week 18 (he was relieved for the last 20 minutes in the 4-3 loss in Dallas on Saturday), he had a goals against average of 3.27 and a .902 save percentage.  Part of it was the shot volumes he faced, but he was not as sharp as Caps fans have come to appreciate, either.  In fact, Holtby has been rather ordinary for a little while now.  Over his last 15 appearances he is 11-2-2, but his goals against average is 2.80, and his save percentage is .908.

The last 20 minutes of the week belonged to Philipp Grubauer, who stopped all ten of the shots he faced in the third period of the loss to the Stars.  It suggested that the four-goals-on-18-shots performance against Florida in his previous appearance on February 2^nd might have been a hiccup.  In his last eight appearances, half of which were in relief of Holtby, Grubauer is 3-2-0, 1.75, .938, in 342 minutes of work.

Power Play: 3-for-13 / 23.1 percent (season: 24.4 percent; rank: 1st)

Things got back to something resembling normal for the Capitals’ power play in Week 18.  After going 0-for-15 coming into the week, then adding an 0-for-2 effort against Philadelphia to open the week, the Caps scored power play goals in each of their last three games of the week to hold on to their top spot in the league power play rankings.

It was a productive week, even if it was not especially efficient.  However, you can see where the power play was inching its way back as the week wore on.  Washington managed just two power play shots on goal in 5:31 of man advantage ice time in the first two games of the week (one of them an empty netter on which Alex Ovechkin scored), then scored two goals on 13 shots in 13:01 in the last two games of the week.  The odd part about the shots on goal for the week on the power play was not so much that Ovechkin led the club, but he had 11 of the 15 total shots on goal.  No other Capitals had more than one (Nicklas Backstrom, Jason Chimera, T.J. Oshie, and John Carlson).

Penalty Killing: 17-for-20 / 85.0 percent (season: 83.7 percent; rank: 6th)

A decent week of penalty killing in terms of efficiency (85.0 percent) was negated by the frequency with which the Caps had to kill penalties (20 shorthanded situations).  The minus-7 differential in power plays to shorthanded situations resulted in the Caps merely breaking even for the week on special teams (three goals on each side).  Washington faced five or more shorthanded situations in the first three games of the week, the first time that happened since Games 45-47 last season.  The volume of the workload was impressive, and not in a good way.  The Caps spent 31:02 for the week killing penalties and allowed 34 shots on goal in that span of time.

Week 18 is part of what has been something of a slow leak on the penalty kill.  The Caps have allowed power play goals in nine of their last 12 games, going 38-for-48 over that span (79.2 percent).

Faceoffs: 120-for-257 / 46.7 percent (season: 49.8% / rank: 19th)

It was not a very good week in the circle for the Caps.  They did split games in terms of the 50 percent threshold, doing better than 50 percent against Nashville (54.7 percent) and Dallas (53.4 percent), while finishing below that mark against Philadelphia (47.8 percent) and Minnesota (32.4 percent).  That game against the Wild would have been even more of a train wreck but for Nicklas Backstrom going 12-for-21.  Absent Backstrom’s performance, the Caps were 10-for-47 (21.3 percent). 

The Caps also failed to top 50 percent in any of the three zones for the week, managing only to hit that mark in neutral zone draws.  They were 45.8 percent in the offensive end and 44.4 percent in the defensive zone.  Among Caps taking at least ten draws for the week, only Mike Richards (52.4 percent) and Marcus Johansson (52.2 percent) won at least half of their faceoffs.

Goals by Period:

Overall, the Caps’ week turned on their third period performances, and it was a three-goal third period in the week’s final game that got the Caps within a shot of sneaking out of Dallas with at least one standings point (that shot being one rung off the goalpost by Tom Wilson in the last minute of play).  The Caps have been a remarkably effective third period team this season, finishing Week 18 with the most third period goals scored in the league (70) and their plus-25 in the third period being far and away the best positive goal differential in the league.  In fact, their third period goal differential of plus-25 in the third period would rank in a tie for fourth in total goal differential.

In the end…

That the Caps won Week 18 is a good thing, but looking back at the particulars one has to wonder how.  Their possession numbers were not very good, they allowed too many shots on goal, they took far too many penalties (and thus spent far too much time shorthanded), their goaltending was not as sharp as usual, and their goal scoring was unbalanced (Ovechkin had 40 percent of the week’s goals).

On the other hand, if this is what passes for a slump for this team this season, Caps fans will take it with a smile.  Still, the Caps will have to bear down in Week 19 with a couple of teams on the docket that can really frustrate opponents.  The Los Angeles Kings are the top possession team in the league, based on 5-on-5 Corsi-for numbers, and the Devils are, well, the Devils.  Between those games is a visit to Brooklyn to face a team that will be looking to take a big wet bite out of the Caps, what with Washington already having beaten the Islanders in both games played this season so far after the Caps’ seven-game playoff win last spring.  It is never easy in the NHL, even for the league’s top team.

Three Stars:

• First Star: Alex Ovechkin (6-0-6, 14th career hat trick, plus-1, 23 shots on goal, 43 shots attempts, took over league goal-scoring lead)
• Second Star:Nicklas Backstrom (0-5-5, plus-1)
• Third Star: Karl Alzner (0-3-3, plus-4, 12 blocked shots, 22:23 average ice time)

Washington Capitals Recap: A NO-Point Night: Stars 4 - Capitals 3

The Washington Capitals were looking for a few noteworthy achievements when they battled the Dallas Stars on Saturday night in the heart of Texas.  They were looking to sweep their three-game road trip through the Central Division before heading home.  They were looking for their sixth consecutive win.  And, they were looking to end an eight-game losing streak to the Stars (0-7-1), not having beaten the Stars since a 6-5 overtime win in Dallas on October 25, 2008.

In a game where some offensive fireworks might have been expected from the top two scoring offenses in the league, the first 20 minutes passes without a score.  Then the Caps went stupid.  Dallas scored four times in the second period, starting just 1:55 in on Mattias Janmark’s 11^th goal of the season off a bad Caps turnover inside the Dallas blue line that became a 2-on-1 break. 

Not quite five minutes later, Jamie Benn doubled the lead when he took a feed in the low slot from Patrick Eaves, fanned on his first attempt, then flipped the puck over goalie Braden Holtby, who dropped to defend the first shot.

In the second half of the period, it was Tyler Seguin’s show.  His first goal came on a play started by defenseman Patrik Nemeth, who banged a loose puck off the glass from his own zone and down the ice.  The puck eluded Nicklas Backstrom, and Seguin gathered it up.  He broke into the Caps’ zone with Eaves and Jamie Benn joining him.  Seguin held the puck, then ripped a shot between Holtby’s pads to make it 3-0 at the 14:01 mark.

Seguin put the Stars up 4-0 in the last minute of the second period.  A shot by John Klingberg was turned aside by Holtby, but the goaltender could not control the rebound that darted to his right.  Seguin was in perfect position to slam the loose puck past Holtby’s right pad, and things looked grim for the visitors going to the locker room.

Philipp Grubauer replaced Holtby in the third period, and the Caps finally woke up.  The two things might not have had anything to do with one another, but wake up the skaters did.  They started a comeback with a goal by Alex Ovechkin just over four minutes into the period.  With Benn in the penalty box for interference, the Caps worked the puck around the top of the offensive zone, John Carlson laying out a pass to Ovechkin in the left wing circle for a one-timer.  The shot beat goalie Kari Lehtonen cleanly, and the shutout was ruined.

Avoiding the shutout was the first order of business, but not the last.  Just over three minutes later, Justin Williams got the Caps within a pair when he stepped out from behind the goal line to the right of Lehtonen and snapped a shot into the top of the net on the long side.

Then it was Andre Burakovsky getting the Caps to within a goal.  It was a bit of a broken play but also one of superb eye-hand-foot coordination on Burakovsky’s part.  Evgeny Kuznetsov gained the offensive zone and slammed on the brakes just inside the blue line along the right wing wall.  He spied Burakovsky heading to the net on the other side and led him with a pass.  Ales Hemsky got a stick on it, but it then hit Burakovsky in the shins.  He settled the puck on his stick, and as Lehtonen was trying to sweep the puck off his blade, Burakovsky flipped it over Lehtonen’s stick and into the top of the net to make it 4-3 at 13:54.

That would be as close as the Caps would get, though, Tom Wilson getting achingly close to tying the game with 36 seconds left as he hit the goalpost.  The Caps skated off with their ninth consecutive loss to the Stars, 4-3.

Other stuff…

-- How long has it been since the Caps beat the Stars?  Not only are none of the Caps’ goal scorers from their last win against Dallas with the Caps, only one of them is still in the NHL.  Sergei Fedorov had a pair of goals in that game.  Tyler Sloan had one, as did Alexander Semin, who had the overtime game-winner.  Tomas Fleischmann had the other two, he now of the Montreal Canadiens.  It gets worse.  The Caps have not beaten the Stars in regulation time in Dallas since (sit down for this) October 17, 1995, a 4-3 win.  Anyone remember Mike Eagles or Stefan Ustorf?  They scored goals along with Dale Hunter and Mark Tinordi.  Jim Carey got the win in goal.  Since then, the Caps are 2-12-0 in Dallas, both wins in overtime.

-- The Caps are the 30^th and last team to lose their tenth game in regulation time this season.  Dallas was the last team before the Caps to do it, back on January 5^th, 39 days ago.

-- Alex Ovechkin did not have a shot on goal in the first 40 minutes, but then had five shots on goal in the first 12:40 of the third period, including his 35^th goal of the season. 

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov had a pair of assists making it an even dozen multi-assist games this season.  He now has 16 multi-point games.  Only Jamie Benn (17), Tyler Seguin (who had his 20^th in this game), and Patrick Kane (20) have more multi-point games this season (pending results from other contests).

-- Someday, Mike Richards will get his first point as a Capital.  Until then, he’s got faceoffs in his favor.  He was 6-for-6 in this game and is at 55.1 percent in his 11 games with the club.

-- Braden Holtby allowed four goals on 25 shots.  It was the third straight game in which he allowed three or more goals, the first time that has happened this season and the first time it happened to him since he allowed four goals in three consecutive games, January 16-27 last season.

-- John Carlson had an assist on Ovechkin’s power play goal, giving him points in each of his last three games.

-- Nate Schmidt had an assist on Justin Williams’ goal, breaking a six-game streak without a point.

-- Stan Galiev lives in some transdimensional state, neither entirely on the ice or on the bench.  He skated just seven shifts on Saturday night for a total of 4:52 in ice time.  It was his lightest ice time workload of the season (15 games).

-- The Caps allowed a power play goal for the third straight game and fourth in their last five contests.  Since the games postponed at the end of January, the Caps are just 26-for-33 (78.8 percent).

In the end…

The Caps made things respectable, and they almost squeaked at least a point out of this game, but the underlying numbers tell a grim story.  Dallas out attempted the Caps at 5-on-5 by a 50-40 margin for the game and had 30-19 edge in scoring chances (numbers from war-on-ice.com).  As a team, they might have had their worst period of the season in the middle 20 minutes.  Maybe it was a wake-up call after a few games in which there were some unsettling aspects creeping into their play.  Even with the third-period comeback, there is the concern about the Caps facing a team with as solid a possession game as the Stars.  They will get to test whether or not lessons have been learned when they return home on Tuesday to face the league’s top possession team, the Los Angeles Kings.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 54: Capitals at Stars, February 13th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals wrap up their three-game road swing through the Central Division on Saturday night when they mosey on over to Big-D to face the Dallas Stars.  The Caps are heading into this contest with a five-game winning streak, but they have been playing on a thin edge.  Four of the five wins were by one-goal margins, the other one featuring an empty-net power play goal for a two-goal win.

Meanwhile, the Stars, who had a rocky 3-6-2 January, are 4-1-0 so far this month.  Oddly enough, all four wins came on the road, while their only loss was at home to the Chicago Blackhawks (they redeemed themselves of that loss five days later with a 4-2 win in Chicago, their last contest before this one).

The Stars feature a formidable offense that scored four or more goals in each of their four wins this month and 18 goals overall in five February games.  The part that might cause some concern is that their defense and goaltending has been a bit leaky over those same five games, allowing 16 goals.  Special teams have followed a similar path, the power play humming along at 5-for-17 in February (29.4 percent) while the penalty killers are 13-for-16 (83.1 percent).

Tyler Seguin (3-4-7) and Patrick Eaves (4-3-7) lead the Stars in points in February.  Eaves did his greatest damage with a hat trick in the Stars’ 4-2 win over Chicago on Thursday.  Eaves, now in his 11th season in the NHL, has always had questions about durability.  He has not appeared in more than 70 games in a season since 2008-2009 with Carolina (74 games), and he will not this season, having missed 20 games already.  He has not appeared in more than 50 games in a season since 2010-2011 (63 games with Detroit).  Since that season he has played in just 156 games, not quite two full seasons worth of games out of four full seasons and the abbreviated 2012-2013 season.  Eaves is 4-3-7, minus-2, in 22 career games against Washington.

Seguin has been doing his damage in twos.  He has three two-point games in February.  And, he has been quite effective on the power play, recording four points on the five Dallas power play goals scored this month.  Seguin got off to an impressive start this season with 34 points in his first 24 games and 46 points in his first 34 games.  However, in his last 21 games he has cooled off, going just 9-5-14, although his good start in February suggests he might be returning to his earlier season form.  Seguin is 6-3-9, plus-1, in 16 career games against the Caps.

Then there is the matter of who will tend goal for Dallas.  Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen have split the minutes roughly 60-40 in Niemi’s favor, but there is no clear edge in their performance numbers.  Niemi has the better goals against average (2.52 to 2.79), but Lehtonen has the better save percentage (.912 to .908).  Niemi has more wins (20 to 15), but Lehtonen has the better winning percentage (.750 to .571).  Lehtonen took the decisions in Dallas' last two contests (both of them wins), stopping 81 of 86 shots (.942 save percentage).  Niemi opened the month with three appearances, winning two of them and stopping 50 of 59 shots (.847), and he was pulled for Lehtonen after giving up three goals on 11 shots in a 5-1 loss to Chicago on February 6th.  Niemi has never lost to the Caps in regulation, posting a 5-0-3 record with a 2.52 GAA and a .912 save percentage, with one shutout in eight appearances.  In 24 career appearances against the Caps, Lehtonen is 16-6-2, 2.56, .924, with two shutouts.  He was the goalie of record in the Stars’ 3-2 win over Washington last November, stopping 29 of 31 shots.

Here is how the teams compare overall:

1.  Dallas leads the league in games in which they scored four or more goals.  In 25 such games they are 23-2-0.

2.  Only four players in the NHL have 60 or more points.  Dallas has half of them – Jamie Benn (28-34-62) and Tyler Seguin (28-32-60).  For the record, the other two are Patrick Kane (33-44-77) and Erik Karlsson (11-51-62).

3.  Dallas can be dangerous when killing penalties.  Only three teams – Ottawa (10), Montreal (8), and Winnipeg (8) – have more shorthanded goals scored than the Stars (7).  Then again, they can be leaky on their own power play.  Only Arizona (10) has allowed more shorthanded goals than the Stars (9).

4.  Dallas and Chicago are the only teams in the league to have scored 50 or more goals in each of the three regulation periods.  The Stars are tied for the league lead (with Chicago) in first period goals (50), are tied for seventh in second period goals (54), and lead the league in third period goals (69).

5.  The Stars rank third in the league in Corsi-for at 5-on-5 overall (53.4 percent) and are second in home games in that category (55.8 percent).  In five February games they are at 56.2 percent overall (numbers from war-on-ice.com).

1.  The Capitals, starting with this game, have 29 games left to play.  If they play “.500” hockey from here out (29 points in 29 games), they will finish with the second best record in franchise history (113 points, exceeded only by the 2009-2010 Presidents Trophy-winning team).

2.  The Capitals have 84 points in 53 games.  That is the second highest point total through 53 games in NHL history.  The 1979-1980 Philadelphia Flyers had 85 points through 53 games on a record of 36-4-13.  Things didn’t go so well for the Flyers thereafter, though, as they finished the season with a 12-8-7 record over their last 27 games to finish 48-12-20 overall (they had more ties than Men’s Warehouse).

3.  “Two” is a very nice number for the Caps.  When they allow two or fewer goals they are 30-1-1, their .938 winning percentage being tops in the league.  Then again, they have the best record in the league when allowing three or more goals, too (10-8-3/.476).

4.  The Caps are the only team in the league to have scored more than 60 goals in two of the three regulation periods – 61 in the second period and 67 in the third period (second in the league in both categories).

5.  Washington is still stuck under 50 percent Corsi-for at 5-on-5 in road games this season (49.1), but overall in February they have been pretty good at 51.9 percent overall (home and road; numbers from war-on-ice.com).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Dallas: John Klingberg

It would not be faint praise to think of Dallas defenseman John Klingberg as a “poor man’s Erik Karlsson.”  Both hail from Sweden (Karlsson from Landsbro, Klingberg from Gothenburg).  They are just 27 months apart in age (Karlsson being older).  Both are primarily offensive defensemen.  Both followed similar early career trajectories (Karlsson was 18-53-71 in 135 games over his first two seasons; Klingberg is 21-65-86 in 120 games in his second season).  And, perhaps most important, they rank one-two in scoring among defensemen in the NHL, Karlsson first (11-51-62) and Klingberg second (10-36-46).  February has been kind to Klingberg, who is 4-2-6, plus-3, in five games, part of a longer run in which he has points in six of his last eight games (4-4-8).  He has three points (all assists) and is plus-2 in two career games against the Caps.

Washington: Brooks Laich

If it wasn’t for bad luck, Brooks Laich would have no luck at all (on the ice, that is).  In 52 games so far this season, Laich has one goal on 59 shots, the 343rd worst shooting percentage (1.7) among 350 forwards in the NHL appearing in at least 25 games and averaging at least 10 minutes of ice time a night. It actually goes back further, that single goal being his only one in his last 57 games dating back to last season.  One can understand slumps, but being tied with Paul Carey (one goal in four games) and Zach Sill (one in nine contests) is just plain dishwater dirty luck.  Players with Laich’s experience score more than that by accident, which, in fact, his lone goal this season sort of was, a redirect off his right skate of a Dmitry Orlov drive in a 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins on November 5th.  He is 0-4-4, minus-2, in ten career games against Dallas, but we’re going to go out on a limb and say he gets his first career goal against the Stars on Saturday night.

In the end…

In a game pitting the top two scoring offenses in the league against one another and two of the top five power plays, this game will come down to defense and penalty killing, both of which favor the Caps.  Washington allows more than four-tenths of a goal less per game than Dallas (2.26 to 2.67), and their penalty kill is almost four percentage points better (83.9 percent to 80.0 percent).  That will be the difference as they achieve their third winning streak of six games or more this season.

Capitals 5 – Stars 3

Washington Capitals Recap: A TWO-Point Night: Capitals 4 - Wild 3

Secondary scoring is sweet, but sometimes rank has it privileges, and the Captain of the Washington Capitals exercised his on Thursday night. Alex Ovechkin recorded a hat trick to lead the Capitals to their fifth straight win, a 4-3 decision over the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center, while the Wild fell to their seventh straight defeat.

After the teams played to a scoreless first period, Ovechkin opened the scoring early in the middle frame. Ovechkin started the play by carrying the puck into the Minnesota zone on the left side. From just inside the blue line he sent the puck across to Nicklas Backstrom at the far edge of the right wing faceoff circle. Backstrom slid the puck back to T.J. Oshie just jumping off the bench. Oshie fired a shot at the Wild net that hit a player on way through and was directed onto the stick of Ovechkin to the right of goalie Devan Dubnyk. Ovechkin snapped the puck past Dubnyk’s right pad, and it was 1-0 2:14 into the period.

Less than three minutes Ovechkin had his second goal. On a power play, Backstrom directed play from the right side. He moved the puck out to John Carlson, who fired a shot that went wide, caroming hard off the end boards. The rebound off the end wall came back out to Dubnyk’s right where Ovechkin was waiting once more. Before Dubnyk could secure the near post, Ovechkin jabbed the puck past him to make it 2-0 at the 5:21 mark.

The Wild halved the lead when Charlie Coyle put back the rebound of a Mikko Koivu shot from the top of the crease, but the two-goal lead was restored barely three minutes later. Nicklas Backstrom settled a loose puck and circled through the right wing circle. His shot was stopped by Dubnyk, but he could not hold it in his glove. The puck snuck out through a clot of players in front of him, and it found Ovechkin one more time. Ovechkin snapped a shot that hit the post to Dubnyk’s left rebounded back and off his left leg, and then dribbled over the goal line to complete the hat trick for Ovechkin 14:55 into the period.

Minnesota struck first in the third period on a power play goal by Ryan Suter to get the Wild to within a goal. They could not get the equalizer, though. Jason Chimera scored an empty net goal with 51.1 seconds left to make it 4-2, and Mikael Granlund added a late goal for the Wild for the final 4-3 margin.

Other stuff…

-- The hat trick propelled Ovechkin into the league lead in goals with 34, one ahead of Chicago’s Patrick Kane.

-- The hat trick was Ovechkin’s first of the season and first since December 10, 2013 when he recorded four goals in a 6-5 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. It broke a 180-game streak without one. It was his 14th career hat trick, breaking a tie with Eric Staal for the most since the 2005-2006 season. He is now tied for second among active players in career hat tricks with Marian Gaborik and one behind Jaromir Jagr for the lead among active players.

-- The win was the Caps’ fifth straight, making it five streaks of five wins or more this season.

-- Ovechkin’s power play goal made it consecutive games with power play goals for the Caps, the first the scored against a goaltender since they went 2-for-2 against the Columbus Blue Jackets on January 19th. They had an empty net power play goal on Tuesday against the Nashville Predators, also scored by Ovechkin.

-- Nicklas Backstrom had a three-assist game, tying him with Evgeny Kuznetsov for the team lead and drawing him to within one of the league lead in three-assist games this season (Erik Karlsson has four). It was Backstrom’s 30th career game with three or more assists, most in the NHL since he came into the league in 2007-2008, breaking a tie he had with Sidney Crosby.

-- Kuznetsov took a stick to the face off a faceoff in the third period and did not return to the game.

-- The Caps took it on the chin in the 5-on-5 battle, allowing 48 Minnesota shot attempts to 38 of their own (44.2 percent Corsi-for), a product of being out-attempted, 20-8, in the third period.  They did have a slight edge in scoring chances, though, credited with 16 to 15 for the Wild (numbers from war-on-ice.com), who made a contest of it in that third period with five scoring chances to one for the Caps.

-- Ovechkin’s three goals, his 507th (Rochester, MN, area code), 508th (Cape Cod), and 509th (Spokane), vaulted him into 39th place on the all-time goal scoring list, passing the legendary Jean Beliveau.  He now is within another hat trick of Gilbert Perreault (512) in 38th place.

-- Michael Latta had another one of those very clean score sheets.  The only mark on this one (he had none on his score sheet against Nashville on Tuesday) was credit for one hit.  Then again, John Carlson’s was mighty clean, too, in almost 24 minutes of ice time.  He did have an assist on Ovechkin’s power play goal, but the only other mark on it was a missed shot attempt.

-- If you follow faceoffs, you have to know that winning 22 of 68 draws is either really generous hometown scoring, or the Caps were butt-ugly awful in the circle.  Mike Richards…3-for-13 (23.1 percent).  T.J. Oshie…0-for-8 (0.0).  Evgeny Kuznetsov…3-for-14 (21.4).  It was a team effort.

In the end…

Winning streaks are funny.  You can see them coming when a team is on a losing streak, but they start playing better in advance of seeing their good efforts rewarded on the scoreboard.  Conversely, you can see the end of them coming when they are winning games while losing in their underlying numbers.  Such might be the case with the Caps here.  Mediocre possession numbers (even accounting for the third period edge for the Wild), poor results in the little things like faceoffs.  Let’s face it, this game turned on headwear…a hat trick.  Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom (three assists, and he won 12 of 21 draws) had very good games.  The rest of the team, not as much.  They will have to do better when they head to Dallas for a game Saturday night against the Stars.