The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Caps vs. Islanders, February 4th

Caps fans . . . this is for you . . .

And it doesn’t get any easier.

It isn’t bad enough that the Caps are mired in that 6-15-0 funk, or that they lost a hard-fought 2-0 game to Pittsburgh on Saturday. No-o-o-o sirree . . .they get to return to Verizon Center to the loving embrace of fans – who will be on a hair trigger to boo – to take on the New York Islanders, who are – get this – undefeated in their last six games (4-0-2).

The Islanders over these last six games have . . .

- outscored the opposition 25-20
- converted four of 24 power plays (16.7 percent)
- killed 27 of 31 shorthanded situations (87.1 percent)
- been led by Trent Hunter with five goals, followed by Miroslav Satan and Jason Blake with four apiece
- gotten competent, if not outstanding goaltending from the Rick DiPietro (3.38, .893) / Mike Dunham (1-0-1, 2.04, .933) team – since DiPietro played against Montreal (a 4-2- win) on Saturday, expect Dunham to get the call on Sunday.

The Islanders have gotten good production from Trent Hunter (5-3-8, +3), Miroslav Satan (4-4-8, +1), and Jason Blake (4-1-5, -1), but what seems to characterize the Islanders in their last six games is a willingness to shoot it out with their opponents. They’ve scored at least four goals in five of the six games; they’ve given up at least four goals twice.

For the Caps, an arena full of Dutch boys wouldn’t be enough to plug the holes in the dike. Once among the better 5-on-5 clubs this season, they’ve slipped to 25^th in 5-on-5 play . . . they are allowing an astonishing 3.48 goals-per-game (27^th) . . . they are still last in the league in shots-per-game allowed at 34.8 . . . 28^th in the league when trailing first . . . 25^th when outshot by opponents (a really bad sign when you’re giving up those 34.8 shots a game) . . . 24^th in faceoffs . . . 25^th in goal differential . . . 30^th in shot differential . . . 4^th most penalized team in the league. The Caps’ collapse from their high-point in mid-December has been across the board.

On the good side, the Caps are 5-4-2 in the second half of back-to-back games this year, 2-1-0 on home ice.

Olaf Kolzig has had excellent career success against the Islanders with a 24-9-2, 2.31, .910 record. And, although his won-loss mark stands at 2-4-0 in his last six games, he’s been something of a victim of bad luck (and bad play in front of him), too. His 3.03 GAA is better than his season average, and his .903 save percentage is comparable to his season mark (.908).

A long time ago, the Islanders owned the Caps. They were the “Penguins” breaking Caps fans’ hearts long before the Penguins got around to it. Then, for a time, the Caps owned the Islanders. But the Caps have lost six of their last seven games to this club by a combined score of 29-16, including a 4-1 thumping on November 25^th.

Once more, the matter of fast starts comes into play. The Islanders have the fifth best record in the league when leading after one period. The Caps are 28^th in the league when trailing after one period. If the Islanders have a lead after one, you might think about an early start to those Super Bowl parties.

The Peerless thinks the Caps are long past the point at which they should be angry over the turn of events the last seven weeks. It’s time to play with equal parts anger and disgust, because . . .

Caps 4 - Islanders 3