Record: 1-1-1
Week 8 brought an end to a five-week streak of winning
records. It was only the second time
this season that the Caps finished a week with a .500 record in standings
points won out of those available. They
have yet to post a losing week.
That result was the product of the Caps losing consecutive
games for the first time since they lost three in a row (0-1-2) in Games 3-5 of
the season. Until they lost to the New
York Rangers on Wednesday, the Caps were 14-3-2 in 19 games since those
consecutive losses.
The odd part of the week might have been how it ended. The 2-1 Gimmick loss to Vancouver was the
Caps’ four game of their last seven decided in the freestyle competition, going
2-2 in those four decisions. It was
their second loss on home ice in the trick shot phase; they do not yet have a
win on home ice in that portion of the game.
Offense: 2.33/game (season: 3.52/5th)
When the Caps roughed up the Anaheim Ducks for five goals to
open the week, it had the looks of another in a series of weeks in which the
Caps filled the opponents’ nets with pucks.
It was the eighth time in a span of 15 games in which the Caps posted
five or more goals in a game and ninth time overall this season.
But things dried up in a hurry. The Caps posted lone goals in each of the two
games to end the week, the first time this season that they recorded fewer than
two goals in consecutive games. In fact,
it was the first time this season that the Caps scored fewer than two goals in
any game, let alone two in a row. The
last time that the Caps scored fewer than two goals in consecutive games was in
Games 44 and 45 last season when they followed up a 2-1 overtime loss to
Columbus with a 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues.
It is unsurprising that the individual results were
sparse. Jakub Vrana was the only one of
six goal scorers to record as many as two for the week. It brought his total for the season to 11,
second on the club to Alex Ovechkin’s 15 (he had one this week). The Caps had 11 skaters with points for the
week, but only four of them had more than one.
John Carlson led the group with four points (all assists), and he was
the only defenseman to record any points for the week. It might bear noting that the Caps have gone
seven games without a goal from a defenseman, not since Jonas Siegenthaler
scored his first NHL goal in the Caps’ 5-2 win over Vegas on November 9th.
In a way it was a frustrating week. The Caps did not lack for shots, posting more
than 30 in each of the three games and at least 45 shot attempts at 5-on-5 in
all of them. For a team as efficient at
shooting the puck as the Caps, fifth in the league in shooting percentage at
week’s end, it might have been just, as they say, one of those weeks.
Defense: 2.33/game (season: 2.92/T-11th)
It was a deceptive week in some ways for the defense. There is that fine scoring defense number of
two and a third goals a game. The deceptive
part is in having allowed all three opponents more than 30 shots on goal and
two of them more than 45 shot attempts at 5-on-5. Oddly enough, it was against the Rangers in
the lone regulation loss for the week and in which the Caps gave up more than
half of the week’s worth of goals allowed that they allowed fewer than 40 shot
attempts at fives (36).
The shots against are creeping up for the Caps, who have
allowed more than 30 shots on goal in three straight and eight of their last
nine games. The Caps have not held
opponents to fewer than 30 shots in consecutive games since Games 6 and 7, when
they held Dallas and Colorado to 25 shots on goal apiece. Since opening the season by holding the first
four opponents under 30 shots a game, the Caps have allowed 30 or more in 16 of
21 games.
Goaltending: 2.30 / .929 (season: 2.79 / .909)
Braden Holtby took all the minutes in Week 8 and was very
good once more. Take away a 23-second
stretch of the third period against the Rangers, in which he allowed goals on
consecutive shots, and he was excellent.
His first periods (23 saves on 24 shots in three games/.958 save
percentage) and second periods (31 for 32/.969) were superb. He had the bang-bang goals scored by the
Rangers in the third period of that contest, and he had a couple of window dressing
goals scored by Anaheim to start the week, but he was generally at or near the
top of his game, which is more a matter of consistency than the fancy shutout
followed by an iffy effort. Even with
the four goals allowed to the Rangers, Holtby finished the week 10-1-2, 2.41,
.925 in his last 13 games.
Power Play: 2-for-7/28.6 percent (season: 23.8 percent/7th)
The good news for the power play is, of course, the
efficiency. The 28.6 percent power play
for Week 8 tied Week 2 for the top week of the season in that regard. The bad news is that Week 2 power play
converted four of 14 chances, while the Week 8 power play converted two of
seven chances. Worse, after going two
for four in the first two games of the week against Anaheim and the Rangers,
the Caps could not convert on any of their three chances against Vancouver in a
game that ended up tied 1-1 after 65 minutes.
The Caps, while reasonably efficient shooting on the man
advantage, managing two goals on 12 shots, recorded those 12 shots in 11:36 of
power play ice time. Good, if not great at
generating shots. There were a couple of
surprises in the shooting detail First,
Alex Ovechkin did not lead the team in power play shots on goal for the week,
Evgeny Kuznetsov did (four shots, one goal).
The second surprise was that with Nicklas Backstrom out with an injury
for the last two games of the week, Travis Boyd skated 4:14 in power play time
in the last two games of the week, recording three shots on goal to tie
Ovechkin for second for the week.
Penalty Killing: 8-for-12/66.7 percent (season: 83.1 percent/T-11th)
There is little good to say about penalty killing in Week
8. Four goals, at least one in each of
the three games, the first time this season that the Caps allowed power play
goals in three straight games this season, allowing the Rangers to score a pair
of power play goals for the first time in 11 games on their schedule, and worst
penalty killing efficiency by week for the season. It was not an efficient penalty kill in other
respects, either. The Caps spent 21:51
for the week killing penalties and allowed their three opponents 26 shots on
goal, too much and too many for a three-game week.
Faceoffs: 83-for-154/53.9 percent (season: 50.5 percent/12th)
The week in the circle was good overall but uneven in the
detail. A 53.9 percent faceoff winning
percentage has to be considered good, but there were problems lurking underneath
the top line number. Specifically, the
offensive end was a problem. The Caps
did not hit 50 percent in the offensive zone in any game and finished the week
just 22 for 51 (43.1 percent). The Caps
were much better in the other end of the ice, winning all three games and
finishing the week at 42 for 66 (63.6 percent).
The trend filtered down through the individual numbers. Six Capitals took ten or more draws for the week,
and five of them finished at 50 percent or better. None of them, however, finished the week over
50 percent in the offensive end (Lars Eller was best at 6 for 12). All six did finish over 50 percent in the
defensive end. It was only Chandler
Stephenson finishing the week 0-for-6 in the neutral zone that kept the Caps
from having all six of those players finish at 50 percent or better for the
week.
Goals by Period:
First periods…outscored opponents, 2-1. Second periods…ditto. Third periods...ugh. The third period did in the Caps against the
Rangers, who posted three of the five goals scored in the last 20 minutes of
regulation for the week. The other two
goals were more or less cosmetic scores by Anaheim in a 5-2 Caps win, but one
would still like to see games wrapped up more tightly than that. Those five goals added to the third period
tally represent a 25 percent increase in third period goals allowed for the
season from beginning of Week 8 to the end.
There is no way to explain that away as being anything other than
insufficiently stingy in the ends of games.
The silver lining, thin as it is, was that the Caps did not allow a
third period goal to Vancouver in what was a 1-1 game entering the third
period, thus preserving a standings point for the Caps in the 2-1 Gimmick loss.
Year-over-Year:
By this time last season the Caps were hitting their stride,
and with a 1-1-1 week with weak offense, this year’s club has lost a lot of its
advantage over last year’s squad through 25 games. This team has shown a better ability to date
in squeezing out points, with a win and two extra time losses replacing three
of last year’s seven losses in regulation at this point. But the year-over-year differentials in goals
scored and goals allowed have narrowed, reflecting the growing similarity in
win-loss record. This team does maintain
significant improvements in the more difficult areas of the game – penalty killing,
shot and shot attempt differentials, faceoffs, and hits, a sign that a “heavy”
team might be playing just a bit heavier.
In the end…
Week 8 was not a good week, but neither was it a bad one,
especially since the team missed Nicklas Backstrom for two games with an injury,
and the lineup that took the ice against Vancouver to end the week featured
three players – Mike Sgarbossa, Beck Malensyn, and Travis Boyd – who started
the season in Hershey, and another (Richard Panik) who has lost a big chunk of the
season to date with injury and has yet to find his complete game in Washington. Still, this is one of the best 25-game starts
in team history. Only three teams had
more than the 16 wins this team has (2010-2011 had 17, 1991-1992 and 2015-2016
had 18), and only the 2015-2016 team had more standings points after 25 games
(38) than this team (37).
It sets up the Caps for an interesting Week 9 in which the
distractions of Thanksgiving week, even with a pair of games at home around the
holiday, stand against the success that the Caps have had against Atlantic
Division teams this season (5-1-0) and since the realignment into current
divisions, the 100 wins the Caps have against the division being more than any
team not in the Atlantic and more than Atlantic teams Florida (94), Ottawa
(85), Toronto (84), Detroit (71), and Buffalo (67).
Three Stars:
- First Star: Jakub Vrana (2-0-2, plus-2, 8 SOG, 14 shot attempts)
- Second Star: John Carlson (0-4-4, plus-1, 2 power play points, 5 blocked shots, 24:44 average ice time)
- Third Star: Braden Holtby (1-1-1, 2.30, .929)
Captain rates the week…
Two puppers