Record: 2-1-1
The Caps went into their last game of Week 7 in jeopardy of
sustaining their first losing week of the season, but they came back in the
third period to tie the Boston Bruins and won in the Gimmick. It was the third time in the four-game week
that the Caps had to resort to trick shots to settle a game, winning two and
losing one. It enabled the team to post
its fifth straight winning week and seventh time in seven tries at being even
or better for a week’s worth of games.
The two freestyle competitions on the road extended an odd
run for the Caps, a fact not lost on the public relations office, which posted
on social media… “The Capitals have now played in overtime in six consecutive
road games. That's the fourth time since 2002-03 a team has played in six
straight road overtime and the first since the Ottawa Senators in 2011-12…The
Capitals have won five straight road overtime games for the first time in
franchise history.”
The road record at week’s end was 10-1-1, by far the best in
the league (St. Louis was 7-2-2 on the road at week’s end). That the Caps got to ten wins in 12 road
contests is amazing, considering that last season the Caps did not earn their
tenth road win until their 16th game away from Capital One Arena,
and the previous season – the Stanley Cup winning season – not until their 21st
road game.
It is also worth noting that when the Caps beat the
Philadelphia Flyers in the second game of the week, a 2-1 Gimmick win, it gave
the Caps the best 20-game start in team history in standings points earned
(32), surpassing that of the 1991-1992 club (30 points). That 1991-1992 club still has the team record
for wins in the first 20 games of the season (15).
Offense: 2.00/game (season: 3.68/3rd)
It was a weak week, so to speak, on the offensive side of the
puck for the Caps. Five players
accounted for the eight goals scored in four games, Evgeny Kuznetsov posting
three of them. T.J. Oshie was the other
Cap with a multi-goal week. After that
it was a fourth liner (Brendan Leipsic), a call up (Travis Boyd), and Alex
Ovechkin. It was a frustrating week for
other Capitals. Four Caps had ten or
more shots for the week without lighting the lamp: Lars Eller (16 shots), John
Carlson (15), Tom Wilson (13), and Jakub Vrana (10). That accounts for 54 of the team’s 142 shots
on goal for the week (38.0 percent) without a goal. And it is not as if these are bottom-sixers
whose contributions are expected to be occasional. On the other hand, it reflects the random,
whimsical character of the sport in which a slump can work its way through the
lineup, even if for only a week, and even if after a run in which it seemed the
Caps couldn’t score fewer than five goals a game.
The points distribution was a bit more balanced and
reflected contributions from players who did not light the lamp
themselves. John Carlson tied for the
team lead with four points, all of them assists. Nicklas Backstrom had two points, both assists,
as did Wilson. Vrana contributed an
assist and a truly sick trick shot to clinch the win over Boston to end the
week. Carlson’s week was worth special
notice in that he recorded a single assist in each of the four games to extend
his points streak to six games (1-8-9) after he suffered his only two-game streak
without a point. He ended the week with
32 points in 22 games, a whopping ten-point lead over the second-ranked
defensemen in points, Dougie Hamilton and Cale Makar with 22 apiece.
Defense: 2.75/game (season: 3.00/T-16th)
The scoring defense continues to improve, if a bit
slowly. The team faltered some in the 5-2
loss to Montreal in the third game of the week, but Montreal finished the week tied
for the sixth-best scoring offense in the league. It is not a pushover. And, the Caps also held the team with which
the Canadiens are tied, the Boston Bruins, to a pair of goals on home ice. At the other end, the Caps did as one might
expect in holding the 19th-ranked scoring offense of the Flyers to a
single goal, but giving up three to the 21st-ranked Arizona Coyotes,
all in the first 21 minutes of play in a 4-3 Gimmick loss, qualified as a bit
of a surprise.
The record tracked cleanly with the shots allowed trend for
the week – a regulation loss when the Caps allowed Montreal 40 shots, a trick
shot loss when they allowed Arizona 35 shots, and wins when the Caps allowed
Philadelphia and Boston 31 and 23 shots, respectively. It was the same pattern in shots attempts
allowed at 5-on-5, but the noteworthy number here was “68.” The 68 shot attempts that the Caps allowed
the Canadiens at fives was the most allowed in a single game to date this
season. It resulted in a minus-20 shot
differential in that contest, the only “minus” that the Caps suffered for the
week among the four games.
Goaltending: 2.38 / .922 (season: 2.86 / .907)
Goaltending is another of those fickle aspects of
hockey. Sometimes the goaltenders do
well, and the club has a successful week.
Then, the goaltenders’ numbers improve, but the team doesn’t do quite as
well. Such was the case for the Caps in
Week 8. The overall goals against
average improved (from 2.67 to 2.38, week over week), as did the save
percentage (.922 to .916), but the Caps sustained losses in two of the four
games following a perfect three-for-three Week 7.
It was not as simple as that, though. The glass-half-full story is that Braden
Holtby continued an excellent run of late.
He stopped 51 of 54 shots faced in almost 130 minutes of play (.944 save
percentage) to bring his record to 9-0-1, 2.44, .924 in ten appearances since
he gave up three goals on three shots in a 6-3 loss to Colorado last month. Holtby’s week was characterized by consistency. He stopped 13 of 14 first period shots (.929),
17 of 18 second period shots (.944), and stopped 21 of 22 shots he faced in the
third periods and overtimes of games (.956).
It was a different story for the rookie. Ilya Samsonov started the first and third games
of the week, and his problem was allowing goals in bunches. There were the three goals he allowed on 15
shots in less than 21 minutes to open the game against Arizona to start the
week. He finished strong, stopping the
last 20 shots he faced, but it was too big a hole from which to dig for the
Caps, who lost in the Gimmick, 4-3. That
ended Samsonov’s team record of wins in his first five career starts. Then there were the four goals he allowed on
eight shots in a span of 8:20 in the second period to turn a scoreless tie into
a 0-4 deficit. The Caps found that
deficit too large to even salvage a standings point in a 5-2 loss. By period, Samsonov was very good in the
first (.964 save percentage) and third (1.000) periods. That second period, though; 22 saves on 28
shots (.786). Take that away, and he had
a very good week. Then again, we understand
“Our American Cousin” was a fine play.
Power Play: 1-for-9/11.1 percent (season: 23.3 percent/9th)
It was the kind of week in which the Caps could barely find
enough juice to keep an appliance bulb lit on the power play. First, there were the chances. They had only nine in four games, never more
than three. Then there was the lone
goal, a cosmetic score in the third period of a game that was already 4-0 in
favor of the other team. Then there were
the shots. The Caps managed only 12
power play shots on goal in 17:21 of man advantage ice time. It was not that the Caps were not getting the
shots from the right people (Alex Ovechkin had four, including the lone goal;
while T.J. Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom had three apiece), they just did not get
enough of them. That the Caps would get
their power play goal against Montreal was small satisfaction, given that the
Canadiens penalty kill is awful, finishing the week 30th among 31
teams (71.9 percent). It was the worst
week of the season for the power play in terms of total goals (one) and
efficiency (11.1 percent).
Penalty Killing: 9-for-10/90.0 percent (season: 85.7 percent/6th)
The penalty kill had a much better time of it on special
teams. There were the chances allowed,
the ten in four games the fewest on a chances-per-game basis over any week so
far this season since Week 1. It was the
second time in three weeks that they allowed only one goal. And the shots were suppressed effectively,
the Caps permitting only 10 shots on goal in 18:23 in shorthanded ice
time. And, the Caps did it against
largely efficient power plays. Boston
(third), Philadelphia (13th), and Montreal (15th) all
ranked in the top half of the power play rankings at week’s end.
Faceoffs: 116-for-232 / 50.1 percent (season: 50.1 percent/13th)
If there was a bizarre category of numbers in Week 7, it was
in this one. In the first three games of
the week the Caps did not clear the 50 percent threshold, and were consistently
poor by zone, going 28-for-58 in the offensive zone (48.3 percent), 24-for-60
in the defensive zone (40.0 percent), and 29-for-61 in the neutral zone (47.5
percent) over the three games.
Then the Caps visited Boston. The Bruins are not an especially efficient
team on faceoffs this season (20th at week’s end at 49.2 percent),
but they caught a weak team without its strongest performer, Patrice Bergeron,
who sat out the game on Saturday with a lower body injury. The Caps took advantage, dominating the
circle, especially in the offensive (13-for-18) and defensive (14-for-18) ends
on their way to a 35-for-52 effort (67.3 percent) that allowed them to top 50
percent for the week, if only by a single faceoff win among 231 draws taken.
Individually, with a four-game week there were quite a few
Caps taking ten or more draws. Nicklas Backstrom led the group of six with a
55.2 winning percentage, and Nic Dowd finished at 50 percent for the week. What was surprising, or at least a bit odd, was
that the three Caps who took fewer than ten draws were near perfect in the
circle, going a combined 6-for-8 (75.0 percent).
Goals by Period:
Over the first seven weeks, the Capitals were a dominant
team in the second periods of games, outscoring teams by a 28-14 margin and
scoring at least one goal in the second period of each of the 18 games. That dominance was interrupted in Week 8 as
the Caps were outscored, 7-1, had their consecutive games streak of second
period goals ended at 19 games when they were blanked in Philadelphia and ended
the week having been blanked in three straight second periods when Montreal and
Boston did it.
The second period struggle was partially offset by a third
period goal differential advantage that allowed the Caps to maintain a positive
goal differential in each of the three regulation periods this season.
Year-over-Year:
Sure, the Caps are better through 22 games than they were
through 22 games last season. This is,
after all, the best 20-game team in club history. But it is how the Caps got there this season
that matters. So many numbers are
trending in the right direction… Goals scored up, goals allowed down. Shots on goal up, shots on goal allowed
down. Time shorthanded down, power play
goals allowed way down. Faceoff wins up,
faceoff losses even. But the most
striking number in the year-over-year comparison in “-107.” The Caps have allowed more than 100 fewer
shot attempts at 5-on-5 through 22 games than over the first 22 games last
season, a ten percent cut. If the
fancystatters need validation that such numbers matter over lengthy numbers of
games, they have it here.
In the end…
Not every week is unicorns and accordions. But those weeks can be salvaged with grit and
skill. The grit to claw back in games
and drag them into overtime, and the skill to use the trick shot competition to
advantage.
A week with a blowout loss and three Gimmick decisions could
have gone 0-4-0, if the Caps did not force extra time, or 3-1-0. As it was, playing on the margins as the Caps
did in Week 7 is a bit of a coin flip, but the Caps made a winning week of it
and actually gained a point in the standings on the second-place New York
Islanders in the Metropolitan Division, who went 2-0-0. It set the Caps up for a Week 9 in which they
will face three teams in varying states of rebuild with a combined record of
4-6-5 in November, two of them at home.
An opportunity to make hay while the sun shines, even if it’s cold
outside.
Three Stars:
- First Star: Braden Holtby (2-0-0, 1.39, .944)
- Second Star: Evgeny Kuznetsov (3-1-4, plus-2, 21:31 in average ice time)
- Third Star: Jakub Vrana, if only for this…
Captain rates the week…
Two puppers
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