The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!
We have an abbreviated holiday version of the prognosto as
the Washington Capitals return home on Monday for a 5:00 Columbus Day faceoff
against the Colorado Avalanche at Capital One Arena.Here are some morsels to
impress your friends and confound your adversaries:
1. The Caps have a
44-31-1 record (with nine ties) in 85 games played against the Quebec
Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche all-time.
2. The only overtime
loss that the Caps suffered in this series came on October 17, 2000, when Peter
Forsberg scored 2:37 into the extra session in Washington for a 4-3 Avs win.
3. Since the
Nordiques moved from Quebec to Colorado and became the Avalanche for the
1994-1995 season, Peter Bondra is the all-time leader in goals scored against
Colorado (10). If Alex Ovechkin gets a
hat trick, he will tie Bondra for the top spot.
4. Bondra, Ovechkin,
and Evgeny Kuznetsov are the all-time points leaders against the Colorado
incarnation of the franchise with 14 points apiece.
5. Tom Wilson does
not play well with others wearing a big swirly “A” on their jersey. He is the all-time leader in penalty minutes
against Colorado with 38 penalty minutes in just 12 games played.
6. Olaf Kolzig and
Braden Holtby are tied for the all-time lead in wins against Colorado with five
apiece. Kolzig lost to the Avs six times in regulation and once in extra time
(all this despite a career .932 save percentage against the Avalanche). Holtby has only one career loss in regulation
to Colorado.
7. Although the
special teams chances, power play and penalty kill, are almost identical
all-time against the Avs (121 and 120, respectively), the Caps have been very
good against Colorado on both sides of special teams – 23.1 percent on the
power play and 85.0 percent on the penalty kill.
8. The Caps have a
rather high percentage of empty net goals scored to games played against
Colorado. In 33 games played against the
Avalanche, Washington has seven empty net goals in the series.
9. In the 15 games
played between the teams since 2009-2010, for which the NHL has shot attempt
data, the Caps are plus-100 in shot attempt differential at 5-on-5 and have a
shot attempts-for percante at fives of 53.74.
This despite being 50 percent or better only seven times in the 15 games.
10. The Caps take a
five-game winning streak on home ice against Colorado into this game.
The Peerless’ Players to Ponder
Colorado: Andre Burakovsky
Now in his sixth NHL season, Andre Burakovsky is in his
first year as a member of the Colorado Avalanche after five seasons skating for
the Caps. With a 2-2-4 scoring line
through four games he has more goals and points at this point than any season
since his rookie season in 2014-2015, when he was 2-3-5 through his first four
games. The two goals he has in four
games is an improvement over the past two seasons in which he failed to record
a single goal in his first four games.
He has points in three of four games and is coming off a goal/assist
game for his first multi-point game since February 9th, when he has
a pair of assists in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers while with the
Caps. His goal against Arizona in the
3-2 win was the overtime game-winner.
Both of his goals to date have been game-winners. This will be Burakovsky’s first game against
his former team.
Washington: Richard Panik
It has not been an easy introduction to the Caps for winger Richard
Panik. Signed in the off-season to a
four-year/$11 million contract, Panik is looking for his first point as a
Capital. He is not a big scorer, but he
is averaging 14.8 goals per 82 games over his career. To date, he has only four shots on goal in six
games, and in no game yet has he recorded more than one. He started the season with a healthy dose of
ice time, getting more than 14 minutes in each of his first three games. That has been pared back, though, getting less
than 13 minutes in each of his last three contests and averaging 12:00 per
game. He looked to be coming out of his
slump against Dallas on Saturday but seemed to be suffering more from bad luck
than lackluster effort. In 13 career
games against Colorado, Panik is 5-3-8, plus-6.
In the end…
This game begins a stretch for the Caps that poses different
challenges from those they faced to open the season. St. Louis, Dallas, Nashville, all of them
very structured, very accomplished defensive teams (at least in last year’s
scoring defense rankings). Colorado
today and Toronto on Wednesday are more up-tempo clubs that apply maximum
pressure in the offensive zone, using speed and depth of skill to overwhelm
opponents when things are going right.
The Caps played a fine all-around game against Dallas on Saturday after
a disappointing effort against Nashville preceding it. Washington will need to be even better,
especially in the defensive end, to overcome the frisky Avalanche.
Capitals 5 – Avalanche 3
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