A NO-point night -- Game 8: Canucks 4 - Capitals 2

The Washington Capitals played 58 minutes of pretty good hockey on Sunday night in Vancouver.  It took just 1:47 of something less than good hockey to make the difference, though, as the Caps dropped a 4-2 decision to the Canucks at Rogers Arena.

The good part was the first period, when the Capitals Justin Peters shut the door on the Canucks, turning away all 14 shots he faced in a scoreless period.  The good part continued early in the second period when the Caps started things by winning a faceoff in the Vancouver end.  The puck worked its way to Mike Green at the right point, and Green floated a wrist shot at the Canuck net.  The puck was deflected into the air to the right of goalie Ryan Miller.  Andre Burakovsky calmly gloved the puck down to his feet, then sent a pass through the slot to Marcus Johansson coming across the faceoff circle.  Johansson snapped a shot past Miller before the goalie could react, and it was 1-0, Caps.

The good feeling would end less than nine minutes later when Henrik Sedin converted a Vancouver power play, shooting the puck from a severe angle off goalie Justin Peters glove to tie the game.  Just 1:22 later the Canucks had the lead when Nick Bonino took a chip pass from Chris Higgins at the Capitals’ blue line, cut through the defense, and wired a shot over Peters’ glove, off the far post and in to make it 2-1.

Only 15 seconds later, the Canucks were on the board again, Luca Sbisa stepping into a slap shot from the top of the left wing faceoff circle to make it 3-1.  The Caps got one back less than two minutes after the Sbisa goal.  The Caps worked the puck in deep where Kevin Bieksa tried to move it along and up the wall.  Mike Green cut off the attempt and fed the puck to the slot where Liam O’Brien was setting up.  O’Brien redirected the puck over Miller’s blocker, and the Caps were back within a goal.

That was as close as the Caps would get, though.  Miller shut out the Caps the rest of the way, and Radim Vrbata potted an empty net goal for the final margin as the Caps sank to 4-2-2 after going 1-2-0 on the western road trip.

Other stuff…

-- Andre Burakovsky’s assist made it points in six of eight games this season (2-5-7).  He is tied for second among rookies in points.

-- Mike Green is quietly putting together a solid start to the season.  He had two assists and was plus-2 in almost 21 minutes of ice time against the Canucks.  It was his second multi-point game of the season, and he has yet to have a “minus” game (plus-6 overall).  Green is tied for second among the league’s defensemen in total scoring (3-5-8).  He and the currently injured Victor Hedman are the only defensemen among the top 20 in scoring to do it averaging less than 20 minutes of ice time (Green is averaging 19:50).

-- Against Calgary on Saturday night Marcus Johansson had his first game of the season without a shot on goal.  He made up for that against the Canucks with a goal on two shots. The goal was his third of the season and his second at even strength.  The two even strength goals in eight games match Johansson’s total for 80 games last season.

-- Liam O’Brien recorded his first NHL goal in this game, but he also led the team in shots on goal (5).  He is tied with Burakovsky and Joel Ward with 13 shots on goal for the season despite averaging barely half the ice time of Burakovsky (7:14 to 13:52) and not much more than a third of the average ice time for Ward (18:06).

-- The 34 shots allowed by the Caps was the first time this season any team reached the 30-shot mark against the club.  The Caps are still third in the league in shots allowed per game (25.0), behind St. Louis (23.4) and Minnesota (22.2).

-- The two power play goals allowed by the Caps (one an empty netter) made it four straight games that they allowed at least one power play tally.  Over that span they are 10-for-15 on the penalty kill (66.7 percent).

-- The Caps had only two power plays of their own, totaling just 2:35 in power play time.  It was just the third time in eight games this season that the Caps did not score a power play goal. 

-- Alex Ovechkin went without a point for his fourth straight game.  Not coincidentally, it was also his fourth straight game with two or fewer shots on goal.

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov also has gone four straight games without a point.  He had one shot on goal in 12:38 in ice time, the fourth time in five games he recorded only one shot on goal.  Only once this season has Kuznetsov topped 13 minutes in ice time (16:33 against New Jersey in Game 4).

-- More Capitals recorded hits (12 Caps with 25 hits) than shots on goal (10 Caps with 22 shots).  The Caps were out-attempted overall by a 52-50 margin, but 28 of their attempts did not make it on net (13 shots blocked, 15 misses). 

-- Not the best night for Matt Niskanen.  He was on ice for three of the four Canuck goals.

In the end…

The Caps never seemed to be in this game, even with holding the game scoreless in the first period.  Vancouver applied strong early pressure and outshot the Caps, 14-6, in the opening frame (the shot attempt differential was closer, 22-18 in favor of Vancouver).  Justin Peters kept the Caps in it early in the first period, but the Canucks solved him on the glove side three times on consecutive shots on goal in the second period. 

The Caps played just poorly enough in all three zones to lose what was essentially a one-goal game.  While one could take something out of the one-goal loss in Edmonton to open this road trip, given the Caps’ possession dominance, such is not the case with this game.  These are the “one-goal” decisions (empty netter notwithstanding) of the type that the Caps are going to have to win more often than they lose if they are to be a playoff team next spring.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 8: Capitals at Canucks, October 26th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

Geez, another game?  Well, yeah.  There might have been only two games in Week 3, but Week 4 gets off to a quick start as the Caps head to Vancouver to meet the Canucks in the back half of a back-to-back set of games.

This is one of those dangerous games in which the Caps have clear edges in record and the underlying numbers, but face an opponent that has the ability to play better than its record to date.  The Canucks started the season well, winning their first three games.  However, they are just 1-2-1 in their last four games.  It is noteworthy that the lone win was a 4-1 decision over the St. Louis Blues, one of the stronger teams in the Western Conference.

Overall, the Canucks are a team that generally ranks in the bottom half of the general statistics. Scoring offense is the exception.  The usual suspects lead the team in offense – the Sedin twins.  Daniel leads the club in scoring with ten points, his brother Henrik is next with nine.  The Canucks have a good balance in goal scoring, too.  Radim Vrbata, who was signed away from the Arizona Coyotes to a two-year/$10 million deal last July, leads the team with four goals, which isn’t bad for the consolation prize in the Jarome Iginla sweepstakes.   After that there is Henrik Sedin with three goals, then a group of seven players with a pair of goals.

Alexandre Burrows and Chris Higgins might be expected to be in that group of two-goal scorers.  Linden Vey, perhaps not so much.  He was traded to the Canucks from the Los Angeles Kings last June in exchange for a 2014 second round draft pick.  He had respectable goal totals in juniors (102 in 262 games) and in the AHL (55 in 191 games), so his presence among the Canucks’ goal scoring leaders might not be so surprising, but it is early in the season. 

What the Canucks have not enjoyed is scoring from the blue line.  Alexander Edler is the only Canuck blueliner with a goal.  As a group they have Edler’s goal on a total of 70 shots (1.4 percent).  As a group they have only six points at even strength, Edler with half of them.

Here is how the teams’ numbers compare:

1.  In one respect the Canucks should provide a stiff test for the Caps.  Vancouver is tied for second in the league with 33.7 shots on goal per game.  The Caps are third in fewest shots per game allowed (23.7).

2.  Vancouver doesn’t do close games.  In seven contests to date the Canucks have played in one one-goal decision, a 5-4 Gimmick win against Edmonton in Game 2.

3.  The Canucks have allowed more goals at 5-on-5 (18) than all but four teams: Buffalo, Carolina, Philadelphia, and Edmonton.  That is not a neighborhood in which one wants to travel.

4.  Hockey is not a dainty sport, but there are some teams more so than others.  Vancouver had been credited with 124 hits this season, fewer than any other team except for Chicago and Minnesota. 

5.  That low hit total might be a reflection of good possession numbers overall for the Canucks (if they have the puck, they don’t need to hit anybody).  Vancouver is sixth overall in Fenwick-for percentage in all situations (52.6), although that drops quite a bit at 5-on-5 (51.1; 15^th in the league, according to war-on-ice.com).

1.  For the Caps, the trick is avoiding one-goal games.  While the Caps are 1-1-2 in one-goal decisions, they are 3-0-0 in games decided by two or more goals.

2.  Only Minnesota and St. Louis have (one apiece) allowed fewer second period goals than the Caps (3); only Florida (2), Los Angeles (2), and Chicago (1) have allowed fewer in the third period than the Caps (3).  Only Minnesota has allowed fewer combined second and third period goals (5) than the Caps (6).

3.  One would like to see the Caps getting more opportunities to unleash their power play.  They are tied with Pittsburgh for 22^nd in the league in man advantage opportunities (25).  Only Pittsburgh, New Jersey and San Jose have more power play goals on the road so far than the four scored by Washington.

4.  Seven games in, and the Caps have been outshot only once, 29-21 by Boston in Game 2, a 4-0 Caps win.  Since then, over a five game stretch, the Caps have outshot opponents by five or more shots in each game.

5.  Alex Ovechkin… tied for 13^th in shots on goal?  Hey, the Caps are winning.  Who cares?

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Vancouver: Ryan Miller

Him again?  Well, he might be Ryan Miller, but maybe he’s not “Ryan Miller.”  Miller has not had a good start with his third team in the space of seven months (Buffalo, St. Louis, Vancouver).  He is 33^rd in goals against average (2.71) and 36^th in save percentage (.906), both significantly under his career numbers (2.59/.915).  He has alternated good and poor performances over his five appearances to date.   And, while his first two appearances against the Caps last season were excellent with the Sabres (2-0-0 in a pair of Gimmick wins that went a combined 18 rounds), he allowed four goals on 22 shots in his last appearance against the Caps, that one while tending goal for St. Louis in a 4-1 Caps win.  Miller is 15-12-0 in 28 career appearances against the Caps with a 2.50 goals against average and a .917 save percentage with three shutouts.

Washington: Troy Brouwer

One thing about these western Canada trips.  Guys get to play in front of hometown fans in an opportunity they do not get often.  Tonight it is Troy Brouwer’s turn.  Brouwer is off to a bit of a slow start with one goal in seven games, none in his last four and no points in his last three.  There is last season to compare it to, though.  In a year in which he set a career best mark of 25 goals, he had only one in his first seven games, too.  In 15 career games against the Canucks, Brouwer is 3-2-5, plus-6.

In the end…

A back-to-back should not pose the problems for the Caps that it might later in the season or under different circumstances.  The Caps have played in only two games over the past seven days leading up to this game, and any jet lag they might have felt going west should long ago have ceased to be a problem.  This will be a game of focus and discipline.  The Caps are playing better, but the Canucks do have talent.  If they have the former, the latter will make little difference.

Capitals 4 – Canucks 2

Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was -- Week 3

Week 3 of the 2014-2015 season for the Washington Capitals was as much for team building as it was for hockey.  The Caps held a team building exercise in Calgary between their two games of the week, a hard fought curling competition for the… what, Barry Trotz Trophy?  As for the hockey portion of the week, it was, despite the light workload, the usual mix of the good, the not as good, and the just plain odd.

Record: 1-1-0

The Caps had their first non-winning week of the season, enduring their first loss in regulation time when they lost to the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2, to start the week.  It was the first time that the Caps lost in regulation time since Game 77 last season, a 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils.  Since then the Caps went 7-0-3 before dropping the decision to the Oilers.  The Caps salvaged the week with a 3-1 win over the Calgary Flames that left them in second place, two points behind the New York Islanders in the Metropolitan Division.

Offense: 2.50/game (season: 3.14/game; rank: T-7^th)

It was not the most prolific of weeks at the offensive end, but it was balanced.  Of the five goals of the week, only Joel Ward had more than one (2), John Carlson, Nicklas Backstrom, and Mike Green getting the others.  Ten different skaters shared in the 12 points that were distributed, Ward and Backstrom the only ones with as many as two points.  The odd part of the week was that Alex Ovechkin: 1) did not record a point, and 2) recorded only three shots on goal for the week (often a decent period for the winger).  Three straight games with two or fewer shots made it the first time for Ovechkin since he went four consecutive games January 15-February 4, 2012.  Don’t get too concerned, though.  He still has almost twice as many shots on goal for the season (29) as the next Capital in line (Mike Green and John Carlson; 16 apiece).

Defense: 2.00/game (season: 1.86/game; rank: T-3^rd)

It says something when a team can allow two goals per game for a week, and its goals allowed per game goes up.  That was the case this week for the Caps, who allowed four goals in two games.  They still improved their scoring defense ranking from a tie for sixth last week to a tie (with Chicago) for third, behind only Minnesota (1.00) and Los Angeles (1.43).  Part of this, perhaps a large part of it, is denying opponents opportunities.  The Caps allowed only 42 shots on goal for the week, their consecutive games streak allowing fewer than 30 shots reaching seven games (and counting).  Last season the Caps had six individual games in which they allowed 42 or more shots.  The last time the Caps went seven straight games allowing fewer than 30 shots was October 27 – November 9, 2010 (24.9/game).  Oddly enough, that was two months before the Caps decided to employ a trapping defense after an eight-game losing streak.  The Caps are now averaging 23.7 shots allowed per game.

Goaltending: 2.00 GAA / .902 SV (season: 1.80 GAA / .922 SV / 1 SO)

This is the other side of the “shots matter” argument.  The save percentage put up by Braden Holtby, who played all 120 minutes for the week, was not sterling, but he faced so few shots in the process that his goals against average was still rather good.  The goals were so few that they deserve individual notice.  Justin Schultz scored for Edmonton when he was allowed to walk down the slot and take a centering feed from Teddy Purcell with all the Caps looking at the end boards.  Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored when he took advantage of an Alex Ovechkin whiff on a wrist shot from the left point, sped in on a breakaway, and beat Holtby.  Nikita Nikitin scored on a power play through a screen.  Dennis Wideman scored when the Caps suffered a sloppy clear attempt on an Calgary power play, the puck eventually making its way to Dennis Wideman, who faked Jay Beagle out of position, took a step to his right and fired the puck past Holtby from long range.  It was not a series of poor plays by Holtby (who might want that Wideman goal back) as much as breakdowns of varying sorts in front of him.  Even those, however, were few during the week.  If anything, the goals stand out because of their infrequency.

Power Play: 2-5 / 40.0 percent (season: 28.0 percent; rank: 3^rd)

The Caps were not especially efficient on the power play in terms of shots per minute (five shots in 6:24 of power play time for the week), but they certainly effective with what they had – two goals on those five shots in a 2-for-5 week with the man advantage.  Your next odd development of the week – Alex Ovechkin had no power play shots on goal. The shots came from Troy Brouwer (0-for-2), Mike Green (0-for-1), John Carlson (1-1) and Joel Ward (1-1), Ward’s coming on the only power play shot on goal the Caps recorded against Calgary in their 3-1 win on Saturday.

Penalty Killing: 3-5 / 60.0 percent (season: 84.0 percent; rank: 11^th)

It was not the shots per minute that was odd about the penalty killing for the week (seven shots allowed in 7:18 of shorthanded ice time), it was the scoring.  Both goals allowed for the week came from defensemen – Nikita Nikitin for Edmonton and Dennis Wideman for Calgary.  Both were scored  from long range, both more or less from the middle of the offensive zone.  Both represented lapses, the Nikitin goal scored when the Caps could not prevent either Teddy Purcell or Nail Yakupov from setting up in Holtby’s line of sight, Wideman’s goal when Jay Beagle took himself out of the play, biting on Wideman’s fake of a shot, allowing Wideman to reset his shooting angle.  On the other hand, the best penalty killer is not necessarily your goaltender but not taking penalties in the first place.  Five shorthanded situations faced for the week is a pattern one would hope for.

Even Strength Goals For/Goals Against: 3-2 / plus-1 (season, 5-on-5 goals for/goals against ratio:1.67; rank: 3^rd)

Last season, if the Caps scored three even strength goals for the week, even if it was only over two games, they might have allowed four or five.  That they were still a “plus” for the week is another of those good signs.  Credit that in large part to a dominating week in possession numbers.  At 5-on-5 the Caps were a Corsi plus-30 (95-65) and had a Cors-for percentage of 59.4.  They were plus-25 in Fenwick at 5-on-5 (73-48) with a Fenwick-for percentage of 60.3 (numbers from war-on-ice.com).  It helped the Caps hold Edmonton and Calgary to a combined 6.3 percent shooting at even strength for the week.  Overall, the Caps have outscored opponents by a 15-9 margin at 5-on-5 this season, almost a goal per game (0.86).

Faceoffs: 57-for-114 / 50.0 percent (season: 49.2 percent; rank: 19th)

In a week in which the record was split down the middle, the goals scored/allowed were almost split down the middle, the faceoffs were more of the same. The Caps split 114 faceoffs down the middle with 57 wins and 57 losses.  Nicklas Backstrom took more than a third of the draws and more than twice as many as any other Capitals for the week.  His was largely a split-down-the-middle week, too.  Although he was 25-for-42, he was at 50. 0 percent in both the offensive zone (4-for-8) and the defensive zone (8-for-16).  He was 13-for-18 in the neutral zone.  Jay Beagle saw his first action of the season this week and did a good job in the faceoff circle, winning nine of 13 draws.   After that, none of the other four Capitals – Andre Burakovsky (45.5), Eric Fehr (31.3), Evgeny Kuznetsov (28.6), or Michael Latta (50.0) – taking ten or more draws were better than 50 percent.

Goals by Period:

Nothing surprising here.  In a close-fought week the Caps battle Edmonton and Calgary to a combined draw over the first two periods of games.  The takeaway here is that having allowed no third period goals for the week, there are only three teams – Florida, Los Angeles, and Chicago – having allowed fewer third period goals for the season than the three allowed by the Caps.

In the end…

Not every week is a winning week.  The Caps certainly played well enough to beat the Oilers in the first game of the week; their possession numbers dominated (64.7 percent Corsi-for, 64.1 percent Fenwick for at 5-on-5; numbers from war-on-ice.com).  It was the infrequent exception to the general rule that with possession dominance goes winning.  Over a season’s worth of games, if the Caps can continue something approaching that level of performance (fifth in the league in Corsi-for percentage at 5-on-5, fourth in Fenwick-for percentages, according to war-on-ice.com), they will win a lot of games.

Three Stars:

• First Star: Mike Green.  Plus-19 Corsi at 5-on-5, plus-15 Fenwick, one goal, 39 minutes of ice time.
• Second Star: Joel Ward.  Two goals (including game-winner) against Calgary.
• Third Star: Nicklas Backstrom.  One goal, one assist, 25-for-42 in faceoffs, 500^th career point recorded.

A TWO-point night -- Game 7: Capitals 3 - Flames 1

The Washington Capitals took care of business on Saturday night in a quiet, workmanlike way, defeating the Calgary Flames, 3-1, at Scotiabank Saddledome.

The scoring for the Caps came in expected ways, but not necessarily from the expected sources.  The first goal came mid-way through the first period.  With Joe Colborne off on a tripping penalty, the Flames were doing a credible job of nullifying the Caps’ power play. Lance Bouma got to a loose puck behind the Washington net and fired it along the boards and out of the zone.  The puck made its way all the way to the Calgary blue line where defenseman Derek Engelland was backing off to receive it.  He tried to collect the puck and make a D-to-D pass across the ice, but the puck was bouncing on him.  All Engelland managed to do was chip the puck out of his own reach and into the path of a hard-charging Joel Ward, who was pressuring Engelland.  Ward took up the puck and split the defense, rifling a wrist shot past goalie Karri Romo for the early lead.

Calgary tied the game on a Dennis Wideman power play goal with just ten seconds left in the first period, but that would do it for the Flames on the scoreboard.  The Caps regained the lead in the sixth minute of the second period when Ward struck again.  The finish was all about going hard to the net, but the start was a long exit pass from Brooks Orpik out of his zone to Michael Latta at the Calgary line.  Latta skated the puck down the right wing boards to the corner, then threw it in front where Liam O’Brien jumped up.  The puck slid past O’Brien, but not past Ward, who stepped up to the top of the Calgary crease.  With O’Brien occupied bv the Flames’ defense, Ward was clear to flip a backhand past Ramo to make it 2-1.

Nicklas Backstrom capped the scoring in the first minute of the third period.  It was another long exit pass that started the play.  This time it was Karl Alzner taking a pass from Matt Niskanen, then firing it up the middle to Backstrom as the Flames were completing a switch-out of defensemen.  Backstrom had a couple of steps on Kris Russell at the Flames’ blue line and had only Wideman in front of him to defend.  Backstrom used Wideman as a screen and snapped a shot over Ramo’s left pad to put the decision to rest – Caps 3, Flames 1.

Other stuff…

-- We noted in the prognosto that Alex Ovechkin had not gone three straight games with two or fewer shots on goal since he went four consecutive games January 15-February 4, 2012.  We also noted that the Flames could be a team he against which he could break out.  He did not.  Ovechkin had one shot on goal (9:05 of the second period).  He did, however, draw the penalty that led to Joel Ward’s power play goal.

-- Last year Joel Ward finished seventh in the league in shooting percentage (18.0 percent).  There he is lurking among the league leaders once more (28.6 percent; tied for tenth).

-- The Caps allowed 21 shots on goal, the seventh consecutive game allowing fewer than 30 shots (and counting) having done so.  The last time the Caps went seven straight games allowing fewer than 30 shots was October 27 – November 9, 2010 (24.9/game).  Oddly enough, that was two months before the Caps decided to employ a trapping defense after an eight-game losing streak.  The Caps are now averaging 23.7 shots allowed per game.

-- One of the odd occurrences that sometimes takes place in the flow of a hockey game took place in the first period.  Alex Ovechkin got no time on the Caps first power play.  Before anyone thinks it was a slight, Ovechkin had just stepped off the ice one second before the penalty to Joe Colborne was sent to the penalty box, Ovechkin having just completed a 54 second shift.  The Caps scored 29 seconds into the man advantage.  Last year, Ovechkin might have been there to start the power play anyway.

-- John Carlson is still a man, if not for all seasons, then all situations.  He recorded 18-plus minutes at even strength, two-plus minutes on the power play, and two-plus minutes in shorthanded ice time.

-- It might not surprise anyone that Brooks Laich and Joel Ward are tied for the team lead in blocked shots with seven apiece.  But Ovechkin next with six in seven games?  He had 22 in 78 games last season.  Last night he had two to tie for the team lead.

-- Mike Green might not be getting the minutes he was getting before all the injuries set in, but he might be packing more into what he is getting.  In 19 minutes and change last night he had four shots on goal and four other attempts that did not make it to (or past) Ramo.

-- Backstrom has a dominating night in the faceoff circle overall, but there was a strange lack of balance to it.  In going 15-for-23 he was 2-for-4 in the offensive zone and 4-for-8 in the defensive zone.  He was 9-for-11 in the neutral zone.

-- If you are only going to get one shot on goal on the power play all night, it’s best to score on that shot.  Joel Ward had the only power play shot on goal for the Caps.

-- Michael Latta was content to take one item each from the all-you-can-eat buffet: one assist, plus-1, one shot on goal, one missed shot, one shot taken that was blocked, one blocked shot of his own. He was 5-for-10 on faceoffs.

In the end…

In a light work week rust can set it.  The Caps did a pretty good job of fighting that off, especially after losing to Edmonton on Wednesday.   That the Caps would win through what was stifling defense is a recurring theme.  Holding the Flames to fewer than ten shots in all three periods make it 11 straight period in which the Caps have allowed ten or fewer shots, allowing as many as ten only once, dating back to the first period of the 6-2 win over New Jersey when they allowed 14 shots in the first period of that contest.  It is a welcome development, especially since it does not appear as if it is coming at the expense of offense (3.17 goals/game; tied for seventh in scoring offense).  This is a recipe for success.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 7: Capitals at Flames, October 25nd

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals take the ice in the middle game of their three game western trip, facing the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday night. 

Both teams are off to good starts.  The Caps went five games without a loss in regulation time before the Edmonton Oilers defeated them, 3-2, on Wednesday.  Even with the loss, the Caps went into Friday night’s games  two points out of the Metropolitan Division lead with a game in hand behind the New York Islanders. 

Meanwhile, the Flames hit a couple of potholes to start their 2014-2015 journey, losing two of their first three games.  Since then, they are 4-1-1 and are just one point behind the Anaheim Ducks for the Pacific Division lead.

Calgary has done it with defense – at both ends of the rink.  Their scoring defense (2.11 goals/game) ranks 11^th in the league, but it is more than three-quarters of a goal per game better than how the Flames finished last season (2.90 goals/game) and almost half of what it was after nine games last season (4.00 goals/game).

Part of the improvement is a change in goal.  Jonas Hiller signed a two-year/$9 million contract with the Flames last July.  The club hoped that he would provide the stability that was missing between the pipes last season when Calgary employed four different goaltenders, three of them with a save percentage under .500.  Hiller has appeared in five games so far and has played better than his record indicates.  Although he is 3-2-0, his goals against average of 1.78 ranks eighth among goalies appearing in at least three games, and his .948 save percentage ranks fifth in that group.  In five career appearances against the Caps, Hiller is 2-1-1, 3.33, .890.  That save percentage is second worst among the team he has faced (.888 in five appearances against Buffalo).

At the other end, four of the top eight point-getters on the club are defensemen: T.J. Brodie (3-4-7), Mark Giordano (1-6-7), Dennis Wideman (4-1-5), and Kris Russell (0-5-5).  Those four represent four of the top 20 scorers in the league among defensemen (going into Friday’s games).  Brodie just signed this past Monday a five-year contract extension that will pay him a total of $23.25 million, and he’s already a bust.  Not really, but having gone without a point in his two games since signing the new deal, he interrupted a six-game points streak.  He is still, though, a minutes eater.  When he skated 19:44 in Calgary’s last outing against Carolina, it was the first time this season he skated fewer than 21 minutes.  He is 15^th in the league in average ice time among defensemen.

Among the forwards, Joe Colborne has an odd scoring line.  All eight of his points so far have come via assists.  He and Columbus’ Scott Hartnell (also 0-8-8) are the only forwards among the 29 in the league with at least eight points and no goals.  Through nine games, Colborne is almost a third of the way to the point total he recorded in 80 games last season (28).

Here are the numbers and rankings (through Thursday’s games) for the teams as they head into this game:

1.  Calgary games have been nail-biters or blow-outs with not much in-between so far.  The Flames are 2-1-1 in one-goal games, three of them settled in extra time), 3-1 in games settled by three or more goals.

2.  Intermissions matter for Calgary, at least early on.  They have not yet lost a game when leading at either intermission (2-0-0 when leading after 20 minutes, 3-0-0 when leading after 40 minutes).

3.  The Flames have quite a finishing kick.  No team in the league has more third period goals (10), and they have allowed only three goals in the last 20 minutes of games.  That plus-7 goal differential is tied with Chicago for tops in the league.

4.  One thing the Flames do very well, or at least very frequently, is block shots.  They are far and away the league leader in that statistic with 159 (Buffalo has 141).  Then again, that is evidence of the other team spending a lot of time in the Calgary zone taking shots.

5.  Calgary might be doing it with mirrors.  At 5-on-5, the Flames are 26^th in the league in Fenwick-for percentage (42.22), 29^th in Corsi-for percentage (42.69; numbers from war-on-ice.com).

1.  The Caps have done it with balance so far.  Nine different players are averaging at least half a point per game, and four players are tied for the team lead with six points apiece (Alex Ovechkin, Mike Green, Andre Burakovsky, and Nicklas Backstrom).

2.  Mike Green is “back” in one respect.  Only Dennis Wideman, with four goals, has more than Green among the league’s defensemen.  Green is tied for sixth overall in scoring among blueliners.

3.  No team has dressed more rookie skaters so far this season than the Caps.  Burakovsky, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Liam O’Brien, and Micahel Latta have appeared in games so far, all but Latta appearing in all six contests.

4.  The Caps have has a talent for putting the clamps to opponents late.  Only Chicago (5) and Minnesota (3) have allowed fewer goals over the last 40 minutes of games than Washington (6).

5.  At 5-on-5 so far this season the Caps are fourth in the league in Fenwick-for percentage (55.03) and fifth in Corsi-for percentage (54.62; numbers from war-on-ice.com).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Calgary: Karri Ramo

So far, head coach Bob Hartley has faithfully rotated Jonas Hiller and Karri Ramo in goal.  Hiller got the call against Carolina in the Flames’ 5-0 shutout win on Thursday, which suggests that Ramo will get the call against the Caps on Saturday.  Ramo is 2-1-1 in four appearances with a respectable 2.20 goals against average and a .917 save percentage.  There has been some slippage in his play of late though.  After stopping 38 of 40 shots in a 5-2 win at Edmonton in his first appearance on October 9^th, he is 1-1-1, 2.25, .899.  He is 1-3-2, 3.11, .906 in seven career appearances against Washington.

Washington: Alex Ovechkin

It is not likely to last long, but Alex Ovechkin is “only” tied for seventh in the league in shots on goal.  He is on a pace for 383 shots, so he has not become a shrinking violet in that regard, but he also has only four shots on goal in his last two games after recording 24 in his first four games.  It might not be a coincidence that Ovechkin does not have a goal in either of those last two games.  He has not gone three straight games with two or fewer shots on goal since he went four consecutive games January 15-February 4, 2012.  This could be the team against which he can get back into the scoring column.  In eight career games against the Flames he is 8-7-15.

In the end…

The Caps should have beaten Edmonton and did in just about every way but on the scoreboard.  They should win this game – on the scoreboard.  The team they are facing has had a decent start, but the Flames have achieved that start in contradiction to their possession numbers, which are rather poor.  Washington has taken to whatever remedies coach Barry Trotz is applying, if their own possession numbers are an indicator.  If Hiller gets the start for the Flames in this game, he can keep it close single-handedly.  If Ramo gets the call, this game should end comfortably on the good side for the good guys.  We think it could come down to a couple of sons of Mother Russia look quite at home on the Canadian prairie.

You could almost imagine them singing of the old pioneer west…

Capitals 4 – Flames 1

A NO-point night -- Game 6: Oilers 3 - Capitals 2

Washington Capitals fans knew that the team was not going to go 82 games without a loss in regulation time, but they probably did not anticipate that the Caps’ streak would end at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers, but that is just what happened last night as the Caps dropped a 3-2 decision to the Oilers at Rexall Place.

The teams exchanged first period goals, the Oilers drawing first blood on a goal by defenseman Justin Schultz 6:53 into the game, and the Caps tying it less than four minutes later. On a power play Nicklas Backstrom laid a pass out for John Carlson at the point, and Carlson one-timed the puck into the top corner of the net at the 10:15 mark.

The Caps took the lead less than five minutes into the second period. From the Edmonton blue line Mike Green flipped the puck into the right wing corner. Andre Burakovsky beat Nikita Nikitin to the puck and sent it back into the high slot where Green was filling in. Green hammered the puck past goalie Ben Scrivens, and the Caps took their first – and as it turned out, only – lead of the evening.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins took advantage of Alex Ovechkin whiffing on a wrist shot attempt from the left point to tie the game, picking up the puck, racing the length of the ice, and beating goalie Braden Holtby to the long side to make it 2-2.

Nikitin made up for his earlier blunder on a power play in the 17th minute of the second period when he one timed a puck past Holtby on a power play to make it 3-2 after 40 minutes. That would do it for the scoring as the Caps fell to 3-1-2 in the first game of their western tour of Canada.

Other stuff…

-- Corsi, schmorsi. The Caps had 66 shot attempts for the game to 36 for the Oilers. At 5-on-5 the Caps enjoyed a 64.7-35.3 Corsi-for percentage edge.

-- The difference was Ben Scrivens in goal, who stopped 32 of 34 shots overall and 29 of 30 at even strength. Thirteen of his total saves came in the third period.

-- Alex Ovechkin did not record a shot on goal until the 45th minute of the game. He had only two for the evening. After recording 24 shots on goal and five goals in his first four games, he had four shots on goal in his last two games without a goal.

-- The five games the Caps went without a loss in regulation time was the second longest in franchise history, eclipsed only by their 7-0-0 start in the 2011-2012 season.  Barely a month later in that season, Bruce Boudreau was relieved of his head coaching duties.  We do not foresee that happening to Barry Trotz.

-- Edmonton has a collection of skilled young forwards, but in this game they got two goals from defensemen.  It was the first time that the Oilers got two or more goals from defensemen this season and the first time since Oscar Klefbom and Andrew Ference tallied goals against the Anaheim Ducks in a 4-3 overtime win last March 28th.

-- Nicklas Backstrom gets the coupon for the all-you-can-eat buffet.  An assist (his 500th point in his 501st game), a shot on goal, four shot attempts, three hits, a blocked shot, and ten wins on 19 faceoffs.

-- Andre Burakovsky’s assist on Mike Green’s power play goal lifted him into second place in rookie scoring (six points), one point behind Los Angeles’ Tanner Pearson.  He has points in five of six games so far.

-- Every Capitals recorded a shot on goal except for Michael Latta, who did record three hits in eight minutes of play.

-- More on Burakovsky.  In his first three games he had eight faceoff wins on 29 draws.  In his last three games he has eight wins on 17 draws (2-for-4 in this game).  Progress.

-- Liam O’Brien got his money’s worth out of his minutes in this game.  In seven minutes and change he had seven minutes in penalties (interference, fighting) and six hits with a shot on goal on the side.

In the end…

It was not necessarily the three goals allowed that was disappointing, but allowing one on a power play to a team that was 0-for-11 with the man advantage in their previous four games.  At the other end, Ben Scrivens played a lot better than the defense in front of him, because he had to.  If the Caps get 66 shot attempts (34 on goal) in a game, they will win more than they lose, especially when they hold an opponent to 36 shot attempts (20 on goal).  The Oilers had only five in the second period, but two found their way in, and this seems to be a feature that creeps into goalie Braden Holtby’s game once in a while.  The lack of frequent work in a period occasionally results in his giving up the odd goal (or two).

It took the strange contradiction of shots taken and goals scored, plus the off-kilter period Holtby had, for the Caps to lose a one-goal game on the road.  Granted, Edmonton is not a very good team, and this is a game the Caps should have won, but there should be no gnashing of teeth over this one.  The trick will be to keep one from becoming two in Calgary on Saturday.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 6: Capitals at Oilers, October 22nd

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals take their 3-0-2 record on the road this week, their first stop being in Edmonton to take on the Oilers on Wednesday night. These are teams on different ends of the success spectrum at the moment. The Caps’ fast start is their best since starting the season 7-0-0 in 2011-2012 (Bruce Boudreau’s last season as Capitals head coach). The Oilers’ 1-4-0 start looks an awful lot like their start last season (1-6-1 in their first seven games), their start in 2012-2013 (4-4-3 in their first 11 games), their start in 2011-2012 (2-2-2 in their first six games), their start in 2010-2011 (2-4-2 in their first eight games), and so on, and so on.

For Edmonton, winning has been an infrequent indulgence in recent years. They have not reached the post-season since losing in the Stanley Cup final to the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006. In their last five seasons and five games into this one they have an aggregate record of 133-202-47. On an 82-game basis, that works out to 29-43-10. That is how, since 2007, a team gets seven top-ten picks in the space of eight drafts, three in succession being first overall draft picks (2010-2012).

This edition of the Oilers, even with the three first overall draft picks – Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Nail Yakupov – in the lineup, has had trouble scoring goals. Hall accounts for four of the 14 goals scored by Edmonton in five games. Yakupov and Nugent-Hopkins have one apiece; the other 19 skaters accounting for the other eight goals.

There are two faces that Caps fans will recognize. Matt Hendricks and Boyd Gordon were faithful foot soldiers for the Caps and play similar roles for the Oilers. Neither is expected to generate much offense, their games being more of feisty grittiness (Hendricks) and responsible steadiness (Gordon). One thing Caps fans might have expected is for Hendricks to employ the “paralyzer” trick shot he used to such effectiveness in Washington with similar results in Edmonton. The Oilers have participated in just one shootout so far, Hendricks not being called upon to join in. He took only one turn in the apres-hockey portion of the game in 33 games with the Oilers last season.

At the other end of the rink the results have been, well, less than hoped for. Ben Scrivens and Viktor Fasth each have goals against averaged north of 3.50 and save percentages south of .900. And, it is not as if the defense in front of them has shined. Plus-minus has limited utility on an individual basis, but when seven of eight defensemen are in “minus” territory (Martin Marincin is “even” in two games), it says something unkind. They’re not too good. And this is with a group that includes a free agent they sought (Mark Fayne), a quasi-free agent (Nikita Nikitin, whose rights were traded to Edmonton from Columbus for the right to negotiate a contract), and another of those top-ten draft picks (Darnell Nurse). For Oiler fans who clung to the hope of what so many high-end draft picks might bring, the last few years have been bitter medicine. Here is how the teams compare in their numbers to date this season:

-- One thing Edmonton has going for it is consistency. The benefit here for Caps fans is that some of that consistency is not kind to the Oilers. So far, Edmonton has a goal differential of minus-3 in the first period of games, minus-3 in the second period, and minus-6 in the third period. They have been outscored overall, 26-14, in six games.

-- The odd thing about that goal differential is that the Oilers have recorded 179 shots on goal and have allowed 179 shots on goal. What that means is that while the Oilers shooting percentage is fair to poor (7.8 percent), their save percentage is ghastly (.864). That’s a team overall PDO of 942. Hard to win games like that.

-- It’s bad enough to fall behind early in games often. It’s worse when you can’t win on those rare occasions when you do get ahead early. In six games the Oilers have scored first twice. They won neither game. They are one of three teams who have scored first in at least one game (Arizona has yet to do so) not to have won. Edmonton is 0-1-1, Philadelphia and Carolina both are 0-0-1. Geez, even Buffalo won the only game in which they scored first.

-- Only the Winnipeg Jets have fewer power play opportunities per game in the early going 2.80 per game) than the Oilers (2.83 per game). You might think that allowing only 3.50 power play chances a game (tied for 11th fewest) would help, but there is that 76.2 percent penalty killing to deal with.

-- Edmonton is still trying to settle on a lineup that works. They have dressed 22 skaters in six games. Only Boston (24) and the New York Rangers (23) have dressed more.

-- What a difference a year makes in terms of starts for the Capitals. Last year the Caps were 1-4-0 in their first five games and had to come back from three goals down to win in a shootout for their lone win. They were outscored, 20-12, and had a penalty kill of just 78.9 percent. Through five games this season the Caps are 3-0-2, outscored their opponents by an 18-9 margin, and have a penalty kill of 90.0 percent.

-- Starting well has been a theme for the Caps. They scored the first goal in four of their first five games and took a lead into the first intermission three times (tied once). The Caps are the last team in the Eastern Conference without a loss in regulation time and one of only three in the league going into Tuesday’s games (Nashville and Chicago are the others).

-- Seventeen of the 20 skaters to dress for the Caps have points through five games. Defenseman Nate Schmidt is the only player to have appeared in more than two of those games without recording a point (but he is a plus-3, tied for second on the team).

-- Of 23 goalies thus far appearing in four or more games (going into Thursday’s games), Braden Holtby is one of five with a goals-against average under 2.00 (1.85) and a save percentage above .930 (.932). Jimmy Howard (1.72/.934), Pekka Rinne (1.22/.948), Jonathan Quick (1.86/.951) and Frederik Andersen (1.38/.950) are the others.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Edmonton: Taylor Hall

It seems like a long time ago that Taylor Hall was drafted first overall by the Edmonton Oilers. It was only just in 2010 that it took place, though. Four years since his selection, his skill is not in question. He is third in his draft class in goals (96, one behind both Tyler Seguin and Jeff Skinner), first in total points (231, 18 more than Seguin and 46 more than Skinner). He was the first of three consecutive number one overall draft picks for the Oilers (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov being those next in line) and one of six straight top ten draft picks (and counting). By virtue of being the longest tenured in this chain (Marcus Paajaarvi, drafted 10th overall in 2009, is no longer with the Oilers), Hall is almost by default the go-to guy for ensuring success. He has not disappointed early. His four goals and six points lead the team, but unfortunately he has not led it very far, either early this season or over his four previous seasons with the club. At 22 (he will turn 23 in early November) the clock is not yet ticking on his career, but he is one of a collection of very skilled young forwards who have been unable to translate that skill into wins on the ice. He has faced the Caps only twice with a scoring line of 1-0-1, minus-3).

Washington: Jason Chimera

It’s back home for Jason Chimera, a native of Edmonton, who happened to be drafted by his hometown team in 1997 (5th round/121st overall). He played in four seasons with the Oilers, appearing in 130 games before he was traded to the Phoenix Coyotes in June 2004 in one of the busiest, if least consequential deals in recent history (Chimera and a third round pick for a second and a third round pick in 2004; of the three draft picks moved, only one yielded a player who appeared in an NHL game: Liam Reddox).  Of more recent relevance, Chimera, with one goal in five games, is getting off to roughly the same start he had last season (one goal in his first nine games), and the start he had in 2012-2013 (one goal in his first 40 games), and the start he had in 2010-2011 (three goals in his first 35 games). He is not the fastest of starters. Part of it is shooting; he has only nine shots on goal in five games. It’s early, of course, which means this is not a cause for worry, but it would be nice to see him breakout against the hometown team. In 20 career games against the Oilers, Chimera is 3-7-10, plus-4.

In the end…

Going west is always an issue, it seems, for the Capitals. Last spring’s successful California trip is the exception. The Caps are 2-8-0 in their last ten trips to Edmonton, although they have won two of their last three contests at Rexall Place. The Oilers won their first game of the season on Monday, a 3-2 win over highly-regarded Tampa Bay, so they cannot be overlooked as the feckless group that went 0-4-1 in their first five games and that was outscored, 24-11.

Ben Scrivens has been sharp in goal in his last two outings, allowing only three goals on 53 shots (.943 save percentage) while splitting two decisions. What he has not had is much experience against the Caps, and not very effective experience, either. In two career appearances against Washington he allowed seven goals on 63 shots (.889 save percentage) in 119 minutes, splitting his two decisions. For the Caps, who going into Thursday’s games have the third best scoring offense in the league, it will be a matter of reminding Scrivens and the Oilers that their defense has been often as bleak as their winters. The Caps have not scored more than four goals in Edmonton since taking a 6-5 decision on October 23, 1991. We’re thinking it’s about time.

Capitals 5 – Oilers 2

Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was -- Week 2

Week 2 for the Washington Capitals looked a lot like Week 1 – extra time, trick shot competitions, and… Corsi!  It made for a good week overall.

Record: 2-0-1

The best that can be said about Week 2 was that it was a solid effort – a come-from-behind charge from twice being down three goals to earn a standings point against the San Jose Sharks, a dominating 6-2 win over previously undefeated the New Jersey Devils, and a gritty 2-1 Gimmick win over the Florida Panthers.  On the other hand, there were the two trick shot competitions.  Not earning regulation/overtime wins is a spillover from last season when the Caps had the fourth lowest percentage of wins coming in regulation time or overtime (73.7).  The Caps have one (oops..make that two) ROW among their three wins to date, but then again, they have not lost a game in regulation time, either, the only team in the East not to have done so over the first two weeks of the season.

Offense: 4.00/game (season: 3.40/game; rank: T-4^th)

Nine different players shared in the 12 goals scored for the week, Alex Ovechkin leading the team with three.  The story, though, might have been Marcus Johansson.  He was the other Caps with a multi-goal week, notching two in the three games of Week 2.  The work project for Johansson to begin this season was to shoot more.  He has done just that.  The six shots he recorded for the week made it 11 in five games.  Last season he did not record his 11^th shot on goal for the season until his 12^th game.

Sixteen players shared in the point scoring for the week, led by the “middle aged” guns.  Alex Ovechkin (3-1-4), Mike Green (1-3-4), and Nicklas Backstrom (1-2-3) led the way, along with Troy Brouwer (1-2-3).  Backstrom went into the last game of the week needing one point in what was his 500^th career game to reach the 500-point plateau.  He came up short, but he has (one hopes) many years ahead of him to build a career point-a-game resume.

Defense: 2.67/game (season: 1.80/game; rank: T-6^th)

The numbers of note here are: 23, 28, 21.  Those were the shots on goal against the Caps for the week.  It made five straight games in which the Caps allowed fewer than 30 shots on goal.  Factor in that the Caps have played in three 65-minute games, and they are allowing only 23.8 shots per 60 minutes.  Last year the Caps did not have their fifth game with fewer than 30 shots until Game 33.  The last time that the Caps had five consecutive games allowing fewer than 30 shots on goal was December 15-26, 2011, when the Caps limited Winnipeg, Colorado, Nashville, New Jersey, and Buffalo to a total of 126 shots.

The low shot volumes against was a reflection of very good overall possession numbers for the week.  The Caps had a 54.30 percent Corsi-for percentage at 5-on-5 for the week (numbers from war-on-ice.com). 

Goaltending: 2.53 GAA / .889 SV (season: 1.71 GAA / .928 SV / 1 SO)

It was not a particularly efficient week in net for the Caps (.889 save percentage).  The problem was the first period.  In three games Braden Holtby and Justin Peters were a combined 23-for-28 in saves in the opening frame (.821).  After that they were fine (41-for-44; .932 save percentage), but that was a matter of damage control.  The silver lining there is that while Holtby and Peters went a combined 17-for-22 on saves in the first period in the first two games of the week (.773 save percentage), Peters stopped all six shots he faced against Florida to end the week.

Power Play: 3-11 / 27.3 percent (season: 25.0 percent; rank: T-9^th)

It was a good week that would have been even better, perhaps, but for lack of opportunity.  That would mean the Florida game to end the week.  The Caps had only two power plays against the Panthers, one of them lasting all of seven seconds.  Thus, it is not surprising that Washington took an oh-fer on the man advantage in that game and did not register a shot on goal.

In the first two games of the week the Capitals dominated on their man advantage.  A 3-for-9 record (33.3 percent) was the result of pounding San Jose and New Jersey with 17 shots in 13:51 of total power play time.  Alex Ovechkin had eight of those 17 shots, so neither the Sharks nor the Devils were taking away his personal space.  What the Caps got, though, was support.  Marcus Johansson scored on his only power play shot of the week; Andre Burakovsky was 1-for2.  

Penalty Killing: 9-11 / 81.8 percent (season:90.0 percent; rank: 5th)

The penalty killers had a bit of a confounding week.  On the one hand, 9-for-11 is not an especially impressive mark.  Then again, allowing two goals on only 13 shots in 19:53 of shorthanded ice time is.  The two goals were scored from almost precisely the same spot at the same end of the ice in the same circumstances.  Against San Jose a Matt Nieto shot from the right point got through traffic, and goalie Braden Holtby made the initial save.  However, he could not cover the loose puck, and the Caps could not clear it.  Defenseman Matt Irwin pounced on the loose puck on the weak side to Holtby’s right and scored before anyone could defend him.  Against Florida it was Dylan Olson firing from above the right wing faceoff circle.  This time it was Justin Peters making the initial save but failing to cover the loose puck.  It made its way to the right of Peters where Brad Boyes pinched in on the weak side to bury it.

On both occasions a Caps defenseman – John Carlson against San Jose, Brooks Orpik against Florida – were occupied trying to keep an opponent at the top of the crease to the goalie’s left from getting a whack at the puck, leaving that weak side area down low open to a player pinching in. 

Even Strength Goals For/Goals Against: 9-6 / plus-3 (season 5-on-5 GF/GA ratio: 1.71; rank: 7th)

If the Caps needed to change one thing in terms of results this season, it was to turn around their 5-on-5 performance from last season.  At 5-on-5 in 2013-2014 the Caps scored 139 goals at 5-on-5 and allowed 155, a ratio of 0.90:1.  In Week 2, the Caps were 9-6 to the good, a ratio of 1.50:1 and making them 12 up and seven down for the season (1.71:1).  That was the product of outshooting opponents by a 75-56 margin for the week at even strength.  Of those 75 shots, 22 of them came off the sticks of Joel Ward, Jason Chimera, and Eric Fehr.  That line was often the Caps’ best last season, and they are picking up where they left off.

Faceoffs: 105-for-197 / 53.3 percent (season: 48.9 percent; rank: 18th)

It was a good week overall but perhaps a bit misleading.  The Caps won more than 53 percent of total draws taken, but that was skewed by a 41-for-63 (65.1 performance) against Florida to end the week.  The Caps were underwater against San Jose (49.2 percent) and New Jersey (46.4 percent.  What the Caps were able to do consistently was to win in the offensive zone.  They were over 50 percent in all three games – 55.0 percent against San Jose, 55.2 percent against New Jersey, and 56.0 percent against Florida.  It was not as impressive in the defensive end, a 66.7 percent mark against Florida offset by going 43.8 percent against the Sharks and 40.0 percent against the Devils.

It was the rookies who struggled in the circle for the week.  Evgeny Kuznetsov was 13-for-28 ((46.4 percent), while Andre Burakovsky was 10-for-23 (43.5 percent).   At the other end, Nicklas Backstrom was 57.7 percent on a 30-for-52 effort, while Troy Brower was 13-for-20 and 65.0 percent.

Goals by Period:

Cold starts and hot finishes.  The Caps allowed five of the eight goals allowed in Week 2 in the first period of their three games.  They scored five of their own in the third period of those games.  It was in the second period that the week might have been defined, though.  Falling behind in the San Jose game by a 3-0 score in the first period and being held to a 2-2 tie by the Devils after 40 minutes in their contest in the middle game of the week, the Caps outscored the Sharks, 3-1, and the Devils, 1-0, in the second periods of those games. 

In the end…

It is hard to argue with results, and a 2-0-1 week is never going to be a bad thing.  There were bumps along the way – the first period against San Jose, the manner in which the power play goals were allowed among them – but the Caps are tied in standings points with the New York Islanders and Ottawa Senators for second place in the Eastern Conference, just two points behind the Montreal Canadiens with a game in hand.  

It is a good start to the season for the Caps, quite an improvement on the 1-4-0 five-game start of last season that put the Caps squarely in a hole that they seemed to spend the rest of the season trying to climb out of.  It is just the thing they needed as they head west to take on Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver in Week 3.