The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 68: Devils at Capitals, March 8th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals, hot off a 5-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, owners of a five-game winning streak, and locked in a dogfight with the New York Islanders for the top spot in the Metropolitan Division standings, return home on Friday night after a three-game road trip to host the New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena.

Since losing in a listless effort in Anaheim to the Ducks, 5-2, on February 17^th, the Caps have won seven of eight games to take over the top spot in the Metro (pending the Islanders’ Thursday night contest against the Ottawa Senators), outscoring opponents by a 31-22 margin.  It is the best run of good fortune for the Caps since they went 16-3-0 from November 16^th through December 29^th.

Meanwhile, the Devils have been slowly and steadily sinking in the standings.  Since the last time they won consecutive games, on January 12^th and 14^th against Philadelphia and Chicago, they are 7-13-2 and have been outscored by a 70-53 margin.

It probably says something of the Devils’ season that over their 22-game slump, their leading goal scorer is gone.  Marcus Johansson (six goals in that span) was traded to the Boston Bruins at the trading deadline.  Next in line is Jesper Bratt, who has five goals in 20 games.  Bratt, in his second NHL season, had a fine rookie year, finishing tied for 17^th among rookies last season in goals (13), tied for 15^th in assists (22), and 16^th in points (35).  With eight goals in 51 games to date, Bratt appears unlikely to match last season’s goal total, but he has already posted 25 assists to eclipse last season’s total and he needs only two points (he has 33) to match last season’s total.  He was a victim of inconsistency over stretches this season.  For example, while he got off to a quick 2-11-13 start in his first 17 games, he followed that with a 1-2-3 scoring line over his next 13 games.  In his last 21 games he is 5-12-17, although he is listed as day-to-day after sustaining an injury against Columbus on Tuesday.  He is 0-0-0, minus-1, in five career games against Washington.

Damon Severson leads the defense in scoring over the Devils’ last 22 games, both in goals (three) and points (11).  Severson, who is in only his fifth season with the Devils, is already 12^th on the all-time franchise list of games played by a defenseman (346), tied for 11^th in goals scored (27, with Tommy Albelin).  His next assist will be the 100^th of his career, becoming the 12^th defenseman in team history to reach 100 helpers, and his 126 career points ranks 12^th among defensemen in Devils’ history.  Unfortunately, Severson has played for some of the lesser squads in Devils’ history, a fact reflected by his minus-78 over his five seasons, the third-worst rating among NHL defensemen in that span. This year, his scoring is just a matter of team success when delivering supplemental support.  New Jersey is 16-9-4 in games win which Severson has a point, 9-24-5 in the games he does not.  Severson is 2-3-5, minus-12, in 15 career games against the Caps.

New Jersey is not an awful scoring team; they rank 22^nd in scoring offense at 2.81 goals per game.  But neither are they especially formidable, and that is in no small part a product of not having a go-to goal scorer since Taylor Hall went out of the lineup in late December with a knee injury.  In the meantime, Kyle Palmieri is the Devils one and only 20-goal scorer (26).  But he is “week-to-week” with a lower body injury that leaves him doubtful for this game.  That leaves Blake Coleman as the leading goal scorer for the Devils likely to take the ice for this game. 

But here is the thing.  Coleman, who has 18 goals in 63 games this season, is without a goal in his last 14 games, and he has only one assist while averaging almost 19 minutes a game.  Nevertheless, Coleman has set a personal high in goals (18), has tied his personal best in assists (12), and reached the 30-point mark for the first time in his three seasons in the NHL.  The absences of others and the general malaise that has settled on this team has made it of limited consequence that he scores goals.  New Jersey is 9-5-2 in the games in which he recorded a goal this season, but his scoring on the road gives the Devils a fighting chance, where they are 5-4-1 in the ten road games in which he turned on the red light.  Coleman is 1-1-2, plus-2, in six career games against the Capitals.

1.  The Devils have been taking a long hard look at the roster over this 22 game slide.  A total of 32 skaters have dressed for the Devils in that span.  Only eight skaters have dressed for as many as 20 games, and only three – Kevin Rooney, Andy Greene, and Damon Severson – have dressed for all of them.

2.  New Jersey struggles to mount much offense on the road.  Only Boston has scored fewer goals on the road among Eastern Conference teams this season (75 in 31 road games) than the Devils (83 in 32 road games).

3.  Defense on the road has also been an issue.  The 125 goals allowed by New Jersey on the road is a total topped only by the Ottawa Senators (149 in 34 road games) and the Chicago Blackhawks (131 in 33 road games) among the league’s teams.

4.  No team in the league has allowed more shorthanded goals on the road than New Jersey (eight).

5.  Shot attempts have been an issue for New Jersey on the road.  Their shot attempt differential at 5-on-5 (minus-233) is fifth-worst in the league, and their SAT percentage at fives (46.08) also is fifth-worst.  They are especially poor when trailing in games, where their 46.93 percent mark is last in the league.

1.  If the Caps score two goals against the Devils, that will make 700 goals scored in the all-time series between the teams.  Mike Gartner is the all-time leader in goal scoring against the Devils (31 in 45 games), while Alex Ovechkin is the leader among active Capitals (25 in 51 games).  Ovechkin is the active and all-time leader in points against New Jersey (57).

2.  In the Caps’ 7-1-0 run of late, Alex Ovechkin leads the team in goals (six) and points (ten).

3.  Only the Colorado Avalanche have allowed more power play goals to opponents on home ice (29) than the Caps (25, tied with Detroit).

4.  The Caps can be a handful at home against opponents.  They have scored four or more goals at Capital One Arena 18 times this season.  Only Winnipeg (20) and Tampa Bay (23) have done so more often on home ice.

5.  Washington is seeking their fourth straight win on home ice.  If they earn the win, it will be their longest home winning streak this season.  They had a three-game home winning streak to close November. Also, the Caps are looking to extend their points streak on home ice to seven games (they are 5-0-1 in their last six, already their longest points streak on home ice this season).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

New Jersey: Cory Schneider

It has been a long and difficult road for goaltender Cory Schneider.  On February 15^th, he stopped all 15 shots he faced in a 36-minute effort in relief of Keith Kinkaid in a 5-4 win over the Minnesota Wild.  He earned the win in that game, the first win he had in almost 14 months, since a 31-save gem in a 3-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on December 27, 2017.  That winless drought extended to 24 games across two seasons over which he was 0-17-4 (three no-decisions), 4.12, .865.  However, while that long winless streak is over, there remains his performance on the road.  That win over the Wild is Schneider’s only road win in his last 18 road games, extending back to mid-December 2017.  In that span, he is 1-13-3 (one no-decision), 4.07, .873 on the road.  Kinkaid is gone, traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets, and MacKenzie Blackwood, while having posted promising numbers so far (6-6-0, 2.25, .931, with two shutouts in 15 games), might not be ready for a full workload.  Schneider, who with 291 games played in New Jersey is closing in on becoming just the third goalie in Devil history to appear in 300 games, joining Martin Brodeur (1,259) and Chris Terreri (302), could be in a position to resuscitate his career.  Schneider is 3-9-2, 2.68, .905, with one shutout in 15 career games against the Caps.

Washington: Jakub Vrana

Oh, to be young, to be able to skate like the wind, and having hands slick enough to stickhandle through crowds and snipe shots into the top corner as if you were shooting a Red Ryder BB gun with a compass in the stock, and that thing which tells time.  That has been what Jakub Vrana has enjoyed this season.  One might say that this season dates back to Game 5 of last season’s Stanley Cup final, when he scored the first goal in what would be the Caps’ Cup-clinching win over the Vegas Golden Knights, but what he has done this season is post a career high in goals (19), assists (22), points (41), plus-minus (plus-18), and shooting percentage (14.5).  If there is an odd part of his numbers this season, it is that he has not been quite as good at home as on the road.  Away from DC, he is 11-11-22, plus-11, in 34 games, while at Capital One Arena, he is 8-11-19, plus-7, in 33 games.  He is ramping things up on home ice, though.  Going into this game, Vrana is 5-8-13, plus-6, in his last 14 home games.  He is 2-0-2, minus-2, in seven career games against the Devils.

In the end…

As the Caps head into their last 15 games of the regular season, ten games left on the schedule will be against teams currently playoff-eligible, three of those against the league-leading Tampa Bay Lightning.  It puts a premium on scooping up the available points from the also-rans left on the schedule.  This is one of the latter types of games.  New Jersey is without their best player (Taylor Hall), likely to be without their top goal scorer (Kyle Palmieri) and a player with recent goal input (Jesper Bratt), is thinned out at other positions by injuries, and have long been out of playoff contention.  They have allowed 23 goals in their last five road games while scoring only 12 of their own.  It just is not a game the Caps should lose.  So therefore, they will make it interesting.

Capitals 5 – Devils 3

A TWO-Point Night: Washington Capitals -- Game 67: Capitals 5 - Flyers 3

The Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers renewed their I-95 rivalry on Wednesday night in Philadelphia.  When the ice chips settled, and the final horn blared, the Caps had a 5-3 win and were once more in the top spot in the Metropolitan Division.

 First Period

The Caps escaped the first four minutes without allowing a goal, quite an achievement these days.  That bit of stinginess was rewarded in the sixth minute as Alex Ovechkin stepped around a defender, corralled a sliding puck, and from a knee found Tom Wilson at the doorstep for a redirection of the puck past goalie Brian Elliott’s right pad to make it 1-0.

The Flyers got a power play a few minutes later, but they failed to convert, and that would come back to bite them late in the period.  Brett Connolly caught up with a long feed from Carl Hagelin just inside the Flyers’ blue line and skated in through the left wing circle.  With defenseman Travis Sanheim trying to angle him off a direct line to the net, Connolly wrong-footed a shot that might have clipped the shaft of Sanheim’s stick only slightly, but perhaps enough to send it tumbling toward Elliott.  The puck floated over Elliott’s glove and at first was ruled to have hit the crossbar, but on further review was found to have struck the goal-cam at the back of the net and bounced out.  The Caps had a 2-0 lead, 14:16 into the period.  That would be how the teams went to the first intermission.

-- The Caps out-shot the Flyers, 15-7 in the period, and they out-attempted them, 31-13.

-- All six Caps defensemen recorded at least one shot on goal, and as a group they had eight of the 15 shots on goal.

-- Washington won just two of 12 faceoffs in the period (16.7 percent), Lars Eller getting both wins (on four faceoffs taken).

Second Period

The Caps made short work of chasing Elliott in the second period.  On a power play, Alex Ovechkin took a pass from Nicklas Backstrom in his office without a defender within a zip code of him, and it gave him a chance to ease in and rifle a shot through Elliott’s pads to make it 3-0, 2:32 into the period.

Less than two minutes later, Andre Burakovsky collected the puck at the Flyer blue line, skated into the left wing circle, and snapped a shot off the near post and behind Elliott to make it 4-0 at the 4:18 mark.  That would be all for Elliott for this evening.

Cam Talbot hardly fared better to open his stint in net.  He was victimized on the first shot he faced, the product of Jakub Vrana’s speed.  Taking an indirect pass from Nick Jensen, he hustled down the left side.  In too deep for a shot attempt, he skated around the Flyer net and found Nicklas Backstrom in the high slot.  Backstrom pounded the puck past Talbot before he could set himself, and it was 5-0, Caps, 5:42 into the period.

That would be how the score remained into the last minute of play in the period.  But Philippe Myers scored with 12 seconds left, his first in the NHL, wiring a shot off the post on goalie Braden Holtby’s glove side and in to make it 5-1 at the second intermission.

-- The Caps scored three goals on three shots in a span of 3:10 to open the period.

-- Nick Jensen recorded his first point as a Cap on the Backstrom goal.

-- Philly more than doubled up on the Caps in hits through two periods, 20-9.  That’s what happens when you don’t have the puck.

-- The Caps out-shot the Flyers, 11-9 for the period, although the Flyers had the edge in shot attempts, 19-15.

-- The Flyers had 20 hits and 20 faceoff wins through two periods, the Caps were nine and seven.

Third Period

It took the Flyers ten seconds to make it a 5-2 game, Claude Giroux finishing a feed from Oskar Lindblom from the low slot.  Seven minutes later, it was 5-3, courtesy of a Scott Laughton deflection of an Andrew MacDonald shot down and between Holtby’s pads.  And just like that, the Caps’ issues with third periods appeared once more.

The Caps buckled down and wrapped things up after that, though, as the Flyers could get no closer.  The Caps were back on top in the Metropolitan Division.

Other stuff…

-- Braden Holtby’s win was his 250^th in the NHL, and became the second fastest goalie to reach that mark in league history.  Ken Dryden did it in 381 games, Holtby in his 409^th.

-- Alex Ovechkin had a goal and an assist to give him 1,199 career points.

-- Ovechkin’s goal was his 46^th, the tenth time he reached that mark.  Since he came into the league, it is as many 46-plus goal seasons as the next six players combined, and none of that group has more than two.

-- Matt Niskanen and Dmitry Orlov each finished plus-3, the second time for Niskanen this season and the third time for Orlov.  For both players, all of their instances have been on the road.

-- Orlov had two assists, his second multi-point game in his last four contests after going 43 games without one.

-- Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and an assist for his 15^th multi-point game of the season.  It is the 11^th time in 12 seasons he has had at least 15 multi-point games in a season.  Only in the abbreviated 2012-2013 season did he come up short (13).

-- Jakub Vrana was the only Capital not to record a shot on goal.  Nick Jensen led the team with five.

-- The Caps won only 14 of 46 faceoffs (30.4 percent).  That was still better than the first time these teams met, when the Caps won 19 of 64 draws (29.7 percent).

-- Tom Wilson’s goal was his third in five games.  He has four in seven games, and five in his last ten contests.

-- The Caps out-attempted Philadelphia, 64-54.

In the end…

One would like to think that the letdown that started late in the second period is just a case of a good team easing off in a regular season game.  But this has been an issue all season, and it remains to be seen whether the Caps can just flip a switch and be a shutdown team over the last 20 minutes when they need to be.  For the moment, though, the Caps did take care of business in the end, getting the win and regaining the division lead.  It is hard to be too upset with a team bringing a five-game winning streak back home after sweeping a three-game road trip against three division rivals.  Well, maybe just a little upset.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 67: Capitals at Flyers, March 6th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals continue check another club off their “Metropolitan Matchup” schedule of late when they visit Philadelphia on Wednesday night to face the Flyers.  Philadelphia is a city that has shown little in the way of “brotherly love” to the Caps over the years.  This will be Washington’s 111^th regular season visit to Philadelphia, and they have won there only 35 times (35-62-7, with six ties).  It has been an especially inhospitable place for the Caps recently, as they sport a 3-6-5 record there in their last 14 games dating back to March 2012 and were outscored in their last two games there by a combined 14-5 margin.

The Flyers will be returning home after a successful three-game road trip on which they went 2-0-1, all against Metropolitan Division clubs.  Washington will be their fourth Metro opponent in a run of five straight intra-division games for the Flyers, who have closed to within five points of a playoff spot.  It has been quite a climb for the Flyers who as recently as January 8^th, after a loss to the Caps, found themselves dead last in the league standings (15-22-6) and trailing Montreal by 15 points for the last playoff spot.  Since that loss to the Caps, the Flyers are 17-4-2, the best record in the league over that span through Monday’s games.

James van Riemsdyk leads the Flyers in goals over this 23-game run with 13.  It is quite a turnaround from a sluggish start in which he had six goals in his first 27 games.  Van Riemsdyk is in his second tour with the Flyers.  He was taken by the Flyers as the second-overall pick of the 2007 entry draft and played three seasons in Philadelphia before he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for defenseman Luke Schenn in June 2012.  After six seasons with the Maple Leafs, van Riemsdyk inked a five-year/$35 million contract with the Flyers last July 1^st.  He got off to a rocky start in his second tour with the Flyers.  In just his second game of the season, against the Colorado Avalanche, he took a clearing attempt off his right knee, putting him out of that game and the next 16 contests.  That would be a rough stretch for the Flyers who went 8-8-1 in his absence, including the game against the Avalanche in which he was injured.  He will go into this game looking to extend his home goal-scoring streak to three games.  Van Riemsdyk is 7-11-18, minus-6, in 27 career games against the Capitals.

The Flyers have a quartet of young defensemen with potential on their roster.  None of Shayne Gostisbehere, Ivan Provorov, Robert Hagg, or Travis Sanheim have reached their 25^th birthday.  All have appeared in at least 63 games this season, all have more than 15 points, and all are averaging more than 17 minutes per game.  In this latest 17-4-2 run, Sanheim leads all defensemen in goals (five, more than the other seven defensemen to dress combined) and points (16), and he has the only power play goal scored by the defense in that span of games.  Sanheim was the fourth defenseman selected and the 17^th overall pick of the 2014 entry draft out of Calgary in the Western Hockey League.  He completed his first year in the NHL last season with two goals and ten points in 49 games.  This season, he found his goal-scoring touch after a slow start.  Not recording a goal in his first 25 games this season, he has nine in his last 41 games.  The odd part of his goal scoring is that in the seven games in which he has goals, the Flyers have points in every game, but they have lost four times, each one in overtime.  Sanheim is without a point and is minus-2 in two career games against Washington.

Since Ron Hextall, the all-time leader in games played by a Flyer goaltender (489), last suited up for the orange and black in 1999, the Flyers have dressed 29 goaltenders.  None have appeared in half the games that Hextall did as a Flyer (Steve Mason: 231), and six of them appeared in a single game.  As a group, they have a combined record of 789-564-225, 2.58, .909, with 97 shutouts.  Not bad, not great.  It has been the great quest (or, from another angle, the great indifference) for the Flyers for 20 years, finding a goaltender who can anchor the defense for a decade, or at least a few years.

Enter Carter Hart.  With 22 games (all starts) on his resume in this, his rookie season, he already ranks 16^th in appearances among that group of 29 post-Hextall goalies.  He tied for 14^th in that group in wins (13, with Sean Burke).  His save percentage (.917) already ranks third among that group, trailing only Mason (.918) and Roman Cechmanek (.923).  That he would become the “goaltender of the future” for the Flyers was set in motion when he was the first goaltender taken in the 2016 entry draft (second round/48^th overall).  After two more seasons with the Everett Silvertips in Canadian junior, he appeared in 17 games with the AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley Phantoms to start this season.  Then, with injuries and performance issues ravaging the Flyers’ goaltenders, he was called up to the big club in mid-December. 

When he got his first NHL start, a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings on December 18^th, he became the sixth goaltender to dress for the Flyers this season (they are up to eight, a league record).  He won his next start, but by the time he had nine appearances, he was 3-5-1, 2.53, .916; not bad numbers, but he was getting no goal support (he did not win a game in that stretch whenever allowing more than two goals).  Things got better fast.  He ran off an eight-game winning streak with a 2.35 GAA and a .934 save percentage.  Lately, though, he has looked more like a rookie.  In his last five appearances, Hart is 2-3-0, 4.50, .876, and he logged just over ten minutes in each of his last two appearances, allowing three goals on nine shots in each.  If called upon (he has an ankle injury), this would be his first career appearance against the Caps.

1.  Small wonder that the Flyers have been good over their last 23 games.  They are a top-ten scoring team (82 goals/fourth) and top-ten defensive team (62 goals/ninth-fewest).

2.  Philadelphia’s power play ranks third in their 17-4-2 run (26.6 percent).  They might have been even more successful with more chances.  Their 64 opportunities rank just 17^th in that span.

3.  A surprising fact about this run, given the reputation of the team, is that their 54 shorthanded situations faced is the third-fewest in the league in that span.  Only Detroit (50) and Buffalo (45) have faced fewer.

4.  From the “out of left field” file… the Flyers lead the league in blocked shots in this 17-4-2 run (418).  That’s not the out of left field part.  What is, is that they are one of only two teams in the league whose blocked shot total in that span is within 50 of their hit total (the Flyers have 465 credited hits).  Calgary is the other club (344 hits, 300 blocked shots).

5.  The Flyers have not done it with possession.  In going 17-4-2 in their last 23 games, they have the second-worst shot attempts-for percentage at 5-on-5 (45.05), ahead of only New Jersey (44.53), and they are tied with the Devils for the worst 5-on-5 shot attempt differential (minus-220).

1.  The Caps have a 5-2-0 road record after posting a four-game losing streak away from Capital One Arena.

2.  In that 3-6-5 record the Caps have posted in Philadelphia in their last 14 games there, the Caps have had a fine power play (13-for-47/27.7 percent), but they gave almost all of it back on penalty kills (33-for-45/73.3 percent).

3.  In those 14 games, the Caps have been out-hit by the Flyers, 426-371, but they have had the better of the Flyers in blocked shots (251-231) and fewer giveaways (100-142).

4.  Washington has been underwater in shot attempts-for at 5-on-5 in those 14 games (47.43 percent/minus-66 differential).

5.  Blowouts have been a thing.  Seven of the last 14 games played by the teams in Philadelphia were decided by three or more goals, the Caps winning three of them.  The last three games in Philadelphia have been decided by three or more goals, the Caps losing the last two.

Philadelphia: Gritty

For 40 years, the Phillie Phanatic held an unchallenged place at the summit of City of Brotherly Love mascotdom.  Described simply, yet elegantly, as a “large, furry, green creature,” it resembled a giant overripe avocado with hair, dressed in an ill-fitting jersey, too-small baseball cap, and oversized green shoes.  One looked at its oddly shaped mouth parts and wondered if the inspiration wasn’t the tardigrade:

But on September 24^th, a new creature was unleashed upon the sports community of Philadelphia: “Gritty.”  Described as simply and elegantly as is The Phanatic – a furry orange creature with googly eyes who wears Flyers’ gear – he took his place as the first mascot for the Flyers since 1976, when they had a mascot named “Slapshot,”  who lasted only one season…not a surprise:

With Gritty, though, the Flyers seem to have hit a home run (or scored a hat trick).  He has become a sensation that transcends hockey, but not in all quarters.  It seems mascots are a twitterverse unto itself.  And it has little use for Gritty…

(ESPN)

This will be Gritty’s first career appearance against the Caps.

Washington: Matt Niskanen
 

Matt Niskanen has had a difficult year.  There are times when he looks and plays like the 12-year veteran he is, and there are other times when he looks less familiar with the position than one might expect of a 12-year veteran.  One indicator of that is his minus-9 for the season.  It is his worst plus-minus rating and only his second minus rating over a full season since he was minus-15 with the Dallas Stars in 2009-2010, the difference being that this Caps team has already won more games (38) than that Dallas team won all of that year (37).   

Most of the problem seems to have come in the 2019 portion of the schedule.  In 28 games in 2019, Niskanen is 3-4-7, minus-10, and has been on the plus side of the ledger only seven times, half the number of times he was in minus territory.  Add to that the fact that his offense has dried up (ten straight games without a point), and it has been a difficult time for Niskanen.  It is important to the Caps that he find more of his game, since he continues to be a minutes-eater.  He ranks second among defensemen in time on ice per game (22:04), and he has skated less than 20 minutes only five times in 64 games.  In 35 career games against Philadelphia, Niskanen is 5-9-14, plus-1.

In the end…

The last time the Philadelphia Flyers won a Stanley Cup, in May 1975, the top single was “Shining Star” by Earth, Wind, and Fire; the film “W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings” had just been released; Arthur Hailey’s “The Moneychangers” topped the New York Times best seller fiction list; the Phillies were on a six-game losing streak; and gasoline averaged less than 60 cents a gallon.  It has been awhile.  In fact, their 42-season drought is the fifth longest in the league (Toronto, St. Louis, Buffalo, and Vancouver have been waiting longer). 

This Flyers club might have crawled back into contention for a postseason spot, but if last year’s threshold of standing points for a playoff spot hold, they would need 25 points in their last 16 games, a very heavy lift.  The Caps have a chance to swing the hammer to pound that last nail a little further into the lid of that coffin that holds the Flyers’ playoff chances, but they will do so in a place that has considered the respective rankings in the standings between these teams an irrelevance.  It has been almost universally unkind to the Caps over the last seven years.  Even having parted with forward Wayne Simmonds at the trading deadline, this is a formidable opponent that is playing with a sense of purpose and desperation.  This season almost certainly will end worse than Flyer fans might hope, but the Flyers can make things difficult for a Caps team that is looking to hold on to a razor-thin lead in their division.  In that sense, this game will be “gritty” indeed.

Capitals 3 – Flyers 2

Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was - Week 22

The NHL trading deadline came and went in Week 22, and the 31 teams settled in to begin the home stretch.  Teams are sorting themselves out into rebuilders and teams fighting for playoff seeding.  The Washington Capitals can be considered one of the latter group, and having added Nick Jensen and Carl Hagelin in trades, they set forth to incorporate the new elements into a team that was looking a lot like last season’s club.  More “tweaked” than taking on major additions, the Caps had one of their most successful weeks of the season, but how they got there was a little more interesting than fans might have liked.

Record: 3-0-0

The last time that the Caps had a week of three or more games on the schedule and won all of them was back in Week 11, although that week featured a pair of Gimmick wins to propel the Caps to a 3-0-0 week.  This week started with a pair of wins over teams looking toward the future as the lead-in to what could be a playoff preview that ended the week.  The three-game winning streak on which the Caps wrapped up the week was their first of that length since they won Games 41-43 in early January.

The two wins against the New York Rangers and the Ottawa Senators on home ice to open the week brought the Caps to within one win of their 28^th season of 20 home wins in team history.  The win at Nassau Coliseum over the New York Islanders to close the week was the Caps’ 18^th road win of the season.  Two more, and this club would become the 14^th team in franchise history to reach the 20-road win mark.  If they reach both marks, this year’s club would become the 13^th in team history to finish a season with at least 20 wins both at home and on the road.

Two of the wins in Week 22 came against Metropolitan Division opponents, lifting the Caps’ record against Metro foes to 11-5-2.  Those wins broke a three-game intra-division losing streak (0-2-1).  This will be something to keep in mind as the Caps head into Week 23 with 10 of their last 17 games coming against Metropolitan Division teams.

Offense: 5.33/game (season: 3.38/6th)

When a team scores 16 goals in a week, chances are that the good times are spread around.  That was certainly the case for the Caps in Week 22.  The 16 goals were spread among 11 players, and 15 of the 18 skaters to dress for the week recorded points.  T.J. Oshie led the Caps with three goals for the week, including a pair against the Ottawa Senators in the 7-2 win on Tuesday, his fourth multi-goal game of the season and second in two weeks.  When he added a goal against the New York Islanders in the 3-1 win on Friday, it was the first time he was credited with “scoring” goals in consecutive games since he did so back on November 5^th and 7^th in wins over Edmonton and Pittsburgh.  The quotation marks around “scoring” reflect the fact that it was the Islanders’ Josh Bailey who, either trying to leave a pass for teammate Brock Nelson with the goalie pulled or thinking the goalie was still in net and trying to pass the puck back to him in a 2-1 game late in the contest, shot the puck into his own net.  Oshie was credited with the goal, being the last Capital to touch the puck.

Three other Capitals recorded multi-goal weeks – Tom Wilson, Nicklas Backstrom, and Evgeny Kuznetsov, each with two.  Wilson, who has already obliterated his career high in goals (16) with 18 in just 46 games this season, finished the week with four goals in his last eight games.  Backstrom had a two-goal game against the Rangers to open the week, his second multi-goal game of the season and first since he recorded a hat trick in a 6-3 win over the New Jersey Devils on November 30^th.  Kuznetsov had goals in consecutive games to open the week, but was not able to match the three-game streak of goals he had in early February when he was shut out by the Islanders.  Alex Ovechkin scored the game-winning goal in the week’s final game, bringing his season total to 45 and becoming the first player in NHL history to record 45 or more goals in ten seasons.

Oshie and Backstrom led the Caps in points for the week with five apiece.  Oshie had points in all three games for the week and two-point games in each of two games to close the week.  He has been on an extended hot streak, going 8-14-22 in his last 20 games.  The odd part of that is he is also a minus-8 in that stretch.  Oshie has multiple point games in seven of his last 18 games.  Backstrom, who had two-point games in each of the first two contests this week, has also been putting up points in multiples of late with three two-point games in his last eight contests.  He has 14 multi-point games this season.  Evgeny Kuznetsov had points in all three games to extend his points streak to four games.  He is 9-12-21, plus-7, over his last 17 games.  The odd man out among the forwards was Carl Hagelin, the only one not to record a point for the week.

Four of the six defensemen to dress in Week 22 recorded points, all of them with two or more.  Dmitry Orlov led the group with three (all assists).  Even Brooks Orpik recorded a pair (both assists).  John Carlson and Michal Kempny posted the goals; Matt Niskanen and Nick Jensen were the only defensemen not to record a point.

Defense: 2.67/game (season: 3.15/21st)

All in all, it was not a bad week for the defense, but the three teams they faced finished the week as bottom-half scoring offenses in the league, too.  So, there is just so much praise to be had here.  It was a troubling start to the week when the Caps allowed the Rangers five goals.  There are two ways to look at that.  One, the Rangers had just come off a game having scored five goals (against the Devils), so they were hot.  On the other hand, the game against the Caps was the second of a back-to-back set of games, and on the road at that, so the Rangers should have been a bit weary.  We lean toward the former, since the five goals they scored on the Caps was the fourth time in six games that New York scored five or more goals, all of them in regulation (they lost to the Caps in overtime) and three of them on the road.

The Caps opened the middle game of the week as if it was a 7:30 start instead of a 7:00 start.  By the time the game against Ottawa was 7:10 old, the Senators had all eight shots on goal, 11 shot attempts, and both goals.  To that point, the Caps had allowed opponents – struggling opponents at that – 39 shots on goal, 64 shot attempts, and seven goals in 71:30 of ice time.  The Caps flipped the off switch on their opponents after that, allowing 36 shots, 69 shot attempts, and one (questionable) goal over the last 112:50 of ice time for the week.

That questionable goal came in the Islander game when, off a risky cross ice pass out of the defensive zone by Dmitry Orlov, the puck ended up on Tom Kuhnackl’s stick.  As he was carrying the puck to the blue line, teammate Leo Komarov was trying to exit the zone to ensure Kuhnackl’s entry would be onside.  As this image (captured from the NHL/MSG feed) indicates, Komarov did not get out before Kuhnackl brought puck into the offensive zone and thus the play should have been deemed offside: 

It was not, and the ensuing goal was counted (the play not being reviewable as a “tag-up” offside).  But for that play, it was a solid end of the week for the Caps on the defensive side of the puck.

Goaltending: 2.60 / .893 (season: 3.00 / .906 / 3 shutouts)

Here is where we make the distinction between “efficiency” and “effectiveness,” and learn that they are not synonymous.  Generally, Braden Hotlby and Pheonix Copley (well, Holtby) were effective, as illustrated by the pair’s overall goals against average of 2.60 for the week.  However, they (well, Copley) were not efficient, posting a combined save percentage under .900 for the week.  That was the charm of the Caps allowing only 75 shots on goal in three games.

Breaking it down, Copley struggled against the Rangers in his lone appearance, especially late, where he allowed three goals on ten shots in the third period, including one in the last 30 seconds to tie the game and send it to overtime.  On the other hand, Holtby was sharp, especially late in the two games in which he appeared.  He stopped 41 of 44 shots for the week (.932 save percentage), including all 22 he faced in the second and third periods, the beneficiary of the Caps’ defense clamping down on the Senators, after Ottawa scored two goals in the first 7:10, and the Islanders. 

The game against the Islanders to close the week was unique in Holtby’s career.  It was just the sixth time in his career that he played a full game facing 21 or fewer shots and the first time he won such a game.  It also happened to be the first time in 28 appearances, regardless of ice time, that he won a game when facing 21 or fewer shots (he was 0-18-0 with nine no-decisions).  At week’s end, Holtby had a .922 save percentage over his last ten appearances.  Unfortunately, he was only 5-4-1 in those appearances.  He did, however, record those two wins in Week 22 to give him wins in consecutive appearances for the first time in almost two months, since winning consecutive appearances on January 6^th and 10^th against Detroit and Boston.

Power Play: 3-for-7/42.9 percent (season: 22.3 percent/9th)

It did not appear often in Week 22, but when it did, the Caps’ power play was dangerous.  The Caps had only seven chances and spent only 9:21 with a man advantage out of 184:20, barely five percent of the Caps’ ice time for the week.  But the Caps recorded three goals in that 9:21 and eight points.  The goals came from three different players – Tom Wilson, John Carlson, and Alex Ovechkin.  The points came from eight different players, adding to the three above the names of Jakub Vrana, Lars Eller, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, and Evgeny Kuznetsov.

The 42.9 percent conversion rate is the team’s best since it had a similar 3-for-7 effort in two games in Week 3.  The only better weekly performance came in Week 1, when the Caps went 4-for-8 in two games (50.0 percent).  The three goals matched the three that they posted last week and is the largest two-week total in the last 18 weeks.  They scored goals in all three games, their three-game power play goal streak being their longest since a three-game streak against San Jose, Toronto, and Calgary in three games ending January and beginning February.  The 35.3 percent conversion rate in that span is third-best in the league, trailing only Toronto (35.7 percent) and San Jose (36.8 percent).

Penalty Killing: 5-for-7/71.4 percent (season: 78.3 percent/23rd)

The penalty killing did not fare quite as well as the power play in Week 22.  The best that be said of it is that the Caps suppressed shots, allowing only five shots on goal in 12:55 of shorthanded ice time.  The next best thing is that they limited opportunities, averaging two and a third shorthanded situations faced per game and allowing more than three only once (against the Rangers). 

The flip side of that is that the Caps allowed power play goals to the New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators, two middle-of-the-road power plays (ranked 14^th and 15^th, respectively, at week’s end), on the only power play shots on goal they recorded in their respective games against the Caps. 

Since the Caps killed off both power plays they faced in the only game they played in Week 18, their penalty kill rate has dropped in each succeeding week.   Only five times in 21 weeks before this one was the penalty kill rate lower.  The low volume of chances was a blessing, and there remains work to be done on the penalty kill.

Faceoffs: 89-for-178 / 50.0 percent (season: 46.0 percent/31st)

Man bites dog, Caps finish at 50 percent on faceoffs for the week, film at 11.  Given the state of the Capitals in the faceoff circle this season, hitting 50 percent for the week has to be considered a measure of progress.  Remember, after all, that they were under 40 percent in Week 21.

But hold off from pronouncing the patient cured.  The Caps clawed their way to 50 percent by dominating the Islanders in the last game of the week (56.4 percent) after finishing the first two games of the week in the 40’s.

The best part of the week in this category was the defensive zone draws.  The Caps were over 50 percent in each of the three games and over 65 percent for the week, a fine performance for any team.  What might have been most remarkable, though, and an illustration of dominance, was the Caps taking only nine defensive zone draws against the Islanders, while taking 25 faceoffs in the offensive end.

Individually, Nicklas Backstrom was a monster.  He took more than a third of all draws (67 of 178) and won more than 56 percent of them.  He was especially dominant in the defensive end, winning 13 of 16 faceoffs (81.3 percent).  It made up for weaker weeks from Evgeny Kuznetsov and Lars Eller, who finished a combined 32-for-78 (41.0 percent).

Goals by Period:

One could like the results by period for the week and still be concerned in this area.  On the good side, the Caps ramped up the offensive pressure by period through the week and had the only overtime goal.  And, they doubled up on opponents in the third periods of games, a period that has been an issue for the Caps all season.

On the other side, the Caps allowed the first goal in all three games.  That is not a recipe for success, given that only three teams in the league have a winning percentage over .500 when allowing the first goal (Tampa Bay, Winnipeg, and the Islanders).  Worse, all three of those first goals were scored in the first four minutes of the contest.

Then there is that third period, which deserves consideration on its own.  The Caps took a 3-2 lead into the third period against the Rangers, but they allowed the tying goal just 21 seconds into the frame, matching the time it took Chris Kreider to put the Rangers in front to start the game in the first period.  Then, after regaining the lead and adding to it to make it 5-3, the Caps allowed two goals in the last 14 minutes, the latter tying the game with less than 30 seconds left in regulation and the Rangers’ net empty.  The silver lining there is that the Caps did not allow either Ottawa or the Islanders a third period goal.  Something on which to build.

Year-over-Year:

At the 65-game mark through 22 weeks, the Caps find themselves with the same record they had at the 65-game mark last season: 37-21-7.  Small wonder.  Their goal differential (plus-5) is almost identical to that last year at this time (plus-3).  Power play goals are almost unchanged (42 this year, 43 last season), as are power play chances (188 to 191 last year) and power play conversion rate (22.3 percent to 22.5 percent at this time last season).  Ditto for penalty killing where the differences between this year and last in power play goals allowed (47 to 44), shorthanded situations faced (217 to 218) and penalty killing (78.3 to 79.8 percent).  The similarities carry on to shot attempts at 5-on-5 as well.

And if you want further evidence of this season looking a lot like last year, consider this.  The Caps started the 2018 portion of last season with a 13-8-4 record at the 65-game mark for the season.  This year’s club is 13-10-4.  Everyone in Capitals Nation is hoping that the similarities continue to their ultimate end.

In the end…

The bottom line metric in sports is wins and losses.  Over time, a team must generally play the “right way” to succeed in that metric, but on a game-to-game, or even a week-to-week basis, a team might succeed despite blemishes in their game or fail when their underlying metrics look fine.  The Caps had a good, but hardly a perfect week in the more granular aspects of the game.  They let one struggling team crawl back into a game that should have been decided (the Rangers) and allowed another to get off to a fast start with what was largely a minor-league lineup (Ottawa) before remembering who they were.  That the Caps ended the week with a hard-fought win against their immediate rival for the division lead might have left a good taste in everyone’s mouth, but let’s not hope the Caps choke on that as the action shifts to more divisional games down the stretch.

Three Stars:

• First Star: T.J. Oshie (3-2-5, plus-4, nine shots on goal, 16 shot attempts, 5-for-10 on faceoffs)
• Second Star: Alex Ovechkin (1-3-4, plus-1, game-winning goal, 14 shots on goal, 27 shot attempts, six hits, became first player in NHL history to record 45-plus goals in ten seasons)
• Third Star: Braden Holtby (2-0-0, 1.52, .932, 22-for-22 in second and third periods of games)

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 66: Capitals at Rangers, March 3rd

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

It has been more than two months since the Washington Capitals won four straight games, but when they take the ice on Sunday afternoon against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, that is what they can accomplish.  For the Rangers, whose loss to the Capitals last Sunday set in motion the Caps’ current winning streak, it will be a chance to avenge that loss and prevent the Caps from sweeping the season series.

In three games against the Rangers, the Caps have outscored the Blueshirts, 15-11, out-shooting them by a 101-93 margin, and converting three of nine power plays (33.3 percent).  If there has been a blemish on the record for the Caps, it is that they have killed only seven of ten shorthanded situations (70.0 percent) in the three games played so far.

Two players account for six of the 11 goals scored by the Rangers in the three games played against the Caps so far – Defenseman Brady Skjei and forward Jimmy Vesey.  Those three goals he has against the Caps this season represent half of Skjei’s season total.  His two-goal game in last Sunday’s 6-5 overtime loss to the Caps was his first multi-goal game in the NHL and are the only two goals he has on the road this season.  Skjei might be thought of as an under-the-radar sort of player, especially given that he plays in the league’s biggest market.  Two seasons ago, he finished in the top ten among rookie defensemen in goals (5/tied for eighth), assists (34/second), points (39/second), plus-minus (plus-11/tied for second), hits (147/fourth), and takeaways (17/tied for ninth).  For all that, he received one vote (a fifth-place one at that) for the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie.  He comes into this game as one of the Rangers’ hotter players, 3-2-5, plus-2, in his last four games.  Skjei is 4-2-6, plus-1, in 10 career games against Washington.

Vesey leads the Rangers in points against the Caps this season (3-1-4).  Once a third-round draft pick of the Nashville Senators (66^th overall in 2012).  It did not sit well with Vesey, who spurned a signing offer to choose to remain at Harvard University, complete his four-year stint there, and then explore his options in free agency.  Not even a trade of his rights to the Buffalo Sabres in June 2016 distracted Vesey from his plan.  It set off a bidding war that had him reported to have met with more than half a dozen teams and several others interested.  Then, less than a week as a free agent, he signed a two-year/$7.55 million contract with a heavy emphasis on performance bonuses. 

With all of the personnel moves by the Rangers, Vesey has received something of a commitment as a player to build around (although that commitment has limits; he is signed only through next season, upon which he will be an unrestricted free agent).  In his three seasons with the club, he has 20 goals and 89 points.  He also happens to be a team-worst cumulative minus-28 with the club over those three years.  This season, he already has a career-high 18 assists and 34 points, and he needs one goal to tie his career high of 17 goals set last season.  He comes into this game with five goals and five assists in his last 12 games.  In 11 career games against Washington, Vesey is 5-3-8, minus-1.

This is not one of goalie Henrik Lundqvist’s signature seasons.  His 3.04 goals against average his first over 3.00 in 14 seasons.  His .907 save percentage is the lowest of his career.  It has been three seasons since he received any votes for a postseason award.  Over the last two seasons he has as many regulation losses as wins (43).  Unless he gets one in the last 18 games for the Rangers, he will finish this season as the first of his career without a shutout.  He has two more years after this one on his current contract, two years likely to be spent chaperoning a rebuild of the team in front of him and mentoring the Rangers’ next number one netminder, whoever that might be.  Nevertheless, he has been a warrior.  Lundqvist has only two regulations loss in nine games in which he faced 40 or more shots (3-2-2, 2.30, .944).  He has struggled lately, though.  Since the first of the new year, Lundqvist is 5-8-2, 3.50, .889, with two no-decisions in 18 appearances.  In 40 career games against the Caps, he is 21-12-7, 2.77, .906, with four shutouts.

1.  Shooting is apparently the Rangers’ thing, or at least getting shots to the net.  Their 29.1 shots per game is fourth-fewest in the league.

2.  The Rangers are a reasonably stingy team in one respect.  They do not give up bushels of goals at a time on home ice.  Only twice this season have they allowed more than four goals on home ice.  One of those instances was against the Caps, a 5-3 loss to Washington on November 24^th.

3.  Only one team has fewer wins this season when scoring first this season than the Rangers (14) – Detroit has done so 13 times.  That is barely more wins than they have when allowing the first goal (13).

4.  The third period of this game could be interesting.  Only three teams this season have allowed more third period goals than New York (77).  One of them happens to be Washington (79/third-most).

5.  New York is a top-ten team in three “grittership” categories: hits (1,673/fifth), blocked shots (960/tenth), and takeaways (531/eighth).  Since they are also next to last in shot attempts-for percentage at 5-on-5 (46.43), it is an indication they spend too much time without the puck.

1.  While those 15 goals scored in three games are a lot, the Caps are still short of the 20 they had in five games in the 2015-2016 season series against the Rangers.  They need four goals to match the 19 they had against the Rangers in the 2001-2002 season series, their highest goal total for a four-game season series against New York since 1080-1981 (21 goals in four games). 

2.  Ten players share the 15 goals the Caps have against the Rangers this season.  Four have two or more: Alex Ovechkin (three), Tom Wilson, Nicklas Backstrom, and Tom Wilson (two apiece).  John Carlson leads the team in points (seven).

3.  Ovechkin does not lead the team in shots on goal against the Rangers this season.  He has 11, while Carlson has 15.

4.  Ovechkin’s 13 hits leads the team against New York this season, as many as Matt Niskanen (seven) and Tom Wilson (six) combined.

5.  Four of the last six games between these teams have gone to extra time, the Caps winning three in the overtime phase, and the Rangers winning one in the freestyle competition.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

New York: Marc Staal

Between the troubles on the ice, the personnel moves, and just being part of the New York constellation of sports teams, Marc Staal gets lost in the noise.  He just keeps plugging along, though.  Now in his 12^th season with the team, Staal is eighth in team history in games played (825) and fourth among defensemen.  He has never been a big offensive numbers player, but he does rank 18^th in goals scored among defensemen in team history (41) and is 16^th in points (177), testimony to his longevity and durability as a player.  This is actually among his more productive seasons at the offensive end.  His next goal this season will be his fourth and would give him his highest total since he had five in 2014-2015.  He has ten assists, putting him on a pace to finish with 13, which would be more than he has had since that same 2014-2015 season (15).  Just don’t expect him to add to those totals; he does not have a power play point since 2013-2014.  There are indicators of recent struggles in his game that mirror the team’s.  For instance, he has just one “plus” game in his last 17 contests, over which he is minus-10.  He does not have a point in a Rangers win over that same span of games (he has two assists, both in losses).  Staal is 1-9-10, plus-2, in 39 career games against the Caps.

Washington: Nic Dowd

NIc Dowd has two goals in three games against the Rangers this season, tied with Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson for second on the club.  That is a third of all the goals he has this season.  It would be nice if he could add to that total in this game.  Dowd does not have a goal on the road since he had one against the New York Islanders back on November 26th, a streak of 14 road games without one.  Dowd, as a fourth liner, is a bit of an indicator of Caps’ success and the ability to roll four lines.  Washington is 24-8-2 in 34 games in which he skated at least 9:30 this season, 5-7-3 in the 15 games in which he did not.  It helps to have him engaged, too.  Washington is 15-6-3 in the 24 games in which he registered at least one shot on goal, 14-9-2 in games in which he did not.  The odd fact is the coincidence of faceoff success and team success, which goes in the opposite direction of what we might expect.  The Caps are 11-9-1 in 21 games in which Dowd was over 50 percent in faceoff wins, 18-6-4 in the 28 games in which he was 50 percent or lower.  Dowd is 2-0-2, plus-1, in four career games against the Rangers.

In the end…

The Caps have the hardest strength-of-schedule from here on out.  That puts a premium on taking advantage of the disadvantaged, /www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/03/01/heres-how-nhls-super-tight-eastern-conference-playoff-picture-will-shake-out/ and the Rangers qualify in that regard.  It does not get much simpler than that.

Capitals 4 – Rangers 2

Peerless' Late Night Musings -- Out-Trotzing Trotz Edition

We did not get a chance to put up a post-gamer, but with the clock ticking toward four a.m. on the east coast, we have some thoughts after the Caps' 3-1 win over the New York Islanders...

• Neither of these teams went into the game as the best of possession teams, the Caps and Islanders ranking 24th and 27th, respectively, in SAT percentage at 5-on-5.  But, the Caps went "the full trotz," posting a 68.42 CF% for the game against their former coach, their best this season (source: naturalstattrick.com).  When circumstances dictate, the Caps can call up games that look like last spring.
• Alex Ovechkin became the first player in NHL history to record ten 45-plus goal seasons when be paddleball'ed the puck out of the air over goalie Thomas Greiss' left shoulder and gently into the net for what would be the game-winning goal.  When he scores his next goal, he will become the first player in NHL history with ten 46-plus goal seasons.  Alas, his 47th goal will merely tie him with Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky for most 47-plus goal seasons (nine).
• The Caps, the worst faceoff team in the league, lost only 24 draws to the Isles.  That is the second fewest number of faceoff losses the Caps have had in a road game this season (they had 23 against Montreal on November 1st) and their fewest in a road win.
• Nicklas Backstrom is back to being "Backstrom-y."  He had an assist, and that makes six helpers in his last eight games and 12 in his last 18 games.
• Three wins in a row.  That broke a 19-game streak without a winning streak of that length, over which they went 7-9-3.  Timing is good.
• The Caps held the Isles to 21 shots on goal, the lowest total allowed to an opponent this season (22 vs. Arizona on November 11th and vs. Columbus on January 12th).  The odd thing, the Caps have recorded 25 or fewer shots on goal allowed to Metro teams nine time this season, and the Isles are the only team to make that list twice.
• Here is one to impress your friends and confound your enemies. That was just the sixth time in Braden Holtby's career that he played a full game facing 21 or fewer shots and the first time he won such a game.  Bonus...it's the first time in 28 appearances, regardless of ice time, that he won a game when facing 21 or fewer shots (he was 0-18-0 with nine no-decisions).
• John Carlson skated 23:20 in ice time.  It is only the 15th time in 64 games this season that he skated less than 24 minutes in a contest.  Ten of them have come on the road.
• Speaking of ice time... short leash?  Message Sending?  Looking for a spark?  Whatever, Andre Burakovsky skated just 7:32, his lowest ice time in a road game this season.  It is the second time in barely a month he logged less than eight minutes, although he did average 12:12 over ten games going into the game against the Islanders.
• Carlson and Dmitry Orlov had odd games.  Each player had four shots blocked; neither had a shot on goal.

In the end...

Talk about controlling your destiny.  The Caps have 18 games remaining after the win against the Islanders.  Ten of them are against Metropolitan Division teams, and they have another three -- the entire season series -- in a two-week period against the Eastern Conference leading Tampa Bay Lightning to close March.  It should be interesting.  Or, as Bette Davis put it...