The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!
The Washington Capitals take their four-game winning streak
into “The State of Hockey” on Thursday night when they face the Minnesota Wild
in the middle game of the Caps’ three-game Central Division road trip.
The Capitals come into this game seeking to post their fifth
winning streak of the season of five or more games. Meanwhile, the Wild are in a wild slump. In the 2016 portion of the season they are
3-10-4 and have yet to win consecutive games.
They are on a six-game losing streak (0-4-2) in which they have been
outscored, 22-13. They have been
outscored at 5-on-5, 13-8, and while their power play has been very good over
those six games (5-for-22/22.7 percent), they have given it all back, and more,
with poor penalty killing over those same six games (13-for-19/68.4 percent).
Minnesota scoring has been like one of the state’s fabled
10,000 lakes – a mile wide and a foot deep.
The Wild have points from 18 different skaters on their six-game losing
streak, but only four players have four or more points. Ten different players have goals, but only
two have more than one tally.
Charlie Coyle is one of those players with more than one
goal in the six-game losing streak, leading the way with three scores. The three goals raise Coyle’s total to 14
goals this season, a career-best for the fourth-year center, surpassing the 12
he had in 2013-2014. The three goals
were part of a four-game goal scoring streak Coyle had before he was silenced
by the New York Rangers a week ago. That
four-game goal streak included four goals scored on 13 shots, but the last
three opponents – the Rangers, St. Louis Blues, and Dallas Stars – found a way
to keep him from getting his shots, holding him to a combined three shots on
goal over his last three games. Coyle is
1-1-2, minus-3, in four career games against the Capitals.
Matt Dumba is the only other Wild skater with more than one
goal in Minnesota’s six-game losing streak.
Those two goals allowed him to inch within a goal (seven for this
season) of his career-best set last year.
His 16 points on the season ties his best total over his three-season
career. The defenseman comes into this
game on a four-game points streak, his five points (2-3-5) leading all Wild
skaters over the last half-dozen contests.
In two career games against Washington, the former seventh-round draft
pick did not record a point and is a plus-1.
Nino Niederreiter was taken with the fifth overall pick by
the New York Islanders in 2010. He had a
bit of a slow start to career, given his lofty draft status, with 16 goals in
145 games over his first three seasons.
However, he gave indications last year, his second in Minnesota, that he
could reach a level of production more in alignment with his draft position. In 80 games he finished with 24 goals and 37
points, eight of those goals coming on power plays. This season he has taken a step backwards
with nine goals in 53 games, 1 14-goal pace that would equal his production in
his first year in Minnesota in 2013-2014.
He does have four points in his last six games, although he is without
one in his last three contests.
Niederreiter is 2-1-3, plus-3, in six career games against the Caps.
Here is how the teams compare overall:
1. Minnesota
struggles mightily in extra time. They
are 1-10 in games decided after regulation, 1-8 in the 3-on-3 overtime.
2. More on extra
time… The Wild are 0-2 in the Gimmick and have yet to record a goal, going
0-for-9 in the trick shot competition, the only team in the league without a
goal in the après-hockey portion of the contest.
3. The Wild are last
in the league in power play chances on home ice (72), which largely negates
their fourth-best home power play (23.6 percent).
4. On the other hand,
the Wild have had by far the fewest number of shorthanded situations faced at
home this season. With just 49 shorthanded
situations, the Wild have had 12 fewer than the Buffalo Sabres (61).
5. Over their
six-game losing streak, the Wild have a Corsi-for at 5-on-5 overall of just
45.7 percent. It is not a lot different
from their Corsi-for in the 2016 portion of the season (46.4 percent over 17
games; numbers from war-on-ice.com)
1. The six power play
chances the Caps allowed the Nashville Predators was the most they faced since
they faced six against the Florida Panthers on December 10th in a 4-1
loss. The other time the Caps faced six
power plays this season was against the Edmonton Oilers in a 7-4 win on October
23rd.
2. The Caps are still
looking to break a long streak of emptiness on the power play with a goalie in
net. The Caps scored a power play goal
into an empty net in the last minute of their 5-3 win over Nashville on
Tuesday, but they have yet to score a power play goal against a goaltender
since January 19th, when they went 2-for-2 against the Columbus Blue Jackets in
a 6-3 win.
3. If things should
come down to that trick shot thing, the Caps have the third-best shooting
percentage in the league (50 percent on 6-for-12 shooting).
4. The Caps have the
best record in one-goal games in the league (.727/16-2-4), the second-best
record in two-goal decisions (.800/8-2), and the second-best record in games
decided by three or more goals (.750/15-5).
5. The Caps continue
to right themselves when it comes to possession numbers. Overall, they have not been under 50 percent
in consecutive games in Corsi-for at 5-on-5 since Christmas. They are a combined 52.0 percent in 19 games
since then (war-on-ice.com).
The Peerless’ Players to Ponder
Minnesota: Devan Dubnyk
The strain of poor play by the Wild in general is showing in
the production of goaltender Devan Dubnyk.
After going 16-10-2, 2.32, .920, with four shutouts in the 2015 portion
of the season, he is 2-8-3, 2.50, .913 in the 2016 portion of the season. He has not won a game since January 9th,
going 0-7-1, 2.73, .898 in his last eight appearances, and he allowed 12 goals
on 83 shots (.855 save percentage) in his last three contests. In his own way – and the Wild’s – he is
similar to New Jersey’s Cory Schneider.
There seems to be a threshold he must adhere to for the Wild to
win. In his case it is two goals
allowed. Dubnyk is 13-5-2 when allowing
two or fewer goals, 5-13-3 when allowing three or more. He is 2-2-0, 3.27, .887 in four career
appearances against the Capitals.
Washington: Evgeny Kuznetsov
Evgeny Kuznetsov recorded his 100th NHL career point in
Tuesday’s win over the Nashville Predators.
In his third year, Kuznetsov is third on the club in points per game
over those three years with 0.67 points per game, trailing only Nicklas
Backstrom (0.97) and Alex Ovechkin (0.98) among Caps appearing in at least 100
games over that span. He is one of six
players in the league to average more than a point per game so far this season,
the other five being on short lists for a variety of post-season awards:
Patrick Kane, Jamie Benn, Erik Karlsson, Tyler Seguin, and Sidney Crosby
(minimum: 25 games). He comes into this
game 4-17-21, plus-7, in 15 games in the 2016 portion of the season, although
he does not have a goal in his last nine contests. Kuznetsov is 1-1-2, plus-1, in two career
games against the Wild.
In the end…
The Wild are a team the Caps need to jump on hard and fast
from the start to stifle their fans and eat away at their confidence. A team on las prolonged a slump as the Wild
needs no help from the Caps in giving them a boost to suggest the end of the
misery is at hand. The Wild have not
played quite as bad as their record would indicate, eight of their 14 losses in
2016 coming by one goal, four of those in extra time. Minnesota has not won a home game in 2016 to
date (0-3-3, all six losses coming by one goal); the Caps are 6-1-1 in the road
portion of 2016, three of the wins coming by multi-goal margins. That’s a bad formula for the home team, a
good one for the Caps to extend their winning streak.
Capitals 4 – Wild 2