That was Week 7 for the Washington Capitals. Oh, it was a winning week. Two road wins made it a fine start to the
week. When the Caps came home to face the
Buffalo Sabres, it looked as if the Caps might have their first blemish-free
week of the season. But the Caps came up
short, and a 2-1-0 week did not seem as good as a 2-1-0 week should.
Record: 2-1-0
The Caps started the week with a pair of one-goal wins on
the road, in Arizona and Colorado. Not only were they one-goal wins, the games
scored the game-winners late, an overtime game-winner by Eric Fehr in a 2-1 win
over the Coyotes and a game-winner by Alex Ovechkin with 5:56 to play in a 3-2
win over the Avalanche. Those two games
put the Caps over .500 in standings points for the season in one-goal games,
certainly no small consideration in a league with as much parity as the NHL
(for comparison’s sake, the Caps were 21-10-14 in one-goal games last season,
11 standings points over.500). They
dropped a one-goal decision to the Buffalo Sabres to end the week, though, and
fell to 5-5-3 in one-goal games, the 24th-best record in the league.
Offense: 2.00/game
(season: 2.75/game; rank: T-12th)
It was a hard fought week, and goals were hard to come
by. Six different Caps scored the six
goals for the week; ten different Caps had points. Nicklas Backstrom led the team in points with
a goal and two assists; four other players had two points. The Caps struggled in two areas. One, shot volumes. The 44 shots they recorded against the Sabres
in the last game of Week 7 papered over the fact that they managed only a total
of 47 shots in the first two games of the week against teams that ranked in the
bottom third in the league in shots on goal allowed. Then there was the shooting percentage. The Caps were 6.6 percent for the week, well
below their 9.0 percent for the season. If there was a hole in the offense this
week it was in the second line of Marcus-Johansson, Andre Burakovsky, and Troy
Brouwer. The trio combined for no
even-strength points in three games (Johansson had a power play assist), and
they were a combined 0-for-21 shooting.
Defense: 1.67/game (season: 2.60/game; rank: 14th)
The Caps continue to do one thing well on a consistent basis
– limit shots. Washington allowed three
opponents a total of 79 shots, an average of 26.3 per game, slightly less than
their season average of 26.8 shots per game (fourth-best in the league). However, the Caps seem to have difficulty
separating effective defense from sluggish offense; the two seem to combine to
result in something that resembles “Hunter Hockey,” coin-flip games where
offense – for either team – is difficult to realize. The Caps had a positive Corsi week, a 55.0
percent Corsi-for at 5-on-5. However,
this was skewed by an overwhelming Corsi advantage against the Sabres (67-39 in
events, in favor of the Caps; 63.21 percent Corsi-for; numbers from
war-on-ice.com).
Goaltending: 1.65 GAA / .937 GAA (season: 2.51 / .905 / 1
SO)
Braden Holtby got the call in all three games in Week 7, and
he shined. He was over .930 in save
percentage in each of the three games, extending a stretch of good play on his
part. Over his last six appearances he
is 4-2-0, 1.67, .942. Holtby did an
especially good job of keeping the Caps in games early. He stopped all 19 first period shots he saw
for the week. The flip side of that was
that he allowed goals in each of the second period of games for the week (27-for-30
in saves overall). In the third period and overtime he was a solid 28-for-30
(.933 save percentage). It might have
been an even better week but for some odd events in the last game against
Buffalo. He allowed one goal when a shot that sailed wide hit the end boards
and took an odd rebound out the other side where Matt Moulson converted it into
a score. Then, on Buffalo’s second goal,
Holtby made a fine save on the initial shot, but his defense did not tie up Torrey
Mitchell before he could jump into the play and convert the rebound. Still, Holtby is on a roll.
It was not the efficiency, it was the frequency. The Caps had only five power play opportunities for the week, including a game in which they had none and another in which they had one (which they converted). In three of the last four games for the Caps they have had one or no power play chances. Despite the second best power play in the league, they finished the week with the third-fewest opportunities in the league (59), behind only the New York Rangers (56) and Boston Bruins (54). Looking at the efficiency alone, a week in which the Caps were 20 percent in opportunities (rebounding nicely from their only week below 20 percent) and shot 1-for-9 in 8:00 of power play ice time was a pretty good one.
Penalty Killing: 5-for-5 / 100.0 percent (season: 82.3
percent; rank: 14th)
It was the second straight clean week for the Caps’ penalty
killers. And, what was good for the
goose (only five power play opportunities) was good for the gander (only five
shorthanded situations faced). One would
have liked the Caps to be more efficient on the penalty kill in one respect,
though. In 9:32 of shorthanded ice time
for the week the Caps allowed 12 power play shots on goal. If it is true that the goaltender needs to be
a team’s best penalty killer, that might have been true of Braden Holtby this
week. The week was helped, no doubt, by
the fact that Colorado and Buffalo are poor power play teams, both ranking in
the bottom five in the league.
Even Strength Goals For/Goals Against: 5-5 / even (season,
5-on-5 goals for/goals against ratio: 0.92; rank: 21st)
The even strength ratio for the week is more or less the
product of the first two games. Against
Arizona and Colorado the Caps had a combined Corsi-for percentage at 5-on-5 of
49.4, the result of being a minus-2. In
that respect it was a very even week at even-strength. Against the Sabres the underlying numbers
looked marvelous – plus-28 Corsi at 5-on-5, but the Caps didn’t pass the “eye”
test, an inability to follow up shots by creating havoc in front of goalie
Jhonas Enroth. When Buffalo got a couple
of breaks, it resulted in a 2-0 win at even strength in the last game of the
week. Possession numbers can tell a
story over large numbers of games, but on a game to game basis they can be subject to
much more noise than signal.
Faceoffs: 86-for-167 / 51.5 percent (season: 50.1 percent;
rank: 14th)
This is another case of a “winning” week not looking like as
much of one from closer inspection. The
Caps won 51.5 percent of all faceoffs this week, but that was weighted heavily
by a 63.8 percent winning percentage in the neutral zone. A 44.4 percent
winning percentage in the offensive zone might have contributed to the
difficulties the Caps had in scoring goals in Week 7. Nicklas Backstrom, as he does most weeks,
took the highest volume of draws and won one more than half (30-for-59). His problem was in the defensive zone, where he
was just 5-for-15. Next up in volume was
Jay Beagle, whose 58.8 percent winning percentage for the week looked better
than it was. He was 7-fo-r7 in neutral
zone draws and 10-for-13 in the defensive zone.
But he was 3-for-14 in the offensive zone. Andre Burakovsky couldn’t quite get to the 50
percent mark in the offensive zone, either, going 4-for-10.
Goals by Period:
It was a relatively even week in goals scored, six for and
five against, but the distribution was a bit different. The Caps spread their goal scoring across the
periods, including one in overtime. On
the other hand, opponents squeezed all their goals into the second and third
period. That second period was the
problem. The Caps were a minus-1 for the
week in the middle period (two for, three against). This was a bit odd in that the Caps are among
the most prolific goal scoring teams in the second period of games this season
(they finished the week tied for eighth with 22 goals).
In the end…
The two points that the Caps more or less gave away to
Buffalo might be the two that haunt them in the end. At the moment, those two points do not make a
difference in their Metropolitan Division standing; they would have finished
the week in third place with or without them.
But it is the difference between being eighth in the Eastern Conference
(with the points) and ninth (without them).
It was an opportunity lost. The
good part was that the Caps earned that opportunity with two hard-fought road
wins out west. But to give a part of it
back with a forgettable effort against Buffalo (44 shots on goal
notwithstanding), makes one think than come April, that game might not be so
forgettable after all.
Three Stars:
- First Star: Braden Holtby (2-1-0, 1.65, .937)
- Second Star: Nicklas Backstrom (1-2-3, plus-1, Corsi-for/5-on-5: plus-23/62.4% for)
- Third Star: Brooks Orpik (0-2-2, plus-3, 23:19 average ice time, 17 hits)
