Record: 3-0-1
The Caps had their first four-game week since Week 5, their
first three-win week of the season, and their best standings points week of the
season (seven). Week 14 was the Caps’
sixth straight week in the green (winning week) and their eighth straight
non-losing week. In that respect,
Washington has achieved a consistency about their game. Only twice in 14 weeks have they been on the
losing side of the ledger.
Wins over Florida, Toronto, and Detroit made it four
straight wins and 6-0-1 in their last seven decisions against the Atlantic
Division. Those wins, plus an overtime
loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, brought the Caps’ record to 12-1-4 in their
last 17 games. The 28 points earned over
17 games – more than one-fifth of the season – is the most the Caps have earned
in a 17-game block of games since they earned 29 standings points in going 14-2-1
from March 21 – April 23, 2013.
Offense 3.75/game (season: 2.98/game; rank: 8th)
The Caps recorded 15 goals in the four games of Week 14. Ten different players shared in the bounty,
led by Alex Ovechkin with three. Overall
scoring had an odd, and welcome, aspect to it.
Eric Fehr continued his productive play of late, leading the Caps in
points for the week (2-3-5). One of Fehr’s goals was Washington’s first
shorthanded goal of the season, against the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 6-2 win, and
it was part of an overall effort that left Fehr 6-3-9 over his last seven
games.
Marcus Johansson had a pair of goals in the win over
Toronto, his first two-goal game since Veterans Day against Columbus, and his
fifth multi-goal game of his career.
Washington had points from six different defensemen this
week. John Carlson led the way with four
points (1-3-4), and at week’s end he was fourth in the league in scoring among
defensemen (5-26-31) and tied with Calgary’s Mark Giordano for second in
assists. Meanwhile, Mike Green had three
assists, and at the end of Week 14 he ranked fifth among defensemen in assists
per game (0.58; minimum: 20 games played).
Then there was Karl Alzner.
Never much of a scorer at the NHL level over his seven-year career to
date, Alzner had a goal and an assist in Week 14, the goal giving him a
career-high three goals for the season.
Defense: 2.25/game (season: 2.49/game; rank: 10th)
The Caps were out-shot in all four games in Week 14, the
totals being 97 for the Capitals and 125 for opponents. When Washington held Detroit to 27 shots in
the last game of the week, it was the first time the Caps held an opponent
under 30 shots holding the New York Rangers to 27 shots in a 4-2 loss on
December 27th. The Caps had
allowed more than 30 shots in six consecutive games until the Detroit contest
(the Caps went 4-0-2 in those games).
It was not an especially good week overall,
possession-wise. Washington had a 5-on-5
even strength Corsi-for percentage of just 46.07. Part of that was score effect; the Caps had a
Corsi-for of 57.25 for the week at 5-on-5 in tied-game situations. Then again, part of it was not. When leading by one goal the Corsi-for
percentage was 37.65 percent. But, here
is the thing. The Caps were good when
they had to be. Washington trailed for
only 6:51 in Week 14, all of it in their contest against Florida to open the
week (a 4-3 win).
Goaltending: GAA 2.25
/ .928 SV (season: 2.43 / .914 / 3 SO)
Braden Holtby had a record-setting week, smashing the
franchise record for consecutive appearances.
When he took the ice against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday, it was
his 23rd straight appearance in goal for the Caps, breaking the
record of 22 straight, set by Wayne Stephenson in the 1979-1980 season. He extended that streak to 24 with his
appearance against Detroit to end Week 14.
Holtby had a bit of an odd work week that reflected equal
parts score effect and effective play.
In one respect he had a “sandwich” week in which the filling was a
little meager. In the first periods of
games he stopped 29 of 30 shots (a .967 save percentage), and in the third
periods of games he stopped 52 of 54 shots (.963). In the second period, however, it was
34-for-39 (.872). You could say he was
effective when he had to be – early and late.
Then there were those shots – 30 first period shots faced, 39 in the
second period, and 54 in the third period (he stopped one of two shots in the
3-2 overtime loss to Philadelphia).
The long string of appearances left Justin Peters with a lot
of rust. He has played only 40 minutes
since November 15th. That
being the case, he was sent to Hershey for a conditioning stint with the Bears
to sharpen his game. That he does
sharpen his game is going to be important.
The Caps will be playing in six back-to-back sets of games over the next
six weeks. Peters stopped all 24 shots he faced in
shuttingout the Albany Devils in his first appearance for the Bears on Friday
night. Pheonix Copley dressed as backup
for the Caps in their 3-1 win over Detroit on Saturday in his first call-up to
the big club.
Power Play: 3-for-9 / 33.3 percent (season: 23.8 percent / rank: 4th)
With three goals on nine power play opportunities, the Caps
had their first week with a power play over 20 percent since Week 8. Alex Ovechkin had two of the power play goals
on a total of five power play shots.
Troy Brouwer had the other man advantage goal on three shots for the
week. Overall, the Caps shot to a 20.0
percent rate (3-for-15) in 14:50 of total power play time.
It is that time on the power play that reflected a different
issue – opportunities. Nine
opportunities in four games is a low participation rate. It is part of a season-long issue; the Caps finished
the week with the sixth-fewest number of power play opportunities per game
(2.98).
Here is your odd power play fact for the week. Each of the three goals the Caps scored for
the week represented the game’s first goal.
Two of them were scored in the first two minutes of the game – 1:16 into
the 4-3 win over Florida by Ovechkin, and 1:53 into the 3-1 win over
Detroit. The other was scored barely
three minutes into the contest (3:08), by Ovechkin in the 3-2 overtime loss to
Philadelphia.
Penalty Kill: 12-for-13 / 92.3 percent (season: 79.4 percent
/ rank: 22nd)
Week 14 was the best week in penalty killing for the Caps
since they snuffed out all five power plays by opponents in Week 7. Week 7 also happened to be the last week this
season that the Caps finished a week over 80.0 percent in penalty killing for
the season (they are now at 79.4 percent).
It was an extremely efficient week for the Caps. Twice they held an opponent without a power
play shot – Toronto (in 4:00 of two power plays) and Detroit (in 4:00 of two
power plays). They held Florida without
a goal on seven shots in 9:13 of power play time, and even in the one game in
which they allowed a power play goal, the Caps did not do so at 4-on-5
(Philadelphia scored the overtime winner at 4-on-3). For the week, the Caps allowed just one goal
on 17 shots in 23:30 of shorthanded ice time.
That is the kind of efficiency one would hope for on a week-to-week
basis.
Even Strength Goals for/Goals Against: 11-8 / plus-3
(season, 5-on-5 goals for/goals against ratio: 1.11 / rank: 8th)
Shoring up the 5-on-5 play has been a season-long project
for the Caps and their coaching staff.
Last season it was among the weakest parts of their game (0.90 goals-for
to goals-against ratio/23rd in the league). This season it is among their strongest. This week the Caps went plus-3 and won the
even strength battle in each of their wins (they were minus-1 against the
Flyers).
The improvement has been at both ends of the ice. Goals for at 5-on-5 have increased from
1.69/game last season to 1.95 so far this season, while goals against have
dropped from 1.89/game in 2013-2014 to 1.75/game through 41 games so far this
season.
Faceoffs: 120-for-251 / 47.8 percent (season: 50.3 percent /
rank: 13th)
The week started well for the Caps in the faceoff circle,
but the air went out of that balloon quickly.
After winning 43 of 72 draws against Florida to open the week,
Washington went 77-for-179 over the last three games of the week (43.0 percent)
to finish the week under 50 percent.
The Caps won the offensive zone for the week (53.8 percent)
but were under 50 percent in the other two zones. On an individual basis, Troy Brouwer had a
good week (69.6 percent on 23 draws), as did Jay Beagle (53.1 percent on 32
faceoffs). The other three Caps taking
more than 20 draws for the week – Nicklas Backstrom (48.7 percent of 76 draws),
Eric Fehr (37.7 percent on 61 faceoffs), and Evgeny Kuznetsov (46.4 percent on
28 faceoffs) – had less than stellar weeks.
Backstrom and Fehr had especially strange weeks. The former was 29-for-54 in the defensive and
neutral zones (53.7 percent), but won just eight of 22 draws in the offensive
end (36.4 percent). Fehr also was out of
profile for the week in the offensive end, but in a different way. He won 11 of 17 draws in the offensive zone
(64.7 percent), but won just 12 of 44 faceoffs in the neutral and defensive
zones (27.3 percent).
Goals by Period:
The Caps won every regulation period for the week, 3-1 in the first
period of games, 8-5 in the second period, and 4-2 in the third period. The three first period goals all represented
the first goal of those respective games, and the Caps took a lead against
Florida in the second period to make it a 4-for-4 week scoring the first
goal. That kind of early production left
the Caps in second place at the end of the week in winning percentage when
scoring first in games (21-1-3/.840, second to Montreal’s .889). The Capitals finished Week 14 with Nashville
as the only teams in the league with a greater than plus-5 goal differential in
each of the three regulation periods for the season.
In the end…
The hits just keep coming for the Caps. And, the contributions are coming from a
variety of places. Braden Holtby
continues to be the rock in goal, but at the other end of the ice the Caps have
had game-winning goals from seven different players in their last seven
wins. This week it was Andre Burakovsky,
Brooks Laich, and John Carlson doing the honors. They are doing it with offense – 3.43 goals
per game over their last seven games.
They are doing it with defense – not allowing more than three goals in
regulation over those same seven games and holding opponents to two or fewer
goals regulation in five of those games.
One would have to look rather closely (and we are sure the
coaches are doing just that) to find many flaws in the Caps’ game at the
moment. Unfortunately for the team,
though, their 12-1-4 record since December 4th has been more than
matched by the New York Rangers’ 13-2-0 over that same span of days. It means that despite winning almost 83
percent of the available standings points over the last six weeks, the Caps
have made up no ground on the Blueshirts in their battle for third place in the
Metropolitan Division. What the teams have done,
though, is bootstrap one another so that both are bearing down on Pittsburgh
and the Islanders at the top of the division.
At the moment, it is now a four team race in the middle of which the
Caps squarely find themselves.
Three Stars:
- First Star: Eric Fehr (2-3-5, plus-5, shorthanded goal)
- Second Star: Braden Holtby (2.25 / .928, set team record for consecutive appearances, tied for seventh in wins, ninth in save percentage)
- Third Star: Alex Ovechkin (3-1-4, goals in three games, finished the week tied for fifth in goals)
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