The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!
The Washington Capitals opened the 2019 portion of their
regular season schedule in St. Louis, where they dropped a 5-2 decision to the Blues. They get a chance for a some retribution on
Monday night at Capital One Arena when the Blues visit. The Caps, whose last loss in regulation was
their 5-2 loss to the Blues on January 3rd, will be looking to
extend their points streak to six games, while the Blues will be trying to
extend their current winning streak to three games.
St. Louis has been inching closer to playoff contention as
of late, opening the new week five points behind the Minnesota Wild for the
second wild card spot in the Western Conference. It will be a hard path for the Blues, who
have to jump past five teams to get into the playoff mix. But they have gotten off to a good start in
the new year with a 4-2-0 record since January 1st.
The Blues have done it largely by buttoning up on the
defensive side of the puck allowing only 11 goals in six games this month. That has been largely the product of the
pleasant surprise that is Jordan Binnington in goal. Binnington was not an especially heralded
goaltender when taken by the Blues in the third round (88th overall)
in the 2011 entry draft. In fact, even
with six games on his NHL resume to date, he has fewer games played among
goalies in that class than those named “Gibson.” Not only John Gibson, who was taken 39th
overall by the Anaheim Ducks in that draft, but Christopher Gibson, who was
taken 49th in that draft by the Los Angeles Kings and who has 13 NHL
games on his record.
Binnington got one appearance with the Blues in 2015-2016,
but he did not get his first NHL start until this past January 7th.
It was quite a statement, Binnington stopping all 25 shots he faced in a 3-0
win over the Philadelphia Flyers on January 7th. He has since won twice more, stopping 49 of
51 shots (.961 save percentage) in the two wins.
Flipping the calendar to 2019 has been kind to Vladimir
Tarasenko. A goal scorer who was not
scoring goals (he had only 11 goals in 37 games in the 2018 portion of the
schedule), Tarasenko leads the club with three goals in six games since the
start of the new year. He had his first
multi-goal game in more than two months (October 27th) when he
potted a pair in a 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars on Saturday night. He is 3-2-5 over his last five games. In nine career games against the Caps,
Tarasenko is 7-1-8, plus-6.
David Perron is tied for the club in points in the new year
(2-5-7). Originally a first-round pick
of the Blues (26th overall in 2007), Perron is in his second tour
with the club after stops with four other clubs in a 12-year career. Without a 20-goal season since 2013-2014 (28
goals with the Edmonton Oilers), Perron has 15 goals in 42 games, putting him
on a pace to top that mark for the third time in his career (he also had 21
goals in 57 games in 2011-2012 with the Blues).
The odd part of Perron’s goal scoring this season is how little bearing
it seems to have on wins and losses. In
11 games in which he has goals this season, the Blues are 5-4-2. Perron has yet to record a goal in 17 career
games against Washington, but he does have nine assists.
Ryan O’Reilly also has seven points in the new year (1-6-7)
and is tied for the team lead in plus-minus (plus-6). He has been hot of late, going 3-7-10,
plus-9, in his last nine games. It is
part of a larger season that has him on a pace to finish the season with 80 points,
surpassing his career high in points (64 in 2013-2014 with Colorado). O’Reilly
is in a rather select club, a club of one in fact. He is the only active player to have appeared
in at least 650 career games and log 90 or fewer penalty minutes (90 minutes in
694 games), and he is only the third player in NHL history to have done so.
He has only six minutes in penalties in 43 games this season. O’Reilly does not have a penalty minute in 17
career games against the Caps, against whom he is also looking for his first
goal. In 17 career games against
Washington, he is 0-7-7, minus-1).
1. Scoring on the
road remains an issue for the Blues.
Only the Los Angeles Kings have scored fewer goals (39) on the road than
St. Louis (40), although the Blues are the only team yet to play as many as 20
games on the road this season (17).
2. On the other hand,
the 43 goals allowed by the Blues on the road are, by far, the fewest in the
league (Calgary has allowed 56 goals in 24 road games).
3. St. Louis is one
of only two teams in the league with a road power play over 24 percent (24.5) and
a road penalty kill over 84 percent (84.5).
Pittsburgh is the other (33.9 and 89.1).
4. The Blues have the
fifth-worst shot attempts-for percentage at 5-on-5 on the road this season when
tied with opponents (43.78 percent).
5. The game against
the Caps will be the 2,000th road game in Blues history. They are 760-944-81 with 214 ties in 1,999
road games.
1. The Caps have four
players with more than 20 points on home ice this season: Nicklas Backstrom (29
in 21 games), Alex Ovechkin (24/22), Evgeny Kuznetsov (24/20), and John Carlson
(24/21).
2. Looking for a
game-winning goal? If it is Capital One
Arena, chances are it will come from T.J. Oshie. He has four of the Caps’ 12
game-winning goals on home ice this season.
3. Matt Niskanen has
the only overtime goal scored by the Caps at home this season (October 17th
in a 4-3 win over the New York Rangers).
4. Only two teams
have fewer power play chances on home ice than the Caps (55). Los Angeles and St. Louis each have had 49
chances.
5. On the other side,
only four teams have had to face more shorthanded situations on home ice than
the Caps (80) – Montreal (81), New York Rangers (81), Vancouver (88), and
Colorado (95).
The Peerless’ Players to Ponder
St. Louis: Colton Parayko
Durability has been an issue for St. Louis defensemen this
season. Colton Parayko is the only one
of ten defensemen to dress this season for the Blues who has appeared in every
one of the Blues’ 43 games. Durability
has been a hallmark of his four seasons with the Blues to date, having missed
only four games in that span. He has
been a reliably productive offensive contributor from the blue line as well,
posting more than 30 points in each of his three seasons preceding this
one. He is not, however, on a pace to
match that this season, his 12 points in 43 games on a pace for 23 by season’s
end. What he is on a pace for is a
career best in goals. The eight he has
so far is one short of the nine he recorded in 79 games in his rookie season. His scoring matters. St. Louis is 5-0-2 in the seven games in
which he has goals this season, 8-0-3 in the 11 games in which he has
points. Parayko is 2-2-4, plus-3, in the
seven games in which he faced the Caps in his career.
Washington: Brooks
Orpik
When Brooks Orpik takes the ice on Monday night, it will be
the 1,000th time he appeared in an NHL regular season game, making
him the 37th active player to appear in at least 1,000 career
regular season games. And, unless he records
a hat trick, he will become the first player in NHL history to appear in at
least 1,000 games and record fewer than 20 career goals (he has 17). Goal scoring has not been a feature of his
five seasons with the Caps, three of the previous four ending without one. He does have one this season, but his
importance is perhaps more as a steadying influence on the ice. He has been limited by injury to 17 games
this season, but in the 11 games in which he skated at least 15 minutes, the
Caps are 7-2-2. While that might be a
product of the Caps spreading out ice time in games in which they have leads,
it is a signal that the Caps are doing well when Orpik gets more ice time. He
is 0-3-3, plus-1, in 19 career games against St. Louis.
In the end…
The Caps face a difficult start to the week with
back-to-back games against St. Louis on Monday and the Nashville Predators on
Tuesday. Add to that the fact that the
Caps do not really have much of a rivalry against Central Division teams and
that we are getting into what passes for the “dog days” of the NHL schedule,
and this is a tough two-game stretch.
There is some motivation for the Caps in that they lost recent games to
these two teams by a combined 11-5 margin, but it is the sort of spot in the
schedule that poses challenges for any NHL team. It is something to plow through… get it?
Capitals 4 – Blues 3
