Record: 2-1-1
The week opened with a 2-1 loss in Calgary against the
Flames to end what amounted to a “The Good, the Bad, and the ‘Meh’” western
Canada trip in which the Caps went 1-2-0.
It left the Caps under .500 for the month of October, the first time
that they were under .500 for an October since 2013-2014, when they went
5-7-0. Coincidentally, that is the last
time the Caps missed the postseason.
They recovered to win the first two games of November, a 4-3 win at home
against the New York Islanders and a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins in
Beantown. Keep this month in mind, for
it is one in which the Caps can set the table for a good year. In the last two seasons, both of which ended
in Presidents Trophy seasons, they were 9-3-1 (in 2015-2016) and 8-4-1 (in
2016-2017). Then again, they were 9-4-2
in November in that 2013-2014 season when they missed the playoffs.
Offense: 2.67 /game (season: 3.00 /game, 17th)
It was something of a disappointing week in the offensive
end. Of the three teams the Caps faced
this week, only the Calgary Flames, to whom they lost, 2-1, to start the week,
could be considered a good defensive team (seventh in scoring defense at week’s
end). The Boston Bruins and New York
Islanders are bottom half teams in the scoring defense rankings, but the Caps
did score seven goals combined against those teams, so it wasn’t a lost week in
the offensive end. It might say
something about the league that the Caps, at 3.00 goals per game at the end of
the week, rank 16th in scoring offense. Last season, only seven teams finished the
season with three or more goals scored per game.
On an individual basis, the Caps spread their eight goals among
six players. Lars Eller and Tom Wilson
each had two-goal games, Eller’s coming in the Caps’ 4-3 win over the New York
Islanders in the middle game of the week; Wilson’s coming in the Caps’ 3-2 win
over the Boston Bruins to end it.
Fourteen different players contributed points, Eller leading the way
(2-2-4). Chandler Stephenson had a
three-assist week to win the helper of the week award.
Defense: 2.33 /game (season: 3.29 /game, 24th)
Too many shots. The
Caps are allowing too many shots. In
Week 4 they allowed three opponents 109 shots in all and brought their streak
of allowing 35 or more shots per game to four by week’s end. They have allowed 30 or more shots in 12
games. No team has allowed that many more
often. Only Florida (nine times) has
allowed more instances of 35 or more shots in a game than the Caps (eight). Ten times in 14 games through Week 5, the
Caps were out-shot by opponents (including now the last five). They have a 5-4-1 record in those games. But this is not, perhaps, a team that can
cope with those kinds of situations the way they did last season when, with a
much more potent and efficient offense, they were 19-7-3 in games in which they
were out-shot.
Goaltending: 2.36 / .936 (season: 3.14 / .907)
Now Week 5 was more like it.
Braden Holtby has had a decent start to the season, but not quite, it
seems, the elite level he had the last few seasons. In his backup role, Philipp Grubauer
struggled to open the season. Grubauer
put together a fine, if unlucky, performance in the first game of the week,
stopping 36 of 38 shots, but taking the loss in a 2-1 decision against
Calgary. It was his first time in five
appearances posting a save percentage of better than .900.
Holtby got the last two games of the week and posted wins in
both. His .929 save percentage for the
week was offset somewhat by having to face 71 shots, but he was good when he
had to be, especially in the third period against the Bruins, when he faced for
Boston power plays and allowed one goal.
He had a superb .966 save percentage at even strength (he is fourth in
the league in ES SV among goalies with at least five appearances (.945)), part
of a week in which he and Grubauer combined for a .957 save percentage at
evens.
Power Play: 0-for-8 / 0.0% percent (season: 18.6 percent / 16th)
Consecutive weeks without a power play goal. Now there is something you do not – or did
not – see often from the Washington Capitals in recent years. Washington has now gone six games without a
power play goal, going 0-for-15 over that span.
It is their longest such streak since they went six games without a
power play goal in Games 31-36 last season when they went 0-for-17.
It was a poor effort all around. In
addition to going 0-for-8, the Caps managed only 12 power play shots on
goal in 15:47 in power play ice time.
They did spread the shots around, eight different Caps recording at
least one shot on goal, but none had any particularly high frequency. Alex Ovechkin led the team with three.
They are doing themselves any favors in terms of
opportunities, either. They finished the
week with only three teams having fewer power play chances on home ice than
they had (19) and ranking in the middle of the pack in road power play chances
(tied for 13th) despite there being only one team having played more
road games so far this season than the nine played by the Caps (Pittsburgh ias
11).
Penalty Killing: 7-for-10 / 70.0 percent (season: 74.6
percent / 27th)
In a season in which several holes have been identified,
penalty killing might be the Caps’ biggest weakness to date. After a perfect Week 1 in which they killed
off all nine shorthanded situations they faced, the Caps have not had a week as
good as 80 percent since. Week 5 was the
fourth consecutive week in which they allowed three or more power play
goals. They have allowed at least one
power play goal in nine of their last 12 games.
That they are 4-4-1 in those games is fortunate, and it suggests that if
they can get their penalty killing in order, they can start to win games with
more frequency.
In Week 5 it was not so much a case of being especially
inefficient, either. The Caps allowed
opponents 15 shots on goal in 15:21 of shorthanded ice time. That shorthanded ice time is an issue,
though. By the end of Week 5, the Caps
spent more time killing penalties (96:27 in 14 games) than all but four other
teams, and their minus-26:27 in special teams ice time differential was third-worst
in the league and worst in the Eastern Conference.
Faceoffs: 94-for-172 / 54.7 percent (season: 50.5 percent / 19th)
The Caps had a pretty good week in the faceoff circle, if a
bit odd and uneven. They won the first
and second games of the week against Calgary and the Islanders, respectively,
before finishing under 50 percent against Boston on their way to a 54.7 percent
week. The unevenness expressed itself in
the Caps’ performance by zone. Good
performances in the defensive (57.4 percent) and neutral (56.7 percent) zones
was offset by a 47.7 percent performance in the offensive zone. Still, the Caps are 4-3-1 in games this
season in which they were 50 percent or better on draws, 3-3-0 in games in
which they were under 50 percent.
On an individual level, four of the five Caps taking ten or
more faceoffs finished over 50 percent.
Lars Eller (55.9 percent), T.J. Oshie (54.5 percent), Jay Beagle (60.5
percent), and Evgeny Kuznetsov (555.3 percent) were in that group. Only Nicklas Backstrom (47.5 percent) was
under 50 percent for the week. The odd
thing about Backstrom’s week in the circle is that he took only seven of his 40
craws in the offensive zone and took none there in the 3-2 win over Boston to
end the week.
Goals by Period:
Washington still has late-game issues in terms of allowing
goals. They dominated the first periods
of games in Week 5, outscoring their three opponents by a combined 4-1
margin. They were outscored by a 3-2
margin in each of the second and third periods of games, though. It could have taken a bigger chunk than it
did, too. Calgary broke a 1-1 tie in the
third period of the first game of the week to score what would be the
game-winning goal. The Islanders scored
a third-period goal to tie their game with the Caps before the Caps scored late
to squeeze out a win. And, with a
two-goal lead in the third period against Boston, the Caps allowed the Bruins a
power play goal in the third period that made that game more interesting than
it might have – or should have – been against an injury-depleted Boston
lineup. The Caps finished the week in
the bottom ten in goals allowed in the second period (16, tied for seventh-most) and in goals
allowed in the third period (17, tied for eighth-worst).
In the end…
The Caps had a difficult schedule to open the season. Three back-to-back sets of games, the western
Canada trip, nine of 14 games played on the road, not playing consecutive games
on home ice. To that add the injuries to
Matt Niskanen (limited to five games), Andre Burakovsky (nine games), and Brett
Connolly (ten games), and a 7-6-1 record does not look so bad. Not that there aren’t issues. The offense is inconsistent, and the defense
allows far too many shots. The special
teams, with a special teams index of 3.2 percent, are having persistent
difficulties. The silver lining is that
if the Caps can get healthy, if they can repair their special teams, and if
they can tighten things up in their own zone, they would be on much better
footing. Then again, if they did all
those things, they would be last year’s 118-point team. Chances are, they are not that team. Still, there is room – and the potential –
for improvement. Week 5 was a step in
that direction.
Three Stars:
- First Star: Lars Eller (2-2-4, plus-4; 1 GWG, 8 shots on goal, 13 shots attempts, 19-for-34 on faceoffs (55.9 percent))
- Second Star: Tom Wilson (2-1-3, plus-4, 1 GWG, 6 shots on goal, 9 shot attempts, 9 hits)
- Third Star: John Carlson (0-2-2, even; 5 shots on goal, 28:08 average ice time)