Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was -- Week 26

The last full week of the season for the Washington Capitals was one in which the team found itself having to play four Eastern Conference teams either trying to get into playoff shape themselves or just trying to reach the playoffs.  And when Week 26 was over, all four contenders were vanquished in what ranks as among the best weeks of the season for the Caps.

Record: 4-0-0

This was the ninth four-game week of the season for the Caps and the fourth time in which the Caps swept the week.  That achievement came against four eastern teams that were arguably of playoff caliber.  The Columbus Blue Jackets were still harboring hopes of overtaking the Caps in the Metropolitan and league standings when they faced the Caps and were beaten, 3-2.  It put the Blue Jackets in a spin; they ended their week on a five-game losing streak.  The Toronto Maple Leafs, using the Caps as a measuring stick in their effort to return to the postseason, fell behind by four goals on their way to a 4-1 loss.  The New York Rangers were looking to settle themselves in advance of the postseason and use a win over the Philadelphia Flyers as a springboard against the Caps three nights later.  They were shutout, 2-0.  Finally, the Boston Bruins were in particular need of a win to avoid having to face the Caps in the first round of the playoffs.  After splitting the first two goals of the game, the Caps pulled away for a 3-1 win and put the Bruins in the crosshairs.  When it was over, the Caps had 55 wins for the season, the second highest total in franchise history with one more chance to tie the franchise record.

Offense: 3.00/game (season: 3.22 /game; rank: 2nd)

The Caps played three of the top dozen scoring defenses in the league in Week 26 – Columbus, the Rangers, and Boston – and scored eight goals.  Frankly, that is not a bad week’s work.  Not extraordinary, just solid.  And consistent; the Caps finished the week with three goals or more in three of the four games.  That made 50 times this season the Caps recorded three or more goals in a game.  Only Pittsburgh (59) and Minnesota (53) have done it more often.

What was remarkable about the scoring for the week was the balance.  Ten different players shared the 12 goals for the week; 15 different players recorded points.  Justin Williams and Kevin Shattenkirk were the multiple goal scorers for the week, each with a pair.  It might be worth noting here that these two players are strong evidence of the effectiveness of Brian MacLellan making personnel decisions and addressing specific needs.  Williams was one of two right wings MacLellan acquiring in 2015 (T.J. Oshie being the other) to plug a hole at right wing.  And, there is Williams’ track record as a clutch performer (“Mr. Game 7”).  Shattenkirk was a trading deadline acquisition this season obtained to beef up the blue line and add a bit more punch from the right side.

Williams led the team in points for the week (five) with five players coming up right behind with three apiece (Andre Burakovsky, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom, and Shattenkirk). Every one of the 13 forwards who dressed in Week 26 recorded a point except for Paul Carey, who was held without a point in the only game he played, although he was quite active against the Bruins on Saturday.

Defense: 1.00/game (season: 2.16 /game; rank: 1st)

The Caps faced three of the top six scoring offenses in the league in Week 26 and held the Rangers, Maple Leafs, and Blue Jackets to a total of four goals and 89 shots.  The three games for the week holding teams to one or fewer goals made it 29 times this season they did so, tying Montreal for most in the league.  The Caps held the last three opponents for the week – Toronto, the Rangers, and Boston – to fewer than 30 shots apiece, the Rangers (24) and the Bruins (22) to under 25.  The Caps finished the week having held 27 opponents to under 25 shots in a game this season, tying the Bruins for second most in the league, behind Los Angeles (34).  They recorded eight periods of the 12 played for the week holding opponents under ten shots.  None of the four opponents got off to good starts, shots-wise, all of them failing to hit the ten-shot threshold on the shot meter.

The Caps had a bit of an odd week at 5-on-5.  They lost the shot attempts battle rather badly to Columbus to open the week (41-57/41.8 percent Corsi-for), but then rebounded to win that battle in each of the next three games to finish the week just under 50 percent (49.2; numbers from Corsica.hockey).

Goaltending: 1.00 / .964 / 1 SO (season:  2.06/ .925 / 12 shutouts)

Braden Holtby and Philipp Grubauer split the week, and their numbers were almost indistinguishable.  Holtby was 2-0-0, 1.00, .964; while Grubauer was 2-0-0, 1.00, .960.  Holtby had the shutout, a 24-save gem against the Rangers.  It was his league-leading ninth shutout this season, giving the Caps a league-leading 12 blankings this season (Ottawa has ten).

Both Holtby and Grubauer pitched perfect first periods, Holtby stopping all 17 first period shots he saw and Grubauer stopping all 11 of the shots he saw in the opening frame.  Holtby was perfect in the second periods of his two games as well, stopping all 21 shots he faced.

With his two fine performances in Week 26, Holtby seems to be righting himself after consecutive sub-par performances against Minnesota and Arizona.  For Grubauer, his two wins make him 3-0-0 (one no-decision), 1.61, .938.  When Grubauer stopped 21 of 22 shots on Saturday, it might have been his last regular season game as a Capital, given the attention he is getting as a possible selection of the Vegas Golden Knights in the upcoming expansion draft.  If it was, it was a fine performance to go out on, closing a fine season and as an important ingredient to the Caps’ success this season.

Power Play: 2-for-13 / 15.4 percent (season:  23.2 percent; rank: 3rd)

The Caps faced three top-ten penalty killing units in Week 26 – Boston (first), Toronto (ninth), and Columbus (tenth) – so going 1-for-9 against that trio, especially with two of the games on the road, was not particularly surprising.  Still, it was just the second time in the last seven weeks in which the Caps had ten or more power plays that they finished the week under 20 percent.

The Caps’ efficiency on the power play reflected the skill of the penalty killers they faced.  They scored two goals on 14 shots in 17:25 of power play time.  The Caps had particular trouble getting their power play unleashed against Boston in the last game of the week.  Against the league’s top penalty killing unit, the Caps managed only two shots on goal in 6:35 of power play time.  Alex Ovechkin and Kevin Shattenkirk led the team with three shots on goal apiece, but it was Shattenkirk getting one of the power play goals for the week.  Justin Williams had the other.

Penalty Killing: 7-for-8/ 87.5 percent (season: 84.2 percent; rank: 6th)

The charm of Week 26 as far as penalty killing goes was the few shorthanded situations faced as much as the efficiency with which the Caps dealt with them.  It was the second time in nine four-game weeks this season in which Washington faced fewer than ten shorthanded situations (they faced eight in Week 20.  They held three of the four opponents to two or fewer power play opportunities.  The Caps finished the week having held opponents to two or fewer power play chances 30 times.  The odd thing is that the Caps are 18-7-5 in those games, 37-11-3 when allowing three or more chances.

It was an efficient as well as an effective penalty kill in Week 26.  The Caps held their four opponents to just seven shots on goal in 12:51 of shorthanded ice time.  They did not allow a power play shot on goal in either of the final two games of the week.  Against the Rangers, that was due to not having to face the Ranger power play; they did not have any chances.  Against Boston, the Caps shutout the Bruins on shots on two power plays and 4:00 of ice time.

Faceoffs: 106-for-215 / 50.7 percent (season: 49.9 percent; rank: 14th)

It was a fair week overall, but not as good in the particulars.  The Caps won 34 of 54 draws against Columbus to open the week (63.0 percent), but then finished under 50 percent in each of the last three games of the week.  It was just one under 50 percent in the middle two games of the week, against Toronto and the Rangers, but the Caps won just 22 of 52 against Boston (42.3 percent) in the last game of the week.

The final numbers were a bit inflated by the success the Caps had in the neutral zone, winning 40 of 60 draws (66.7 percent).  They split 70 draws in the offensive zone, but they won just 34 of 85 defensive zone draws (40.0 percent).

The good part was that each of the big four who took at least ten draws for the week finished over 50 percent – Nicklas Backstrom (51.6), Lars Eller (52.4), Jay Beagle (50.8), and Evgeny Kuznetsov (55.6).

Goals by Period:

The second period has been on in which the Caps struggled from time to time this season.  Not so in Week 26.  They recorded seven goals in the middle frame for the week, scoring at least one in the second period of each game and finishing with a plus-6 goal differential in the period, far better than the plus-2 differential for the season with which they started the week.  The Caps were as impressive in the first period, just in a different way, denying any of their four opponents a goal, scoring two of their own to finish the week with a plus-42 goal differential in the first periods of games.  The Caps did get a third period scare from Columbus, who got a pair to close a 3-0 deficit to 3-2, but they could get no closer.

In the end…

To find fault with a 4-0-0 week, especially against the quality of opponent, would be to pick nits off of nits.  Consider that last season, the Caps went 1-0-2 in week 26, coasting into the postseason, and this club’s Week 26 look reflects a more determined attitude to enter the postseason taking care of business in a businesslike way.

When the Caps wrap up their regular season on Sunday against the Florida Panthers, they will have a chance to tie a franchise record for wins in a season and post more wins on home ice (33) than any team has in more than 20 years, since the Detroit Red Wings posted 36 wins at Joe Louis Arena in 1995-1996.  Week 26 teed it up for them with a superb effort.

Three Stars of the Week:

• First Star: Justin Williams (2-3-5, plus-4, 1 GWG, 1 PPG, nine shots on goal, 12 shot attempts)
• Second Star: Kevin Shattenkirk (2-1-3, plus-2, 2 GWG, 4 hits, 5 takeaways, five blocked shots)
• Third Star: Braden Holtby (2-0-0, 1.00, .967, one shutout)

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 82: Florida Panthers at Washington Capitals, April 9th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

-- Seneca

What started on October 13^th in Pittsburgh, watching the Penguins hoist the 2016 Stanley Cup, comes to an end on Sunday evening in Washington.  For the Washington Capitals, the 2016-2017 regular season comes to an end in a contest with the Florida Panthers.  The game has little meaning other than being the 82^nd game in an 82-game schedule, perhaps for some fans their first or only chance to see the Capitals in person this season, certainly not a meaningless consideration for them.

For the Florida Panthers, the last six weeks have been nothing short of disastrous.  On February 20^th they wrapped up a five-game road trip with their fifth win in five tries, a 2-1 win over the St. Louis Blues.  With a 28-20-10 record, they were fourth in the Atlantic Division and held the second wild card spot for the postseason.

Then, the bottom dropped out of their season.  Since that five-game, five-win road trip, the Panthers are 5-16-1 entering their last weekend of games of the season and have not won a game in regulation on the road since that 2-1 win over St. Louis on February 20th (their only road win came in a Gimmick in New York against the Rangers on March 17^th).

Jonathan Marchessault has recorded almost a quarter of the total number of goals scored by the Panthers over their 22-game slide (13 of 54).  It is part of a larger career season in which he has already reached the 30-goal mark, more than three times his career goal total (8) in 49 games over three seasons with Columbus and Tampa Bay preceding this one.  What he has not been, though, is a prolific goal scorer on the road this season.  Marchessault has 22 goals in 37 home games, but has just eight in 36 road games.  He has had just three goals in his last 25 games on the road.  And, he is a team-worst minus-19 in this 5-16-1 slide for the Panthers.  Marchessault is 0-2-2, minus-1, in five career games against the Caps.

Keith Yandle started each of his first nine seasons as a member of the Coyotes, both the “Phoenix” and the “Arizona” versions.  However, he was traded twice in a 15-month period, first to the New York Rangers at the 2015 trading deadline and again last June from the Rangers to the Panthers.  Before those trades, Yandle was among the most prolific offensive defensemen in the league.  From the 2009-2010 through 2013-2014 seasons, he was tied for sixth among all NHL defensemen in goals (52) and third in points (226).  While he has still maintained a high level of offensive output (he has 40-plus point in each of the last three seasons, including this one), he does not appear to be the missing ingredient to push his club to the next level.  He does lead the Panther defensemen in points in their 5-16-1 stumble (2-10-12), but Florida is just 2-7-0 in games during that run in which he recorded a point.  Yandle is 1-11-12, minus-1, in 18 career games against the Caps.

Roberto Luongo has not been in the Florida nets since leaving the game after one period in a 2-1 trick shot loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on March 2^nd and seems unlikely to play again this season.  Starting with his effort in relief of Luongo on March 2^nd, James Reimer has had the bulk of the work in net.  In his 14 appearances since relieving Luongo, Reimer is 4-8-1 (one no-decision), 3.07, .908, with one shutout.  Reimer, who was signed away from the San Jose Sharks as a free agent last summer, has had a pretty good year as Luongo’s backup (and now replacement).  He is 16-16-5 going into the weekend’s games, his win total just one behind the 17 he had last season split between the Toronto Maple Leafs (for whom he played almost six seasons) and the Sharks.  He has been remarkably consistent this season, going 8-9-1, 2.67, .916 at home (with one shutout) and 8-7-4, 2.66, .914 on the road.  Reimer is 2-4-2, 2.57, .922 in eight career appearances against Washington.

1.  The Panthers have been outscored by a healthy margin in their 5-16-1 tumble, 74-54 (3.36 to 2.45 per game), 61-38 at even strength.  They allowed four or more goals 11 times in those 22 games, including each of their last four contests heading into the weekend.

2.  Special teams have not let the Panthers down over that slide.  The power play is 14-for-66 in their last 22 games (21.2 percent), while the penalty killers skated off 50 of 59 shorthanded situations (84.7 percent).

3.  That 5-16-1 record is the second-worst in the league since February 22^nd.  Only the New Jersey Devils’ record is worse (3-13-4).

4.  Oddly enough, no team in the league has more shots on goal in that span of time than the Panthers, who have 751 shots on goal (34.1 per game) since February 22^nd.

5.  Florida might have been playing in some bad luck over those last 22 games.  Their shot attempt percentage (50.55 percent) is 13^th in the league over that span of games (numbers from NHL.com).

1.  The Caps have already clinched the best home record in the league (they are 32-6-2 to 31-6-4 for Pittsburgh), and unless they set a record for goals allowed in a home game, they will finish with the fewest goals allowed at home (currently 65 to 79 for Anaheim) and the best goal differential (currently plus-58 to plus-44 for Minnesota).

2.  When they failed to score on four power play chances against the Boston Bruins on Saturday, it put aside any reasonable chance the Caps could finish with the best home penalty kill in the league.  They would have to go 6-for-6 or better to finish first.

3.  Should the Caps win this final game, they will finish the season with precisely the same record with which they finished last season – 56-18-8 and 120 points.   As it is, the 55 wins they have is the second-highest win total for a season in franchise history.

4.  The Caps have more wins at home (32) than four teams have in total: Arizona (30), Vancouver (30), New Jersey (28) and Colorado (22).

5.  The Caps have the second best shooting percentage on home ice at 5-on-5 (10.04 percent) and the best save percentage at fives at home (94.82 percent; numbers from Corsica.hockey).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder:

Florida: Jaromir Jagr

A few days ago, Jaromir Jagr sat down for an interview with ESPN.  In it, when confronted with a comment that he joked about playing until he was 50 years old, he responded: “I wasn't joking. I was serious. I'm not joking. If God gives me the health, I will.”  Jagr will not reach the age of 50 for another five years, but if he does last that long, we might find himself at the top of just about every meaningful statistical category in NHL history (ok, at least among players not named “Gretzky”).  As it is, he is currently fourth all-time in games played (1,709 through Thursday), third in goals (765), fifth in assists (1,147), second in points (1,912), tied for tenth in power play goals (217, with Mike Gartner), first in game-winning goals (135), and second in shots on goal (5,598). If Jagr, who is an unrestricted free agent after this season, averages over the next five seasons his production this season (16-28-44), he would finish first in all-time games played, second in goals, second in assists, and as one of just two players in NHL history with more than 2,000 points, Gretzky being the other.  At the moment, he alternated games with points over his last five contests and is 5-5-10, minus-8, in the Panthers’ 5-16-1 slide.  Jagr is 32-61-93, plus-16, in 82 career games against the Caps.

Washington: Karl Alzner

Karl Alzner has had a difficult year.  Never a particularly big contributor on the offensive end, his game is keeping things quiet in his own end with a combination of position, angles, and experience to keep opponents from getting good scoring chances.  But of 12 pairs of defensemen having played at least 50 5-on-5 minutes together this season, Alzner is half of three of the worst six pairs of defensemen in Coris-for percentage (numbers from Corsica.hockey).  Brooks Orpik, John Carlson, and Nate Schmidt are the other halves of those pairs.  Schmidt and Orpik ranking third and fourth in Corsi-for among the six defensemen playing at least 300 5-oon-5 minutes this season, Alzner has been something of an anchor.  His personal Corsi-for at fives has been in decline the past few seasons, and it does sound alarm bells about whether Alzner becomes a focus of teams as a player to exploit in the postseason.  Alzner is 2-5-7, plus-10, in 31 career games against Florida.

In the end…

There is one lingering morsel to consume in this regular season for the Caps.  With a win against the Panthers, they will win their 33^rd game on home ice this season, the most of any team in the post-2004-2005 lockout era, topping the 32 wins posted by Nashville in 2005-2006, San Jose in 2008-2009, and Tampa Bay in 2014-2015.  It would be the most home-ice wins for a team since the Detroit Red Wings won 36 games on Joe Louis Arena ice in 1995-1996.  It is small stuff in the larger context of the postseason on which the Caps are about to embark, but it is just one more measure of just how good a season this team has had.

Capitals 4 – Panthers 2

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 81: Washington Capitals at Boston Bruins, April 8th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals take their final road trip of the regular season when they head to Beantown to face the Boston Bruins in a Saturday matinee matchup. The Capitals, who spent most of the season as a good, if not particularly elite road team in terms of record, have won six of their last seven road contests since dropping all three games in their annual California trip.

Boston comes into this contests as perhaps the streakiest team in the NHL at the moment. In their last 25 games, the Bruins have four winning streaks of three or more games and a losing streak of four games. They had a six-game winning streak, their longest of the season, snapped by the Ottawa Senators in a Gimmick on Thursday night.

Over that 6-0-1 run in their last seven games, Boston has done it with defense and goaltending. As far as the latter, it has not mattered whether the goaltender was number one netminder Tuukka Rask or backup Anton Khodobin. Between them, they stopped 187 of 194 shots, a spellbinding .964 save percentage. Khudobin, who is enjoying quite a revival after an awful start to his season, grabbed two of the six wins, allowing just three goals on 62 shots (1.50/.952). It extended a personal winning streak to six straight in his last seven appearances, over which he has a goals against average of 1.98 and a save percentage of .928. This comes after a poor 1-5-1, 3.06, .885 record in his first eight appearances this season. Khudobin in 4-2-1, 2.41, .923, with one shutout in seven career appearances against the Caps.

Khudobin is a credible possibility to start this game because of Tuukka Rask’s mysterious inability to solve the Caps. He comes into this game with four wins and the trick shot loss over the Bruins’ 6-0-1 run, stopping 128 of 132 shots (0.79/.970), and he has a pair of shutouts to go with it. That, however, comes after enduring a personal four-game losing streak over which he allowed 15 goals on 95 shots (4.53/.842).

That brings us to Rask’s almost bizarre lack of success against the Caps. In 15 career appearances, he has never won a regular season game against Washington in which he allowed a goal. He pitched a 16-save shutout in a 3-0 Bruins win at TD Garden on March 6, 2015. In his other 14 appearances, Rask has 14 losses – nine in regulation and five in extra time, all of them in overtime (no Gimmicks here). It is not as if his record is ghastly against the Caps; he has a career 3.14 goals against average and a .887 save percentage, and he has allowed more than four goals in a game to the Caps only once. One might think that would be good enough, if not for a winning record, then at least a few more wins along the way.

Among the skaters, David Pastrnak leads the team in points in their 6-0-1 run, going 2-4-6. In a way, Pastrnak has been a microcosm of the Bruins’ last month – streaky. He was kept the scoresheet in the loss to Ottawa on Thursday, but he still has points in five of his last six games, which followed a point in four games, which followed an 11-game points streak. Generally, Pastrnak has been a very productive player over his last 32 games, going 15-22-37, minus-1, three of those goals being game-winners. He is 1-3-4, minus-3, in five career games against Washington.

Patrice Bergeron leads the club in goals over their 6-0-1 stretch, potting four pucks over those seven games. The short burst in goal scoring follows a nine-game streak without one, tying his longest goal drought of the season. The four goals gave Bergeron 21 on the season, making it six straight full seasons (not including the abbreviated 2012-2013 season) in which he recorded 20 or more goals. He will be appearing in his 899th career game on Saturday, all of them with the Bruins, the fifth highest games-played total in team history spanning 92 seasons. Few players this season are as skilled as Bergeron in perhaps the most basic of plays – the faceoff. Among 55 players taking at least 1,000 draws this season, Bergeron ranks third (59.9 percent), behind only Anaheim’s Antoine Vermette (62.3 percent) and Colorado’s Matt Duchene (62.7 percent). Duchene’s rank might explain the fact that the Avalanche are the only team in the league this season to hold Bergeron under 50 percent in faceoffs in a game twice. Bergeron is 10-25-35, minus-5, in 40 career games against the Capitals.

1.   The Bruins do not work and play well with others. They are the sixth-most penalized team in the league (342 total penalties) and are tied for sixth in minor penalties taken (299, with the Florida Panthers).

2.  The Bruins are the 12th-best scoring offense in the league (2.85 goals per game). They might be better but for the fact that they are fifth in the league in missed shots, one of eight teams in the league with at least 1,000 (1,061).

3.  Only one team in the league has recorded more shots on goal this season than the 2,699 recorded by the Bruins (Pittsburgh: 2,703).

4.  With all the shooting, the Bruins are not an especially successful team when out-shooting opponents. No team has out-shot opponents more times than Boston (59 in 81 games), but their winning percentage in those games of .508 is just 12th in the league.

5.  One has to wonder about that peculiar disconnect between out-shooting teams and winning, since the Bruins are the second best team in the league in shot attempt shares at 5-on-5. Their Corsi-for (54.77 percent) is second only to the Los Angeles Kings (55.12). Their adjusted Corsi-for (for score, zone, and venue) is best in the league at 54.86 percent (numbers from Corsica.hockey).

1.  Braden Holtby leads the league with 42 wins, one more than Columbus’ Sergei Bobrovsky and Edmonton’s Cam Talbot.  If he wins on Saturday or Sunday (assuming Philipp Grubauer will get one the starts in the back-to-backs to end the regular season, and neither Bobrovsky nor Talbot win both of their remaining games, Holtby would become the first goaltender to lead the league in wins in consecutive seasons since Martin Brodeur led the league in four straight seasons from 2002-2003 through 2006-2007.

2.  No team has more Gimmick losses on the road this season than the Caps.  They, along with Florida, Toronto, and Carolina, have four such losses.

3.  Washington has the second-best power play on the road this season at 25.9 percent (Toronto is at 28.1 percent).

4.  The Caps have three players with three game-winning goals on the road this season.  Alex Ovechkin is not one of them; he has one.  Marcus Johansson, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and T.J. Oshie are the three.

5.  The Caps still have not recorded a goal at 4-on-4 this season.  Depending on whether Carolina, the other team that has yet to do so, accomplishes the feat, the Caps could be the fourth or fifth team since the 2004-2005 lockout not to have scored a 4-on-4 goal in a season.  Edmonton (2012-2013), Anaheim (2012-2014), and Florida (2014-2015) are the others.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Boston: Torey Krug

When one thinks about who among the league’s defensemen are the go-getters when it comes to power play points, the names Erik Karlsson, Brent Burns, and even perhaps the Caps’ Kevin Shattenkirk come to mind.  A name that might not is that of Torey Krug.  But there he is, tied for fourth in the league among defensemen with 25 power play points this season.  The odd thing about his production is how little it seems to matter in the bigger picture.  The Bruins are 3-3-0 when he recorded a power play goal, 11-6-2 when he recorded a power play assist.  In fact, Boston is 1-2-0 when he recorded one of each.  When he records points of any nature, though, Boston is 27-10-3, 17-20-4 when he does not.  Krug is 0-1-1, minus-6, in 11 career games against the Caps, but is listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury.

Washington: Daniel Winnik

Daniel Winnik has had a nice little scoring run of late.  He is 3-2-5, plus-5, in his last seven games with points in four of them.  Not bad numbers for a fourth liner, even over a small sample of games.  He is also one of 14 Capitals with at least ten points in road games this season (3-9-12).  He has one of those goals and two of those assists in his last four road games.  As it is, Winnik already has a career best in goals scored in a season (12), topping the 11 he had with Colorado in 2010-2011 and in his rookie season in Phoenix (now Arizona) in 2007-2008.  It is a product of a keen eye shooting the puck, his 15.0 shooting percentage being the best of his ten-year career, the only time in those ten years he shot better that 10 percent for a season.  Winnik is 3-2-5, minus-2, in 16 career games against Boston.

In the end…

It is all about seeing things to their completion and doing things the right way, taking good habits into the postseason by repeating them in these last two games of the regular season.  With the Caps already having set a team record for wins in a season at home, closing the road portion of the season on a 6-1-0 run would put them in an enviable place as the postseason gets underway.

Capitals 4 – Bruins 2

A TWO-Point Night -- Game 80: Washington Capitals 2 - New York Rangers 0

The Washington Capitals returned to the friendly confines of Verizon Center on Wednesday night looking to clinch the top spot in the league standings for the season, and they did just that with a 2-0 win over the New York Rangers.

The teams battled to a scoreless first period, and it was looking for a while that the second period would end in similar fashion. But, with the time dwindling in the period, Justin Williams broke the scoreless tie. On a power play, the Caps worked the puck around the Ranger defense, Matt Niskanen sliding the puck down the right wing wall to Marcus Johansson. From the wall, Johansson found Evgeny Kuznetsov easing down the middle, and Kuznetsov relayed the puck to Alex Ovechkin in the left wing circle. Ovechkin fired and the puck nicked Williams on the way through to the net, changing its direction just enough to elude goalie Henrik Lundqvist to make it 1-0 at the 14:49 mark.

Early in the third period, Kuznetsov rewarded some sacrifice at the other end by a teammate. Brooks Orpik took a J.T. Miller drive off his knee, blocking the shot into the corner where Williams dug it out, chipping it up the wall to the blue line. The puck slid out to the middle where Johansson picked it up and headed up ice. Skating with Kuznetsov on his left, Joahnsson skated the puck to the Ranger line where he chipped a pass to Kuznetsov. Skating in alone on Lundqvist, Kuznetsov snapped a shot past Lundqvist’s blocker to make it 2-0, 5:42 into the period.

It was more than Braden Holtby would need, clinching the game and the Presidents Trophy in style by turning away all 24 shots he faced for the shutout and the 2-0 win.

Other stuff…

-- The win was the Capitals’ 54th of the season, tying the 2009-2010 club for the second-highest win total in team history.

-- Justin Williams’ goal and assist made it points in nine of his last 14 games (4-6-10).  It was his first multi-point game since February 22^nd, when he had two assists in a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.  It was his first multi-point game at Verizon Center since he had a goal and an assist in a 6-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

-- The Caps choked the life out of the Rangers, holding them to 24 shots on goal, almost a third of them from defensemen (seven).

-- Alex Ovechkin recorded his 35^th assist of the season, lifting him into a tie for seventh among left wingers in assists.  It was his fourth straight game without a goal, although he might have had one had his power play drive not ticked off Williams, who was credited with the goal.

-- The power play goal scored by the Caps made it power play tallies in six of their last seven games, 11 of their last 14.  Since January 1^st, the Caps are 38-for-130 on the power play (29.2 percent).

-- Washington held the Rangers without a power play opportunity, the second time this season they accomplished that feat.  They did it on February 24^th in a 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers.  The Caps might have had to face a shorthanded situation when the Rangers’ Chris Kreider took a penalty to put the Caps on a power play, but having Justin Williams take a penalty mid-way through the ensuing man advantage.  The Rangers would have had an abbreviated power play when Kreider’s penalty expired, but they took a too-many-men-on-ice penalty to negate that possibility.

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov snapped a three-game streak without a point with his goal and assist.  It was his 16^th multi-point game this season, tying him for fourth on the club with Marcus Johansson (Nicklas Backstrom: 21; T.J. Oshie: 17; Alex Ovechkin: 17).

-- Justin Williams and Brooks Orpik led the Caps in shots on goal with four apiece.

-- Braden Holtby’s shutout was his ninth of the season, tops in the league.  It was his 32^nd career shutout, lifting him into a tie with Boston’s Tuukka Rask for the most shutouts since Holtby came into the league in the 2010-2011 season (Henrik Lundqvist leads with 37).  The win, his 42^nd to lead the league, gives Holtby an even 90 wins over the last two seasons, 18 more than second-place Martin Jones of the San Jose Sharks (72).

-- The Caps had just a one-shot edge overall (25-24) and at 5-on-5 (21-20), but they did have a slightly larger margin in 5-on-5 shot attempts (45-38/54.22 percent; numbers from Corsica.hockey).

In the end…

Another solid win.  Even in terms of playing the second of a back-to-back games scenario, the Caps looked to be focused and determined.  It is a team back in full flight, going 10-1-1 in their last dozen games overall, and they are an amazing 20-1-1 in 22 home games in the 2017 portion of the season.  They have outscored their opponents by a whopping 85-33 margin in those 22 games.  The Rangers were not so much an opponent as they were another notch on the post.  The Caps have made Verizon Center the most inhospitable arena in the NHL for visitors.  It could not have come at a better time.

A TWO-Point Night -- Game 79: Washington Capitals 4 - Toronto Maple Leafs 1

The Washington Capitals took care of business in a businesslike way on Tuesday night, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-1, at Air Canada Centre in Toronto.  The Win put the Caps on the brink of clinching their third Presidents Trophy in team history and left the Maple Leafs sitting in the second wild-card position, where they could face the Caps in the postseason.

The teams appeared headed to a scoreless first period when the third line engaged in some nifty cycling in the left wing circle, capped with a one-timer by Lars Eller off a feed from Andre Burakovsky that beat goalie Curtis McElhinney to give the Caps a 1-0 lead 14:34 into the period.

Mid-way through the second period the Caps doubled their margin on a power play.  T.J. Oshie and Alex Ovechkin played catch with the puck at the perimeter, and when Oshie too a return pass from Ovechkin, he sent it across the ice to Kevin Shattenkirk in the left wing circle.  Shattenkirk one-timed the puck past McElhinney’s right pad, and it was 2-0 at the ten minute mark.

In the third period, Nate Schmidt provided some insurance when he caught the Leafs paying too much attention elsewhere.  Justin Williams wrapped a pass around a Leaf defender down the left wing wall to Brett Connolly in the corner to the right of McElhinney.  With the Leafs paying attention to what Connolly might do, Schmidt darted down the middle into open ice.  Connolly found him with a well-placed pass, and Schmidt corralled it, snapping a shot past McElhinney at the 8:11 mark to give the Caps a 3-0 lead.

Tom Wilson added a goal late when he got behind the Toronto defense and ran down a pass that Daniel Winnik lobbed into open space.  In alone on a break, Wilson pulled the puck to his backhand and slipped it between McElhinney’s pads to make it 4-0, 16:44 into the period.

Toronto ruined Philipp Grubauer’s shutout bid on a power play in the last two minutes on a Mitch Marner goal, but it was too little, too late, and the Cap skated off with the 4-1 win.

Other stuff…

-- Kevin Shattenkirk scored his first goal with the Caps in his 16^th game with the team.  He now has 13 points (1-12-13) in those 16 games.

-- Brett Connolly had a pair of assists, his first multi-point game since he had a pair of assists in a 5-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on February 7^th.  It was his first multi-point game on the road this season.

-- Every Capital finished with at least one shot on goal except for Daniel Winnik, who nonetheless contributed an assist to the effort.

--  Nate Schmidt has a bit of an odd streak going.  His goal was his second in two games, three weeks apart.  He scored a goal in his last appearance, a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on March 14^th.  He was also a plus-3 in this game.

-- That Schmidt was in the lineup at all was a product of John Carlson unable to go due to a lower-body injury.

-- Jay Beagle had an assist.  That makes the Caps 22-3-1 this season when he recorded at least one point.

-- The Caps certainly spread things around, scoring-wise.  Eleven Caps shared the 12 points recorded.

-- The Caps stopped Auston Matthews’ five-game goal and eight-game points streaks, shutting him out with only one shot on goal.

-- In allowing just one goal, Philipp Grubauer had his stingiest performance over a full game since he shut out the Los Angeles Kings, 5-0, back on February 5^th.  It was the first time he faced a shot on goal in a game since he beat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-3, on March 29^th.  He did not face a shot in 6:48 of ice time in the Caps, 6-3 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on March 31^st.

-- Washington dominated the shots on goal at 5-on-5, 31-21, but they were less dominant in shot attempts.  They held a slim 46-44 edge in that department at 5-on-5 (numbers from Corsica.hockey).

In the end…

This was a game, quite literally, men against boys.  Toronto is a very talented, but very young team.  As such, they are prone to inconsistency, of nights when they just can’t convert their skill into results, and they do not yet possess the experience to be able to grind out games consistently in those situations.  The Caps just took care of business, out-shooting the Leafs, 13-3, in the first period and applying consistent, smothering pressure thereafter.  It made for a game that was not in much doubt, start to finish.  If Washington can play such a game consistently, they will be a very hard team to beat in a multi-game series.  If Toronto is the first team up for the Caps in the postseason, they were delivered a message.  For them, not a pleasant one.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 79: Washington Capitals at Toronto Maple Leafs, April 4th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals wrap up their longest road trip of the season on Tuesday night when they face the Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre in the Caps’ penultimate road game of the regular season.  The Caps clinched a winning road trip with their 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night, but they would like to make it four out of five on the trip, as well as avenge a 4-2 loss on the ACC ice sheet last November 26th.

The Maple Leafs come into this game as one of the most exciting stories of the 2016-2017 season, angling to return to the postseason for the first time since the 2012-2013 season and for only the second time since the 2004-2005 lockout.  Toronto carried a three-game winning streak through the weekend and into their game against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday night in advance of the Caps’ visit.  It is part of a run in which the Leafs are 10-2-1 over their last 13 games, carrying them into third place in the Atlantic Division, one point behind the Boston Bruins with two games in hand on the B’s (pending the result against the Sabres).

By now, many hockey fans are aware that the Maple Leafs have dressed nine rookie skaters this season, seven of them appearing in at least 50 games in the blue and white.  Six of them have at least 25 points, and five of them have at least 10 goals.  And nowhere are they stronger among their rookies than at forward.  Auston Matthews (38-28-66), William Nylander (22-37-59), and Mitch Marner (18-41-59) rank first and tied for third in points, respectively, among the league’s rookies through Sunday’s games.

Matthews’ 38 goals this season is the third highest total for a rookie since the 2004-2005 lockout, and it is a Toronto franchise record for a rookie.  Only Alex Ovechkin (52) and Sidney Crosby (39), both in 2005-2006, surpassed Matthews’ rookie goal total.  His 66 points is the ninth highest rookie point total in that span of time and with three more points would tie Brad Boyes (2005-2006) and Nicklas Backstrom (2007-2008) for seventh place on that list.  He heads into the weekday games on a roll, recording goals in each of his last four games (five in all) and in six of his last eight contests (seven goals).  He has point in eight straight games, tying his longest streak of the season (Games 31-38 in late December and early January).  If there is an odd thing about Matthews’ record this season, it is that more ice time is not necessarily a good thing.  In games in which he skated 17:30 or more, Toronto is 13-18-11.  The Leafs are 25-6-4 when he skated less than 17:30.  He is 1-2-3 in two games against the Caps this season.

William Nylander’s first full season in the NHL (he played in 22 games in 2015-2016) has been as productive as Leafs fans might have hoped when he was taken with the eighth overall pick in the 2014 draft.  His 22 goals ranks tied for 14th (with Gus Bodnar in 1943-1944) all-time on the Toronto rookie goal scoring list.  It is not inconceivable that he could finish in the top ten, surpassing Sergei Berezin’s 25 goals as a rookie in the 1996-1997 season.  He has been a point-making machine in the last two months.  Since February 4th, when he scored a hat trick in a 6-5 win over Boston, Nylander is 12-16-28 in 28 games, and he has points in 13 of his last 14 contests.  Nylander, though, is another player for whom more ice time might not be the best situation.  In games in which he skated 16:28 or more this season, Toronto is 9-11-11.  The Leafs are 28-13-4 in the other 45 games in which he appeared.  He is 0-1-1, minus-1, in two career games against the Capitals.

Mitch Marner is the third member of the top trio for the Leafs, another recent high draft pick doing well (fourth overall in 2015).  Although he might be less heralded than either Matthews or Nylander, he has been no less productive.  His 18 goals rank just sixth on the club overall, but five of them are game-winners, and he is third on the club in power play points (19).  With another two goals, he would become the 26th rookie in Maple Leafs’ history to finish with 20 or more goals.  With another point, he could become just the fourth (or fifth, depending on what Nylander does) rookie in Toronto history to finish their first season with 60 or more points, joining Matthews (66 points so far), Peter Ihnicak (66 points in 1982-1983) and Gus Bodnar (62 points in 1943-1944).  But like his two fellow rookie travelers, more ice time has been an issue this season.  The Leafs are 5-10-7 in games in which Marner skated more than 17:30, 31-13-6 in the other 50 games in which he dressed.  He is, relative to Matthews and Nylander, in a bit of a slump at the moment.  After putting together a five-game points streakto start March, he is 1-4-5 in his last ten contests.  Marner is 1-3-4, minus-2, in two career games against Washington.

1.   Since March 7th, when the Leafs embarked on their 10-2-1 run, they have the fourth-most points earned in the league (21). St. Louis (24), Anaheim (23), and Carolina…yes, Carolina (22) are the only ones with more.

2.  Toronto is tied for fourth in total goals scored in that span (44, with Edmonton), trailing Carolina (49), Philadelphia (47), and Boston (46). Toronto and Edmonton lead in average goals per game over that span (3.38).

3.  The Maple Leafs have the third-best power play in the league over those 13 games (31.4 percent), trailing the Caps (31.7 percent) and Buffalo (39.3 percent).

4.  Odd fact… Toronto has just 11 wins this season when outshooting their opponents, 26 wins when they are outshot. You might think that as prolific and precocious a team as the Leafs would have more games outshooting their opponents that being outshot.  They do not; they have 30 games outshooting their opponents (11-12-7), while having 46 games being outshot by opponents (26-12-8).  They are 1-0-0 when having the same number of shots on goal as their opponent.

5.  Even with their recent success in the win-loss columns, Toronto is no possession beast. They rank 26th in overall shot attempt shares (47.87 percent) over those 13 games in their 10-2-1 run (numbers from NHL.com).

1.   In the 2017 portion of the season, Washington has played 25 games against teams currently playoff eligible. They have a record of 18-5-2 against those clubs, 11-2-1 against Eastern teams and 7-3-1 against Western teams.

2.  In those 25 games, the Caps outscored their opponents, 88-63 (3.52/game – 2.52/game) and outshot their opponents by 748-717 (29.92/game to 28.68/game).

3.  On special teams, the Caps have a 24.7 percent power play and an 81.7 percent penalty kill in those 25 games. They scored two shorthanded goals and allowed one.

4.  Only once in those 25 games against current playoff-eligible teams did the Caps lose consecutive games – March 9th and 12th to the San Jose Sharks (4-2) and to the Anaheim Ducks (5-2). The Caps are 11-0-1 against those eligible teams at home, 7-5-1 on the road.

5.  After going five straight games against those clubs allowing four or more power play opportunities, the Caps have allowed just 11 power play chances in their last five games against playoff eligible teams, four times allowing two or fewer.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Toronto:  Frederik Andersen

The Maple Leafs have dressed four goalies this season – Jhonas Enroth, Antoine Bibeau, and Curtis McElhinney have combined to appear in 19 games.  However, as much as Toronto has realized from their class of rookie skaters, how successful they are in the postseason could come down to how well Frederik Anderson plays in goal.  Andersen is just the third goaltender for the Leafs since the 2004-2005 lockout to reach the 30-win mark.  His 32 wins this season are one short of Vesa Toskala’s 33 wins in 2007-2008 and five shot of Andrew Raycroft’s 37 wins in 2006-2007.  He and Jonathan Bernier in 2013-2014 are the only goalies playing at least 2,500 minutes in a season to record a goals against average of under 2.75 and a save percentage over .915.  Andersen might be the best of an iffy lot of goaltenders over the last dozen or so seasons for Toronto, but he would appear to justify the description as “best.”  He has not lost a decision in regulation since March 14th (7-2 to Florida), going 5-0-1 (one no-decision), 2.03, .943, with one shutout in seven appearances.  Andersen is 2-0-1, 2.67, .909, with one shutout in three career appearances against the Capitals.

Washington: Brooks Orpik

Brooks Orpik has had an odd sawtooth patter to his offense over the past five years, including this one.  In 2012-2013, with the Pittsburgh Penguins, he did not record a goal in 46 games.  The following year he had a pair in 72 games for the Pens.  Then he moved to Washington and did not record a goal in 78 games.  Last season, in a year cut back to 41 games due to injuries, he still managed to record three goals, a career high.  This season, alas, he is once more without a goal.  What is odd about this season’s absence of a goal on Orpik’s scoring line is that he already has a career high in shots on goal (81), surpassing the 66 shots he had on goal for the Caps two years ago, also without a goal.  He does have, however, 14 assists, the eighth season he hit double digits in helpers over his 14-year career.  His points have come largely at home this season (10 of his 14 assists).  Orpik has not had a point on the road since January 31^st, an assist in a 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders in Brooklyn.  In 39 career games against the Maple Leafs, Orpik is looking for his first goal.  He has nine assists and in minus-6.

In the end…

It would be natural for a team to experience a bit of a letdown after the hard-fought win in Columbus on Sunday evening.  Toronto is the kind of team that can take advantage of that with the offensive skill they possess.  This shakes out as one of those “discipline” kinds of games, where the Caps dictate pace, bending the Maple Leafs to a style of their choosing.  It is something that the Caps have been pretty good at in the 2017 portion of the season, especially against the better teams in the league.  And after years of waiting, Toronto fans can say that this edition of the Maple Leafs is among the better teams in the league.  Beware.

Capitals 5 – Maple Leafs 3

A TWO-Point Night -- Game 78: Washington Capitals 3 - Columbus Blue Jackets 2

The Washington Capitals and Columbus Blue Jackets brought the playoff intensity on Sunday night in Columbus with the top spot in the Metropolitan Division, if not the entire league, on the line.  The Caps raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first 30 minutes, then held on for a 3-2 win to push the Blue Jackets into third place in the Division, six points behind the Caps and one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins, who defeated the Carolina Hurricanes earlier in the day.

After a scoreless first period, T.J. Oshie got the Caps on the board in the second minute of the second period.  Oshie ran down a long cross-ice pass from Nicklas Backstrom, took the puck off the right wing wall, cut against the grain behind two Columbus defenders, and snapped a backhand past goalie Sergei Bobrovsky just 72 seconds into the period to make it 1-0.

Less than two minutes later, the Caps doubled their lead.  Kevin Shattenkirk go the play started by feeding Lars Eller in the neutral zone.  Eller circled to his right to gain the offensive zone, then carried the puck around the back of the net.  From there, Eller spun and found Andre Burakovsky filling in behind him.  Burakovsky sniped a shot over Bobrovsky’s left shoulder, just inside the post and under the crossbar to make it 2-0, 2:56 into the period.

Washington made it 3-0 mid-way through the period when Burakovsky intercepted a Jack John son pass just inside the Caps’ blue line, then took off in the other direction with Matt Niskanen on his left.  After crossing the Columbus blue line, he eased off, then floated a pass between Johnson and Sam Gagner to Niskanen cutting to the net.  Niskanen snapped a shot that beat Bobrovsky on the glove side, and it was 3-0 Caps at the 10:05 mark.

The Caps took that 3-0 lead into the third period and almost gave it all away.  Columbus got one back in the tenth minute of the period when Johnson took a pass from Alexander Wennberg as he was exiting the defensive zone, skated around John Carlson at the Caps’ blue line, did the same to Tom Wilson in deep, and beat goalie Braden Holtby at the 9:22 mark to make it a 3-1 game.

Kyle Quincey got Columbus within a goal six minutes later, capitalizing on heavy pressure in the Caps’ end.  Keeping the Caps pinned in, Brandon Saad circled out through the left wing circle and fed Quincey at the left point.  Quincey’s floater through a maze of players hit nothing until it found the back of the net at 15:33 of the period to make it 3-2.

Braden Holtby stood tall in net after that, staving off a late Columbus flurry in front of his net to secure the 3-2 win and strengthen the grip the Caps have on the top spot in the division and league standings.

Other stuff…

-- At one point, when the Caps had a 3-0 lead, 15 different Columbus skaters were minus-1.  Only Brandon Saad (who finished plus-2), Josh Anderson, and Boone Jenner missed out on that fun among the 18 skaters.

-- Beating trends… Columbus came into the game with a 30-6-2 record this season when Alexander Wennberg had a point and had not lost a game in regulation when Jack Johnson scored a goal (3-0-1).  Well, that’s now 30-7-2, and 3-1-1.

-- Andre Burakovsky had a goal and an assist, his first multi-point game he had a goal and an assist in a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on January 26^th.  He went 13 games and a hand injury without one.

-- It was quite a jump start for Burakovsky, who skated just four shifts and 3:02 in the first period without a single mark in any category on his line of the score sheet.

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov had perhaps his most out-of-character game of the season.  He had one shot on goal (his only shot attempt) and no points.  But he did have five credited hits to lead the team and won nine of 12 faceoffs (he came into the game winning 43.4 percent of his draws).

-- As a group, the Caps won 34 of 54 faceoffs (63.0 percent).  No Caps taking more than one faceoff was under 50 percent.  Losing three of the last four draws they took in the last 1:01 made things a bit more interesting than they had to be.

-- Alex Ovechkin skated just 15:27, his lowest amount of ice time since he skated 14:54 in a 6-4 win over the Anaheim Ducks on February 11^th.

-- Nicklas Backstrom had an assist.  That makes helpers in seven of his last 11 games, over which he is 2-15-17, plus-2.

-- Braden Holtby held the Blue Jackets to two goals on 37 shots faced.  It was the first time in six road games that he allowed fewer than three goals and his heaviest shot volume on the road this season since he faced 45 shots in Winnipeg in a 3-2 win last November 1^st.

-- Columbus won the possession battle, out-attempting the Caps, 57-41 at 5-on-5 (58.16 percent Corsi-for), and outshooting the Caps, 30-26 at fives (numbers from Corsica.hockey).

In the end…

Imagine seven games in a playoff series like this.  It would be grueling for the players, no doubt, but thrilling for fans of both teams (although we’d prefer to see a four sleeper game series in which the Caps stomp the Blue Jackets).  This might be thought of as “Game 0” of that potential playoff matchup. It had that kind of close-quarter, nasty edge feel to it.  That the Caps could go into Columbus and take the crowd out of the game for 40 minutes and take advantage of opportunities, then grind out a win against a hard-charging team late speaks well for their readiness for that environment.

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

Week 25 for the Washington Capitals was one that might be described as a three course meal.  They had a tasty appetizer, followed by a satisfying entrée, and ended it with deflated souffle.  It might be the stale cake that fans remember most, but let’s not complain about the entire meal.

Record: 2-1-0

The schedule for Week 25 called for three games to open a season-long five game road trip. It is a trip that will take the Caps through five cities, four states, one Canadian province, and three time zones.  The leading leg of it took the Caps on a roundabout route from Minnesota to Colorado to Arizona against three teams in various states of distress.  The Caps faced a Minnesota Wild team that was 2-9-1 in their previous 11 games before facing the Caps.  Washington took a two-goal lead into the last five minutes of the game, but needed overtime to subdue the Wild after losing that two goal lead in the last five minutes.  In Colorado they faced an Avalanche team with the worst record in the league, by far, and with a 3-12-0 record in their previous 15 games before facing the Caps.  The Caps had a three-goal lead late in the second period and almost gave it all back before scoring an empty net goal in the last two minutes of a 5-3 win. 

They never got the chance to hold a lead against the Arizona Coyotes, the team with the second-worst record in the league, in the last game of the week.  The Coyotes scored three goals in the first 14 minutes of the contest, held off a challenge by the Caps mid-way through the game, and then dispatched the Caps in a 6-3 decision.

Offense: 4.33/game (season: 3.23 /game; rank: 2nd)

Washington had no problems scoring goals in Week 25.  They did it against struggling teams, but they did do it.  The Wild had allowed 39 goals over their previous 11 games before facing the Caps, and the Avalanche and Coyotes had the two worst scoring defenses in the league.  It was not surprising that an offense as deep and skilled as the Caps averaged more than four goals for the week.  The two games in which the Caps scored five goals to open the week were the first instances of consecutive games with five or more goals since the put together a four-game streak of such games in Games 53-56 in early February.  It was the first time they recorded five or more goals in consecutive games on the road since they scored seven goals in each of Games 44 and 45 against Pittsburgh and St. Louis in mid-January last season.

On an individual level, Alex Ovechkin led the Caps in goal scoring for the week with three, all of them coming in the 5-4 overtime win over Minnesota in the first game of the week.  It was his 17th career hat trick, the most in the NHL since he came into the league in 2005-2006 (Eric Staal has 13).  In your odd Ovechkin fact of the day, those 17 career hat tricks are as many as any NHL player has accumulated since the 1994-1995 season.  Former Cap Peter Bondra had 17 hat tricks from 1994 to 2004.

T.J. Oshie was the other Capital with a multiple goal week (two), and he had both of his goals in that same game against the Wild.  It was Oshie’s sixth multi-goal game of the season for the Caps and second in five games, since recording his only hat trick of the season in a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 18^th. 

Marcus Johansson had himself a whale of a week.  With a goal and seven assists, his eight points led the Caps in scoring, twice as many points as any other player.   The eight points made him a 50-point player for the first time in his seven-year career (23-33-56), and he finished the week on a five-game points streak (1-10-11). He is the 15^th player and the seventh on the current Caps team to have recorded at least one 50-point season since the 2004-2005 lockout.

Defense: 4.33/game (season: 2.22 /game; rank: 1st)

It was an odd week for the Caps on defense, and not in a good way.  There was the 13 goals in three games, which was bad enough.  But there was the odd result for the week of what happened in terms of shots attempts allowed.  The Caps had a very nice week overall with a 53.65 percent Corsi-for at 5-on-5, fueled by holding opponents to a combined 51.23 shots per 60 5-on-5 minutes.  But how they got there was bizarre.  The Caps were underwater in both of their wins in Week 25 – 36.67 percent against Minnesota and 49.49 percent against Colorado – both of them wins.  They dominated Arizona at fives in the last game of the week with a 66.09 percent Corsi-for and holding the Coyotes to 41.32 shots per 60 5-on-5 minutes (numbers from Corsica.hockey).   In all three games, the Caps lost the goals for and against at fives, 3-1 to Minnesota, 3-2 to Colorado, and 4-2 to Arizona.

What seems a bit more revealing is the overall shot attempts in close situations.  The Caps were under 50 percent for the week in their win at Minnesota (38.24 percent) and in the loss to Arizona (46.15 percent).  They did manage to get above 50 percent in their win over Colorado (55.0 percent), but it was not enough to save the week (47.00 percent over the three games; numbers from NHL.com).

Goaltending: 4.29 / .862 (season:  2.12 / .923 / 11 shutouts)

It was not a good week between the pipes, especially for Braden Holtby.  He got most of two game’ worth of work and struggled with it, going 1-1-0, 5.22, .818 in 115 minutes of work, getting pulled from and then sent back into the nets against Arizona to close the week.  He ended the week with an unenviable recent road record, going 2-3-0, 4.50, .843 in his last five games on the road.  It was a case of having poor first periods and going downhill from there.  His .857 first period save percentage was the only period above .800 for the week, going .789 in the second periods and .786 in the third periods of the two games he played.  He did stop the only shot he faced in the overtime win over Minnesota to open the week.

Philipp Grubauer got the middle game of the week and the last 6:48 of the second period against Arizona in relief of Holtby.  His performance was uneven, but certainly more solid than Holtby’s.  He had healthy save percentages in the first (.929) and third periods (.933) against Colorado, but his second period performance (.833) was off, and he had the odd experience of not having to face a shot on goal in that 6:48 he played against Arizona.

Power Play: 6-for-8 / 75.5 percent (season:  23.6 percent; rank: 3rd)

If there is one thing truly clicking for the Caps these days, it is the power play.  Washington had its best week of the season in goals scored (six) and efficiency (75.0 percent) of any week this season.  Half of those six goals came from Alex Ovechkin in recording his hat trick against Minnesota in the first game of the week.  He managed that feat on the only three power play shots he took in that game.  John Carlson, Marcus Johansson, and Nicklas Backstrom had the other three power play goals for the week.  Eight different players had power play points, Johansson leading that group with five points on the man advantage. 

It was an especially efficient week for the Caps on the power play.  They scored on half of their shots (6-for-12) and recorded 12 shots in just 8:08 of total power play time.  The Caps were successful in both of their power play opportunities this season, the first time they scored two power play goals in any of the 21 instances in which they had two power play opportunities.

Penalty Killing: 8-for-10/ 80.0 percent (season: 84.2 percent; rank: 7th)

It was a fair week on the penalty kill that might have ended superbly, but for an iffy effort against Arizona in the last game of the week.  Washington killed off all five shorthanded situations they faced against Minnesota, then skated off another three against Colorado.  With the chance for a perfect week, the Caps ended up allowing power play goals on both Coyote power plays to end the week, a disappointing outcome against a team that finished the week 26 in the league in power play efficiency overall and 23^rd at home.

Those first two games were almost a clinic in penalty killing, holding the Wild to just four unsuccessful shots on goal in 9:53 of power play time, then holding the Avalanche to just three shots in six minutes of power play time.  Sure, the Avs had the worst home power play in the league to end the week, but the Wild finished the week as the second best home power play in the NHL.  It made it that much more disappointing to allow the Coyotes two goals on two shots in 2:41 with Arizona possessing the league’s eighth-worst home power play.

Faceoffs: 82-for-170 / 48.2 percent (season: 49.9 percent; rank: 14th)

Overall, the Caps had a difficult week in the circle, although they did improve as the week wore on, finishing with a 35.3 percent winning percentage in the first game of the week against Minnesota, then following it up with a 50.0 percent effort against Colorado, and then winning 57.1 percent of their draws against Arizona.  It was a different story by zone.  The Caps won 53.2 percent of their neutral zone draws for the week, but lost at both ends of the ice – 40.8 percent in the offensive zone and 49.2 percent in the defensive zone.

Three of the big four (ten or more faceoffs for the week) were at 50 percent or better for the week – Evgeny Kuznetsov (50.0), Jay Beagle (52.2) and Nicklas Backstrom (54.8).  Only Lars Eller among that group was under 50 percent for the week (43.8 percent).

Goals by Period:

It was tight for the Caps in Week 25 in terms of goals by period, finishing the week with a minus-1 goal differential in the first and third periods, while finishing with a plus-1 differential in the second period and overtime.  That first period differential was positive until allowing three goals to Arizona to put themselves in a deep hole out of which they could not climb in the last game of the week.  And it was the minus-1 that the Caps had against Minnesota in the third period of their game that sent the context to overtime before the Caps won.

Still, the Caps did maintain their positive goal differential in all three periods for the season, and overtime, and they even improved a bit on their comparatively weak second period (plus-2 for the season).

In the end…

Week 25 was the 17^th winning week for the Caps this season and their third in a row, over which they are 7-2-1.  Still, that Arizona game sticks out, for falling behind so deeply and so quickly to start the game, for allowing six goals to a team that had trouble scoring against air in March, and for leaving two points on the table that could have given them a stranglehold on the top spot in the league standings.  It makes for a bit more urgency in the Caps’ Sunday evening contest in Columbus against the Blue Jackets.  That made Week 25 a week that was good, but one that could have been so much better.  Certainly better than the deflated souffle the Caps were left with to finish it.

Three Stars of the Week:

• First Star: Marcus Johansson (1-7-8, even, 1-4-5 on the power play, five-game points streak to end the week)
• Second Star: Alex Ovechkin (3-1-4, minus-1, hat trick, three power play goals on three power play shots, ten shots on goal 16 shot attempts, five hits)
• Third Star: Kevin Shattenkirk (0-3-3, plus-1, seven shots on goal, ten shot attempts, two hits, two takeaways, nine blocked shots)