The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!
The Washington Capitals take to the road again, dropping in
for their first visit to Little Caesars Arena in Detroit to face the Red
Wings on Friday night. Both teams are
coming off losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Caps dropping a 2-0 decision
at Capital One Arena on Tuesday night, while the Red Wings lost to the Leafs by
a 6-3 margin at Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Wednesday night.
Washington will be looking to improve on their 2-1-1 road
record on Friday. It is precisely the
same road record they took into their fifth road contest last season. The Red Wings have split their two games to
date in their new digs, an Opening Night win against the Minnesota Wild and a
3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning last Monday. Overall, the Wings have been reasonably tight
on defense, allowing three or fewer goals in their first six games. Then they gave up that six-pack to the Maple
Leafs on Wednesday.
Henrik Zetterberg has set the bar high for performance in
the early going for the Wings. He leads
the team in goals (four) and is tied for second on the club in points (eight)
through seven games. His scoring
includes a four-point game (1-3-4) in a 6-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights,
one in which he assisted on the game-tying and game-winning goals. It is one of 18 games this season in which a
player scored four or more points. It
was his 15th career game with four of more points, third on the Red
Wings’ all-time list (Steve Yzerman had 50 such games, and Sergei Fedorov had
19), but only the fourth time in his career he accomplished the feat on the
road. In 20 career games against
Washington, Zetterberg is 7-8-15, minus-3.
Dylan Larkin also has eight points for the Wings to start
the season. The start is a welcome
development for Wings fans, given what looked like a classic case of a
sophomore slump last season. After a
rookie year in which he was 23-22-45, plus-11, in 80 games and finished fifth
in the Calder Trophy voting for the league’s top rookie, he was 17-15-32,
minus-28 (tied for the sixth-worst plus-minus in the league). The odd part of his scoring line is that it
is light in goals (one, a power play goal in the season opener), but he seems
to be shooting in a bit of bad luck, too, scoring that goal on 16 shots (6.3
percent). He has just three goals in his
last 19 regular season games dating back to last season. Larkin is 1-1-2, plus-1, in six career games
against Washington.
Jimmy Howard got the start in goal against the Maple Leafs
on Wednesday, but he didn’t finish.
Howard allowed three goals on four shots in 15:46 before he was relieved
in favor of Petr Mrazek. It was the
second straight iffy performance for Howard.
After starting the season with a 3-0-0, 1.62, .955 record, he gave up
three goals on 26 shots in a 3-2 loss to Tampa Bay before his early exit
against Toronto, leaving him with a 0-1-0 (one no-decision), 4.86, .800 record
in his last two appearances. Howard did
reach an important personal milestone this season. When he got the win on Opening Night against
the Minnesota Wild, he became the third goaltender in Red Wings history to
reach the 200-win mark. Terry Sawchuk
(351) and Chris Osgood (317) are the others.
In nine career appearances against the Caps, Howard is 3-2-3, 2.90,
.899.
1. The Riley Sheahan
watch resumes. Sheahan, who famously
played in 79 games last season without recording a goal before getting two
goals, including the last goal to be scored at Joe Louis Arena, in a 4-2 win
over the New Jersey Devils to end the Wings’ season, has yet to record a goal
in seven games yet this season.
2. The Red Wings have
issues hitting the net with shots. Their
87 missed shots this season is topped by only four teams.
3. Here is an odd
fact. Detroit is one of five teams to
have taken more than 450 faceoffs this season (through Wednesday’s games). Four of those teams, including Detroit, are
under 50 percent in wins. Practice, in this instance, does not make perfect.
4. Detroit has taken
a lead into the first intermission just once this season (they won). It is not a league low. Four teams – Boston, Montreal, Anaheim, and
Florida – have failed to take a lead after 20 minutes so far.
5. Slow starts have
plagued the Red Wings so far. They have
two first period goals in seven games, while allowing eight. Only Florida has fewer goals scored in the
first period (one), and only five teams have allowed more.
1. We noted that
there have been 18 four-or-more point games by NHL players this season. No team has more such performances than the Caps,
who have three –Alex Ovechkin (4-0-4) against Montreal on October 7th,
Evgeny Kuznetsov (0-4-4) on the same date, and Nicklas Backstrom (1-3-4)
against New Jersey on October 13th.
2. Whatever the Caps
are doing in the first periods of games, they need to bottle it and drink it
for the second and third periods. They
have outscored teams by a 9-4 margin in the first periods of games, but they
have a minus-2 goal differential in the second period and a minus-4
differential in the third.
3. Only two teams –
New Jersey and Toronto – have more wins by three or more goals (three apiece)
than the Caps (two). That’s your “it’s
early” fact.
4. The Caps are one
of six teams to have outshot only one team, fewest occurrences in the
league. That was in the 5-2 win over
New Jersey, when the Caps out-shot the Devils, 28-23, which also happens to be
the only instance so far in which the Caps held an opponent under 30 shots on
goal.
5. Alex Ovechkin has
now been outscored by every team. He has
nine goals; the Montreal Canadiens are 31st and last in the league
with ten.
The Peerless’ Players to Ponder
Detroit: Mike Green
Caps fans will remember him as a “Young Gun,” along with
Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, and Nicklas Backstrom. Now, only Niklas Kronwall among Detroit Red
Wings defensemen has appeared in more NHL games
(799) than Green (728). He is
fifth among active defensemen in goals scored (135), eighth in points (440). This season, Green leads the team in points overall
(1-8-9) and power play points (0-4-4), while averaging a team-high 22:48 in
iced time per game. Green got off to a
hot start with eight assists in his first four games, including one of those 18
four-point games across the league this season, that coming when he had four
assists on Opening Night against Minnesota.
Even with the hots start, though, Green appears not to be the offensive
difference maker from the blue line with the Wings that he was with the
Caps. Since arriving in Detroit in
2015-2016, Green ranks 18th in goals (22) and 27th in points
(80). Good numbers, but no longer the
elite level he displayed in his best years in Washington. Green has not yet recorded a point against
his old team in five games and is a minus-4.
Washington: Tom
Wilson
It has been a whirlwind start to the season for Tom Wilson,
although perhaps not in the best way. Wilson
has already been suspended twice, the latter resulting in his missing the first
four games of the season, and in the three games in which he appeared so far,
he has four shots on goal, 15 penalty minutes, 35:18 total minutes of ice time. He is also without a point. He will apparently get to remedy that with an
opportunity on a scoring line, moved to the left side of the Nicklas Backstrom line with T.J.Oshie on the right, Andre Burakovsky taking Wilson’s old spot on
the third line. It is a chance for him
to break a one goal in 24 regular season games dating back to last season.
This is an opportunity for Wilson in another respect. The Red Wings are one of three teams in the
NHL (not counting the Vegas Golden Knights, a team that he has not yet faced)
against which he has not recorded a point.
He is 0-0-0, minus-1 in 12 career games against Detroit. Oddly enough, Wilson has only six penalty
minutes in those 12 games against the Wings, the fewest he has against any
opponent except San Jose (four in six games) and Vancouver (four in seven
games).
In the end…
These are two teams that are not what they were. Detroit is far removed from the Stanley Cup
contending clubs, last appearing in a Cup final in 2009 and last winning a
playoff series in 2013. They have
dropped standings points in each of the last three seasons, from 100 to 93 to
79 last season, missing the postseason for the first time since 1990. The Caps are coming off consecutive
Presidents Trophy-winning seasons, but are thought of this season as more of a
middle-of-the bracket contender than on a short list of serious Cup contenders. Both teams are bringing two-game losing
streaks into this contest at the moment (through Wednesday’s games), the
longest in the Eastern Conference. It
might be early in the season, but the Red Wings are a club against which the
Caps might be fighting for a playoff spot.
It makes the two points available here an important commodity.
Capitals 3 – Red Wings 2
