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

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Minnesota: Bruce Boudreau

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

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

Washington:  Tom Wilson

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

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

In the end… 

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

Capitals 4 – Wild 2

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

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

First Period

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

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

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

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

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

Second Period

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Third Period

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

Overtime

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

Other stuff…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the end…

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

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

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

First Period

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

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

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

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

-- Dmitry Orlov led the Caps with three hits.

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

Second Period

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

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

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

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

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

Third Period

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

Other stuff…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the end…

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

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 74: Lightning at Capitals, March 20th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

Four days ago, the Washington Capitals and the Tampa Bay Lightning met in Tampa.  On Wednesday night, they meet again, this time in Washington.  Not much has changed in the intervening days, so go read this again for a refresher. 

But there are some fun facts and nifty nuggets of information you might like or use to impress your friends. This will be the 64^th meeting of the teams in Washington in the history of the series.  Tampa Bay has won only 12 times in regulation.  The 12^th time was the last time the teams met in D.C., a 4-2 win for the Bolts last February 20^th. Odd thing about that game; the Lightning had only 19 shots on goal.  It was the second time in a span of four games in Washington that Tampa Bay generated only 19 shots.  Including that game, the Caps are 22-3-2 in their last 27 regular season games against Tampa Bay in Washington, dating back to March 2007.

Over those 27 games, the Caps…

• Outscored Tampa Bay, 108-68
• Outshot the Lightning, 853-789
• Converted 25 of 97 power play chances (25.8 percent)
• Killed 69 of 85 shorthanded situtations (81.2 percent)
• Won 864 of 1,586 faceoffs (54.5 percent)
• Out-hit the Lightning, 644-529
• Went 4-2 against Tampa Bay in extra time (2-1 in overtime, 2-1 in the Gimmick)
• Shut out the Lightning twice
• Were shut out by the Lightning twice, both times in extra time (January 4, 2011 in overtime and April 13, 2014 in a Gimmick)
• Scored five or more goals 11 times, winning all of them
• Allowed five or more six times (not including the freestyle competition), losing only three times
• Won by three or more goals six times, lost by three or more goals once (5-2, November 10, 2007)
• Took ten or more minutes in penalties 16 times, going 12-2-2 in those games
• Drew ten or more minutes in penalties 15 times, going 12-1-2 in those games

And individually in those games…

• Alex Ovechkin is the only Capital to have appeared in all 27 games against the Lightning in Washington; only Nicklas Backstrom (24) and Mike Green (20) appeared in 20 or more of them
• Ovechkin leads with 25 goals; next on the list is Alexander Semin (nine);   Backstrom is next among current Capitals (seven)
• Backstrom leads in assists with 24; Ovechkin is next with 21
• Ovechkin (46) and Backstrom (31) are the only Caps with 30 or more points in those games
• Ovechkin leads in power play goals (eight) and points (18)
• No Capital had a shorthanded goal over those 27 games
• Green and Ovechkin are the only Capitals with overtime goals
• Unsurprisingly, Ovechkin leads in shots on goal (141), more than twice as many as the next Capital (Backstrom: 59)
• Dennis Wideman led the team in average ice time (24:21 in three games)
• Boyd Gordon led the team in faceoff winning percentage (63.9/39 for 69)
• Ovechkin led the team in hits (64), twice as many as John Erskine (32)
• John Carlson led in blocked shots (49)
• Backstrom led in takeaways (20)
• Green took the most penalties (10) and penalty minutes (30)
• Matt Bradley took the most major penalties (three)

It is a tale of dominance not seen often in the NHL.  However, this will be the back half of a back-to-back set of games, too, against the league’s best team.  It is the last such instance this season for the Caps.  Some tidbits from the first 12 instances…

• The Caps swept three BtB’s, the three coming in successive instances in November and December (against Detroit and the New York Rangers, Carolina and Buffalo, and Buffalo and Ottawa)
• While the Caps were 7-4-1 in the opening game of a BtB (pending Tuesday’s game in New Jersey), they were 5-5-2 in the back half of BtB’s.
• This will be only the third time this season that the Caps play the back half of a BtB at home; the beat Buffalo in a Gimmick, 4-3, on December 15^th, and they beat the Rangers, 6-5, in overtime, on February 24^th

And there you have it.  The game on Saturday was a nail biter right up until Jakub Vrana hit a post, and the Lightning scored the first of two empty net goals shortly thereafter.  This game should be as close with additional hot sauce added being whether the Lightning can back up their physical approach displayed in Tampa on the opponent’s ice sheet.  We don’t think so.

Capitals 4 – Lightning 3

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 73: Capitals at Devils, March 19th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals begin the new week with the last game of their penultimate road trip of the regular season, visiting Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, to face the Devils in a Metropolitan matchup.

The Caps will be trying to avoid losing consecutive games for the first time since the All-Star Game break in late January.  Losers to the Tampa Bay Lightning last Saturday, the Capitals are still 15-6-1 in the 22 games since then.  The Devils are returning home from a six-game road trip, their longest since a seven-game trip to end October and begin November.  That seven-game trip finished 1-6-0 and set the Devils, who began the trip with a 5-2-1 record, into a tail spin from which they did not recover.  The six-game trip they just completed hardly went better, the Devils finishing 2-4-0, including a 3-0 loss to the Caps at Capital One Arena that started the trip.  And even when winning, New Jersey lost.  They beat the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night after having been eliminated from playoff contention earlier in the evening.

If there is some small comfort for the Devils, it is that this game will begin a stretch of six home games among the last nine games on their schedule.  A good thing, for while the Devils have the second-worst road record in the league at 10-25-3 (Ottawa is 9-25-2), the Devils are actually a decent (not to say “good”) team at home, their 17-12-6 record on home ice ranked 21^st in the league.

Kyle Palmieri has been the most dangerous Devil on home ice this season, recording a team high 14 goals and 27 points.  Palmieri was originally a first-round draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks, taken 26^th overall in the 2009 entry draft, two picks after the Caps selected Marcus Johansson, who passed through New Jersey before heading on his way to Boston last month.  Palmieri spent five unremarkable seasons in Anaheim before he was traded to New Jersey for a second-round pick in the 2015 entry draft and a third-round pick in the 2016 entry draft. 

He has flourished in Newark, a phrase one wonders has ever been uttered.  He set a career high of 30 goals in 2015-2016, his first season with the Devils, after not clearing 14 goals in any of his five seasons with the Ducks.  He has been a reliable 20-plus goal scorer since, and with 27 goals in 69 games this season is poised to set another career high.  He has hit a cold patch at home, though.  After recording 11 goals in his first 16 games on home ice this season, he has just three in his last 16 home games.  It matters.  New Jersey is 10-0-0 in home games in which Palmieri has scored at least one goal, 7-10-5 in the 22 home games in which he did not light the lamp.  Palmieri is 5-3-8, minus-1, in 17 games against the Caps in his career.

Once upon a time, Drew Stafford was a budding offensive star.  Taken 13^th overall in the 2004 entry draft by the Buffalo Sabres, he enjoyed an almost uninterrupted string of years in which his goal totals improved, from recording 13 in 41 games as a rookie in 2006-2007 to 31 goals in 62 games 2010-2011 with the Sabres.  However, his goal scoring dried up thereafter.  Stafford managed only 69 goals in 246 games over the next four seasons in Buffalo before he was part of a blockbuster trade in February 2015 that sent him, Tyler Myers, Joel Armia, Brendan Lemieux and a first-round pick in the 2015 entry draft to the Winnipeg Jets for Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian and Jason Kasdorf.  He spent parts of three seasons in Winnipeg without improving his production (34 goals in 144 games) before being traded to Boston for a sixth-round pick in the 2017 entry draft.  He lasted 18 games with the Bruins, recording four goals, before departing as an unrestricted free agent, which led him to New Jersey, for whom he has only 10 goals in 107 games over the last two seasons.  He has two goals in 48 games this season, both on the road, the latter one coming on January 2^nd.  He is 0-5-5, minus-6 over his last 33 games.  In 31 career games against Washington, Stafford is 11-7-18, minus-3.

The Devils have dressed 12 defensemen this season.  One of them is a name Capitals fans might recognize.  Connor Carrick was taken by the Caps in the fifth round (137^th overall) in the 2012 entry draft, a draft that Caps fans might remember for entirely different reasons.  It was the one in which they took Filip Forsberg, who they later traded in one of the more controversial deals in team history, and it was the one in which they drafted Tom Wilson, who was not universally hailed as a stroke of genius pick at the time (this is why fans – and bloggers – aren’t in hockey management positions).  It also happened to be the draft in which the Caps took defenseman Christian Djoos (two rounds and 58 picks after Carrick).

Carrick spent parts of two seasons in Washington, dressing for 37 games (1-5-6, minus-11) before he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs with Brooks Laich and a second round pick in the 2016 entry draft for Daniel Winnik and a fifth-round pick in the 2016 entry draft.  He played parts of three seasons for the Leafs before he was traded to the Dallas Stars last October for a conditional seventh-round draft pick.  This past February he landed in New Jersey in an exchange of defensemen, Carrick and a third round 2019 draft pick going to the Devils for Ben Lovejoy.  In 11 games for the Devils, “five” has been the magic number for Carrick – five assists, five points, and minus-5.  He is getting quite a look, though, averaging a career high 19:39 per game so far with the Devils.  Carrick is 0-2-2, plus-1, in six career games against the Caps.

1.  Only Tampa Bay and the Capitals have had more shorthanded situations faced on home ice (121 and 120, respectively) than the Devils (117) in the Eastern Conference.  But they are efficient in killing them off, their 84.6 percent penalty kill ranked second in the East, behind Tampa Bay (87.6 percent).

2.  No team in the league has taken more minor penalties on home ice than the Devils (137, five more than Tampa Bay).

3.  The Devils are one of three teams yet to score a goal in the Gimmick on home ice this season, coming up empty on six shots. Dallas and San Jose are the other teams without a home trick shot goal.

4.  In the 2018 portion of the season, covering their first 19 home games, the Devils scored more than four goals five times.  In the 2019 portion of the season, they have done so once in 16 home games, over which they have been held to two or fewer goals eight times.

5.  New Jersey has had eight players this season record at least ten goals.  Two of them – Brian Boyle (13) and Marcus Johansson (12) – were traded, and another (Taylor Hall: 11) has been out with an injury since Christmas.

1.  Washington has dressed only two rookie skaters this season – Travis Boyd and Nathan Walker.  It is the fewest number of rookie skaters dressing for the Caps since the shortened 2012-2013 season, when no rookie skaters dressed for the club.  The last time fewer rookie skaters dressed in a full season was 2011-2012, when Cody Eakin was the lone rookie to appear.

2.  If Travis Boyd appears in four more games, he will become the 17^th rookie skater since 2005-2006 to appear in at least 50 games in his rookie season for the Caps.  It is quite a change from last season when four rookie skaters appeared in at least 50 games: Jakub Vrana (73), Chandler Stephenson (67), Christian Djoos (63), and Madison Bowey (51).

3.  Goalies are a different matter with regard to rookie status.  Since 2005-2006, the Caps have dressed a rookie in goal at least once in eight of 14 seasons.  However, those eight seasons cover only four rookies.  All of them played more than one “rookie” season owing to rookie qualification standards.  Semyon Varlamov was a rookie twice (2008-2009 and 2009-2010), Michal Neuvirth twice (2008-2009 and 2009-2010), Braden Holtby twice (2010-2011 and 2011-2012), and Philipp Grubauer taking the prize, qualifying as a rookie in four consecutive seasons (2012-2013 through 2016-2017).

4.  When the Caps allowed six goals to Tampa Bay on Saturday night, it was the 10^th time this season that they allowed an opponent six or more goals (not including Gimmicks).  It is the most instances allowing six or more goals since it happened 12 times in the 2005-2006 season, and it is only the second time in the last 23 seasons that it happened at least ten times.  At least they have three extra time losses among this year’s instances, the three points being the most earned in a season from games allowing at least six goals since they won two such games and earned four points in 1992-1993.

5.  If the Capitals win this game, they will get to .500 in standings points earned in the all-time series against the Devils on the road (currently 45-46-7 with seven ties).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

New Jersey: Travis Zajac

When Travis Zajac assisted on a Blake Coleman power play goal on March 9^th against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, he became only the fourth player in New Jersey Devils history to reach 500 points with the club, joining Kirk Muller (520), John MacLean (701), and Patrik Elias (1,025).  It gave the Devils a 2-0 lead just before the first intermission.  However, in a fashion too familiar to Devils’ fans, New Jersey lost the lead and the game, 4-2.  It was a result consistent with the latter half of Zajac’s career, which has been spent largely on the outside looking in at the postseason (two appearances in the last nine seasons, including this one), after going to the show in each of his first four seasons. 

It is a hard way to climb the all-time franchise rankings to become a top-five player, or nearly so, in a number of categories: fifth in games played (913), sixth in goals (184, one short of fifth-place Kirk Muller), seventh in assists (318, 19 short of fifth-place Scott Stevens), fourth in points (502), fifth in even strength goals (123), seventh in power play goals (51, one short of fifth-place Zach Parise), tied for fourth in shorthanded goals (11), and sixth in shots on goal (1,677, 22 short of fifth-place Parise). Six times, Zajac has received votes for the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward, twice finishing in the top ten.  His numbers do not pop off the page on a season to season basis, but he is one of the most consistent players in the game.  He is 7-20-27, plus-2, in 45 career games against the Capitals.

Washington: John Carlson

There have been 96 defensemen to dress for games on the road against the New Jersey Devils franchise since they opened for business in New Jersey in the 1982-1983 season following tours as the Kansas City Scouts and Colorado Rockies.  Only 19 of that group have recorded a goal in New Jersey.  John Carlson can count himself among them, but one is all he has in 15 games played in the state where he started his hockey journey as a youth.  It was March 25, 2016, the only goal scored by either team in that game, an overtime game-winner 2:17 into the extra frame. 

Since that goal, Carlson is fourth among the league’s defensemen in assists (139) and points (177), while he is ninth in goals (38).  He is similarly high-ranked in the team’s all-time defensemen: fourth in games played (679), sixth in goals (89), third in assists (308), fifth in points (397), fifth in plus-minus (plus-77), third in even strength goals (63), tied for seventh in power play goals (25, with Sylvain Cote), tied for second in overtime goals (two), first in blocked shots (1,383), fourth in game-winning goals (18), tied for sixth in multi-goal games (three), and fourth in shots on goal (1,516).

At the moment, Carlson and San Jose’s Brent Burns are the only defensemen to have topped the 60 point mark in each of the last two seasons.  And, since the 2010-2011 season (Carlson’s first full season in the league), only Ryan Suter and Keith Yandle have more 30 points seasons among defensemen (nine apiece) than does Carlson (eight, tied with seven other defensemen).  Carlson has been hot of late, taking a six-game points streak into the new week (2-5-7, plus-2), and he has averaged a point a game over his last 15 games (4-11-15).  He has been a consistent offensive contributor over the course of the season, recording points in 42 of 71 games, the Caps posting a 28-10-4 record in them.  In 34 career games against the Devils, Carlson is 4-19-23, plus-24.

In the end…

The Metropolitan Division has gotten tight, and it might be the best division in the league at the moment.  Since the All-Star Game break, seven teams have 30 or more standings points through Sunday’s games, and the Metro has four of them: Philadelphia (34), Carolina (31), the Caps (31), and Pittsburgh (30).

This game has the potential to be a pool of quicksand for the Caps, who face a struggling Devils team with little to play for but pride, a game coming between contests against the league’s best team (Tampa Bay) that might be an opponent down the road.  And, it is not as if the Caps have been dominating against this team this season.  They were steamrolled in the first meeting this year, on this ice sheet, in a 6-0 Devils win.  They beat the Devils, 6-3, at the end of November, but that game featured two empty net goals to give the Caps the final margin of victory.  And, there was the 3-0 shutout of New Jersey earlier this month that also featured an empty net goal.  Pride can be a great motivator, but all things considered, the Caps’ motivation to keep pace with their elite Metro brethren is stronger.

Capitals 5 – Devils 2

Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was - Week 24

Week 24 was a roller coaster of a week with ups and downs and twists and turns against rivals old and new.  In the end, the ride came to a stop right where it started with a two-win two-loss week and the Caps still in charge in the Metropolitan Division.

Record: 2-2-0

A four-game week featuring three of the best and/or hottest teams in the league and the other an old rival who remains desperate to get back into the playoff conversation would make for a difficult week for any team, including a division leader such as the Caps.  That Washington split the week was not the worst of outcomes in that context.

Looking back on the week and trying to look ahead, the Caps beat Winnipeg to earn a split in the season series at a win apiece, each team winning on home ice.  The loss to the Penguins was, as it always is, hard to swallow, but the significance is that the Caps lost three of four in the season series to the Pens (1-2-1).  The Caps took their third game in a row this season against the Flyers with one game remaining in the series, that on March 24^th in Washington.  Washington wrapped up the week with the first of three meetings against the Tampa Bay Lightning to be played over a two-week period.  The loss to the Bolts gave the Caps a 5-4-1 season record against four playoff or near-playoff quality teams.

The two wins for the week pushed the Caps past the 90-point mark for the 11^th consecutive full season of hockey (not including the shortened 2012-2013 season).  They remain on a pace to finish this season with more than 100 points, which would be the fifth straight season topping 100 points.

Offense: 3.50/game (season: 3.39/7th)

It was a good week on paper for the Caps, even if the goal total was padded a bit by a pair of empty net goals.  They all count.  The Caps have been remarkably consistent over the past few weeks.  Not only have they scored at least three goals in 12 of their last 13 games, they have scored exactly three goals in eight of those games, going 6-2 in them in the process.  Both of the losses in three-goal games came this week against two of the more high-powered offenses in the league in Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay.

As for the Caps, they spread things around on an individual basis.  Nine players accounted for the 14 goals scored in Week 24, five of them with two apiece: Jakub Vrana, Lars Eller, Brett Connolly, John Carlson, and Alex Ovechkin. 

Ovechkin’s two goals brought him to 655 for his career, one short of Brendan Shanahan for 13^th place on the all-time NHL goal scoring list.  His power play goal in the 6-3 loss to Tampa Bay on Saturday was the 246^th of his career, tying him with Phil Esposito for fifth place on the all-time list and brining him to within one of Luc Robitaille for fourth place on that list.

Vrana’s two goals and Tom Wilson’s lone goal of the week put both players in the 20-goal club for the first time in their respective careers and brought the Caps’ total of 20-plus goal scorers this season to four.  Last season, the Caps had only three 20-plus goal scorers all season (Ovechkin with 49, Evgeny Kuznetsov with 27, and Nicklas Backstrom with 21).  Vrana and Wilson joined Ovechkin (48) and T.J. Oshie (21) in the 20-goal club this season.  Three other players are within striking distance: Connolly (19), Kuznetsov (18), and Backstrom (18).

Carlson led the team in overall scoring for the week (2-3-5), while Dmitry Orlov led the club in assists (four).  Orlov also had a team-best plus-4 rating for the week.  For Carlson, the five-point week pushed him past the 60-point mark for the second straight season. He became the fourth defenseman in Caps history to post consecutive 60-point seasons.  Mike Green was the last to do it, in the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons, while Larry Murphy (1985-1986 through 1987-1988) and Scott Stevens (1986-1987 through 1988-1989) each did it three years in a row.

Defense: 3.50/game (season: 3.11/20th)

The Caps faced four productive offenses in Week 24, and the results were better than the goals per game would suggest.  For instance, they allowed 123 shots in the four games, an average of 30.8 per game, a number that is below the team’s average for the season (31.9 shots allowed per game).  Further, there were the shot attempts at five on five.  The Caps enjoyed a considerable advantage in that regard, winning that battle three times in four games, finishing a week with a plus-33 and a shot attempts-for percentage of 54.81.  That shot attempt differential was fourth-best among teams playing four games in Week 24.

Goaltending: 2.80 / .908 (season: 2.93 / .907 / 4 shutouts)

That the goaltending was more or less a typical week overall is not the best news when looking at the detail, although quality of competition needs to be considered.  Pheonix Copley got the call to open the week, and he had a very effective game against the Winnipeg Jets.  He allowed a single goal on 34 shots faced to win his fifth straight decision.  It was the best performance he had in that five-win run, over which he has a goals against average of 2.92 and a save percentage of .908.

Braden Holtby got the call in the other three games, and his results were uneven.  He was, for the most part, very good in his first game of the week, facing the Penguins.  That is, except for a span of 1:48 in the second period during which the Pens scored on three consecutive shots to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-0 lead that they would not relinquish.  Take that away, and he was 25-for-26.  He was consistently solid against the Flyers in his second game of the week, holding a club that scored 33 goals in its previous eight games to a pair of goals on 24 shots.  Against Tampa Bay he suffered the fate a lot of goaltenders have this season, giving up four goals on 33 shots (the 40^th time this season a goaltender allowed four or more goals to the Lightning). 

Overall, the netminders finished games better than they started them.  There were 34 saves on 38 first period shots faced (.895 save percentage) and 36 saves on 41 second period shots faced (.878), influenced by that three-goal surge the Penguins had in the second game of the week.  Third periods were much better, with 39 saves on 41 shots (.951), although there were the three empty net goals that do not count against the save percentages.

Power Play: 2-for-11/18.2 percent (season: 21.8 percent/9th)

It was something of an odd week for the Capitals, but panning out for a wider shot, it might have been simply a reflection of the league these days.  The Caps had a four-game week, which should have meant a high power play opportunity total, even if the average of opportunities per game was not.  Eleven chances in four games (2.75 per game) seemed light in that context.  However, the Caps tied for the fifth-highest number of chances overall and tied for the fourth-highest total among teams playing four games.

That the Caps converted only two of those chances was disappointing, considering that three of their opponents in Week 24 ranked among the bottom 13 teams in the league in penalty killing at week’s end (Pittsburgh: 19^th, Winnipeg: 23^rd; and Philadelphia” 26^th).  The Caps were 1-for-7 against those three teams.  The bright spot was in converting one of four chances on the road against the best penalty killing team in the league in Tampa Bay (85.6 percent).

The Caps looked disjointed on the power play at times over the week and it showed up in the form of inability to get shots to the net.  Washington managed only 12 shots on goal in 18:27 of man advantage ice time, including getting blanked in shots in four minutes of power play time against Winnipeg.  It was not a problem of getting the puck to the preferred target.  Alex Ovechkin had nine of the 12 power play shots on goal, converting one of them.  Three other players had one apiece: John Carlson (a goal), Evgeny Kuznetsov, and T.J. Oshie.

Penalty Killing: 15-for-17/88.20 percent (season: 79.8 percent/21st)

The Caps played with fire in this category all week.  No team was shorthanded more often in total or in times per game for Week 24 than Washington.  That the Caps allowed only two goals, both of them to Pittsburgh, was an achievement.  In fact, those are the only power play goals that the Caps have allowed over their last eight games, going 26-for-28 in that span (92.9 percent, tied for third among all teams).

The Caps did a reasonably good job of limiting shots, considering all the time they spent shorthanded.  In 26:38 spent shorthanded (third-highest for the week, behind only Anaheim and the Rangers), the Caps allowed two goals on 20 shots.

Faceoffs: 91-for-223 / 40.8 percent (season: 45.5 percent/31st)

At this point, with ten games left in the season, one hopes that the Caps do not find themselves having to win an important draw in the last seconds of a game, because if they do, there just is not enough success memory here to give anyone confidence they can do so.  In the larger scheme of things, faceoff do not matter in the sea of plays a team will experience over the course of a season.  But there can be that instance in which an outcome boils down to performing the game’s most basic play well.

Week 24 was another week of poor performances in the circle.  That they finished barely over 40 percent is not unusual, but the two games under 40 percent made it four times in seven games they failed to hit that mark for a game, and they have only two games over 50 percent in their last 16 contests.

The Caps did not hit 50 percent in either end in any game this week, while twice in the four games they were over 50 percent in the neutral zone.  Not surprisingly, it was in the neutral zone where they fared best overall (44.0 percent), while going 40.5 percent in the offensive zone and 36.7 percent in the defensive end.

Individually, Chandler Stephenson was the only player among the five taking at least ten faceoffs to win at least half of his draws, going 6-for-11 for the week (54.5 percent).  If one is looking for a silver lining here, Evgeny Kuznetsov won 14 of 27 offensive zone draws to finish over 50 percent there for the week (51.9 percent).

Goals by Period:

It was a balanced week in this category with the goals scored and goals allowed spread almost evenly among the periods.  The Caps scored first in the first period in three of the four games (winning two of them) and took a lead to the first intermission twice (winning once), that Pittsburgh game being the problem, the product of a brief, but intense second period collapse.  Third periods were odd in that they featured so many empty net goals.  Each game for the week featured at least one, the Caps scoring empty netters in their two wins and allowing empty netters in both losses (a total of three goals, two by Tampa Bay).  It brought to five the consecutive games played by the Caps that featured at least one empty net goal.

What still stands out, though, is how little of the Capitals’ offense comes in the third periods of games.  With 67 third period goals scored so far, only nine teams have fewer, and among them only the St. Louis Blues and Columbus Blue Jackets are currently playoff eligible.  And, when one considers that the 86 third period goals allowed by the Caps is tied for third-most overall, that minus-19 third period goal differential should be cause for some concern.

Year-over-Year:

The Capitals have spent a lot of the 2019 portion of the season hovering around numbers comparable to those they put up in equal volumes of games the previous season, and it is no exception at the end of Week 24.  One win and two points better than last season, special teams production virtually identical to last season, the Caps resemble last year’s team in the big respects.  That might not be surprising for a club that had so few changes in their roster, year over year.  The Caps continue to be ahead of last year’s pace in the grittier aspects of the game – hits, blocked shots, turnovers for and against.  Two categories continue to trail last year’s pace – penalties/penalty minutes and faceoffs.  This is neither surprising, nor should it be expected to change much in the last few weeks, given that the changes reflect absences – Tom Wilson at the start of the season (suspension) accounting for most of the difference in penalties/penalty minutes and Jay Beagle, who took his faceoff skills to Vancouver in the off season.

In the end…

Week 24 for the Caps was the first of four weeks of a brutal schedule that features 12 of 14 games against playoff eligible teams or teams on the edge trying to get in.  That the Caps split the four games for this week was a decent result, given that three of the games were on the road.  However, the unforgiving nature of the remaining schedule does place their top-seed in the Metropolitan Division in jeopardy.  When one considers that the Caps were one shot away from earning at least a point in Pittsburgh and a pipe struck in the last minute away from earning at least a point in Tampa Bay, one cannot help but think that the Caps are going to have to stop leaving spare change in the cushions as the schedule heads into its final three weeks if they are to keep their top seed, or perhaps even keep home ice advantage for the first round.

Three Stars:

• First Star: John Carlson (2-3-5, plus-1, one power play goal, nine blocked shots, 25:21 in average ice time)
• Second Star: Alex Ovechkin (2-2-4, minus-1, 18 shots on goal, 37 shot attempts, 15 hits, 246^th career power play goal, tying Phil Esposito for fifth place all time; became the 49th player in league history to record 1,200 career points)
• Third Star: Brett Connolly (2-2-4, even, game-winning goal)

A NO-Point Night: Washington Capitals -- Game 72: Lightning 6 - Capitals 3

The Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lighting met for the first time in almost ten months on Saturday night, the first time since the Caps defeated the Lightning in the Eastern Conference final on their way to a Stanley Cup championship.  Things started poorly for the Caps, and it was a hole from which they could not escape, falling 6-3 to the league leaders.

First Period

The Battle of the Titans got off to a poor start for the Caps, who found themselves behind by a pair of goals before the game was 11 minutes old, victimized by goals 1:58 apart mid-way through the period.  Tyler Johnson got the Lightning on the board first when he and Braden Point broke in on a 2-on-1 rush.  Point fed Johnson on his left, and Johnson snapped a shot that appeared to click of the inside of both of goalie Braden Holtby’s pads before settling behind the goal line to make it 1-0 at the 8:35 mark.

Less than two minute later the Lightning got a break when Alex Killorn settled the puck along the left wing boards and flung it at the Caps’ net.  The puck hit defenseman Dmitry Orlov in the right leg and ricocheted past Holtby’s blocker to make it 2-0, 10:33 into the period.

John Carlson got the Caps back into the game on a goal that goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy might want back.  Alex Ovechkin separated Braydon Coburn from the puck behind the Lightningand worked it around the corner wall, where it found its way to Evgeny Kuznetsov.  From above the right wing circle, Kuznetsov spun and fired the puck at the net, but it was blocked out to Carlson on the left side.  With open ice in front of him, Carlson stepped up and fired a shot that beat Vasilevskiy cleanly on the near side to make it 2-1 at the 12:06 mark.

Tampa Bay regained the two-goal lead less than four minutes later when Killorn bull rushed down the slot, knocking defenseman Nick Jensen aside, and getting two shots off on Holtby, scoring on the blocker side on the rebound 15:56 into the period.  That was how the teams went to the first intermission.

-- The Caps had an early lead in shots and shot attempts, but by the end of the period, Tampa out-shot the Caps, 16-9, and they out-attempted them, 23-17.

-- Five of the Caps’ nine shots came from defensemen: Michal Kempny (two), John Carlson (two), and Dmitry Orlov (one).

-- Tampa out-hit the Caps, 14-9, and they were not charged with a giveaway.

-- Tom Wilson and Alex Ovechkin had three hits apiece to lead the Caps.

Second Period

The Caps opened the second period by killing off a Tampa power play that started as a 5-on-3 for 1:28 and ended with a 5-on-4 for 12 seconds.  That would be what passed for suspense until the Caps were awarded a power play just short of six minutes into the period.  Washington capitalized on the man advantage on an odd play.  John Carlson took a shot from the point that appeared to hit T.J. Oshie in the back, the puck caroming to the left wing circle where Alex Ovechkin was waiting.  Ovechkin wasted no time snapping the puck past Vasilevsky on the near side to make it a 3-2 game at the 7:33 mark.

Tampa got another power play late in the period when Evgeny Kuznetsov was whistled for a slashing penalty, but the Caps killed off that chance, and then they earned one of their own late in the period, courtesy of a Ryan McDonagh roughing call.  However, the Caps did not convert on the first 1:11 of the man advantage, so it would carry over into the third period.

-- The Caps out-shot Tampa Bay, 13-5, in the second period and out-attempted them, 25-6.

-- Through two periods, the Caps held the Lightning to one power play shot on goal in 4:00 of power play time (J.T. Miller).

-- Travis Boyd and Andre Burakovsky skated only six shifts apiece through two periods.

Third Period

The period opened with the Caps on the last minute-plus of a power play, but they failed to convert.  It was a lost chance they would regret as the Lightning extended their lead in the third minute of the period, Erik Cernak beating Holtby on what looked like a stoppable shot to make it 4-2, 2:45 into the period.

With the clock ticking in the second half of the period, the Caps got back within a goal.  A Dmitry Orlov drive went wide to Vasilevskiy’s right, caromed off the end wall, and rebounded out the other side where Ovechkin was waiting.  He swatted the puck off the near post and behind Vasilevskiy to make it 4-3 at the 12:56 mark.

Washington got a chance to tie the game late when Ondrej Palat took a tripping penalty to put the Caps on their fourth power play of the game.  The Caps would come up empty, though, and the teams played on. 

Jakub Vrana was a ping away from tying the game with under four minutes left, ringing a shot off the post, but that would be as close as the Caps would get to tying the game.  Killorn completed his hat trick in the last minute into an empty net, and Yanni Gourde wrapped things up with another empty netter in the last second to provide the final margin, 6-3, Bolts.

Other stuff…

-- Alex Ovechkin recorded his 246^th career power play goal, tying Phil Esposito for fifth-place all-time and one behind Luc Robitaille for fourth place.

-- It was Ovechkin’s 131^st multi-goal game of his career, tying Teemu Selanne for second place since 1987-1988, trailing only Brett Hull (158).

-- Alex Killorn’s hat trick was the first by a Tampa Bay player in 126 games played against the Caps in franchise history.

-- Ovechkin had seven shots on goal and 16 shot attempts.  Would not be surprised if he can barely lift his arms.

-- Tampa Bay out-shot the Caps, 35-33, but the Caps out-attempted them, 62-50.

-- John Carlson had a goal and an assist, his 81^st multi-point game as a Cap, fifth all-time among Capital defensemen.

-- Tom Wilson had what, for him lately, was an uncharacteristic game – no shots on goal, one shot attempt, seven hits, 12 minutes in penalties, and a minus-2.

-- The last time the Caps faced the Lightning, Andre Burakovsky scored two goals in 11 minutes of ice time in the Caps’ 4-0 series clinching playoff win last spring.  On this evening, he got nine shifts, 7:30 in ice time, and recorded two shots on goal with no points.

-- The Caps held Tampa Bay to three shots on goal in six minutes of power play time.

-- That was the first time in almost three months (since November 27^th) that Tampa Bay failed to score a power play goal on home ice while getting four or more opportunities.

In the end…

The score looks bad, but the Caps were a coat of paint on a pipe from tying the game late.  Add in the general orneriness of the teams, and this looked like Game 1 of a ten-game playoff series – the three the teams will play in the regular season and the seven they could play later.  Tampa Bay looked in stretches like the 55-win team they are – deep, balanced, skilled, and fast.  But there were stretches when the Caps were every bit up to the task of stopping them and exerting pressure of their own.  This is going to be a fun ride over the next two weeks with the teams meeting twice more.  Buckle up.