The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!
After starting a four-game stretch away from Capital One
Arena with a 5-2 win in Detroit over the Red Wings on Saturday night, the
Washington Capitals head to San Jose to meet the Sharks on Tuesday night in the
first game of the Caps’ annual visit to the west coast. Washington takes a three-game winning streak
into the game as well as the best road record in the league (11-2-1). San Jose is a team on a roll as well, winners
of their last two games and 11-2-0 in their last 13 contests.
Then and Now…
The Caps and Sharks will meet for the 44th time
on Tuesday. Washington is 14-24-4 (one
tie) in the series to date, 7-13-0 (one tie) on the road. Since 2005-2006, the Caps are 6-11-4 against
the Sharks, 4-7-0 in San Jose. The Caps
go into this game on a four-game points streak in the series (3-0-1).
Active Leaders vs. Opponent…
Noteworthy Opponents…
Patrick Marleau has played in more games (1,517), scored
more goals (514), and has more points (1,093) than any other player in San Jose
Sharks history. Joe Thornton has more
individual awards (2006 Ross Trophy and 2006 Hart Trophy; four first or second
team NHL All Star selections), as does Brent Burns (2017 Norris Trophy, three
times a Norris finalist, three times a first or second team NHL All Star
selection). But with Marleau and
Thornton having turned 40, and Burns to turn 35 in March, it might be Logan
Couture’s team now. The 30-year old
Couture has been a consistent goal and point producer for the Sharks since his
first full NHL season in 2010-2011.
Since then, he has failed to record 20 or more goals only once, in
2015-2016 when he was limited to 52 games by a fractured right leg and scored
15 goals. That also happened to be his
only full season among his last eight (not including the abbreviated 2012-2013
season) in which he recorded fewer than 50 points (36). As it is, Couture stands third on the
all-time list of Sharks goal scorers (248), fifth in assists (287), fourth in
points (535), and fifth in power play goals (71). With this being the first year of an
eight-year/$64 million contract signed in July 2018, he would seem to have many
productive years yet to improve his ranking in franchise history.
This season, Couture had a bit of a slow start goal scoring,
posting only one in 13 games in October while adding nine assists. However, he tied for the team lead in goals
for November (seven, with Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl), and he led the team in
assists (11) and points (18). He was
tied with Evander Kane in game-winning goals (two) and tied with Brent Burns
for the team lead in power play points for the month (three). And, all of his scoring damage came in his
last 12 games after starting November without a point in three games. In those 12 games, Couture has five
multi-point games, including a four point game (1-3-4) in a 6-5 win over
Minnesota on November 7th that kicked off his November scoring
surge. In 15 career games against
Washington, Couture is 5-8-13, plus-2.
Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson get more attention on the San
Jose blue line, and they are tied for the team lead in points among defensemen
(21), but Marc-Edouard Vlasic deserves some attention for an approaching
milestone. Tuesday will mark Vlasic’s
994th NHL game, all with the Sharks and the most games played by a
defenseman in Sharks history. He will
soon hit the 1,000 game mark for his career, becoming only the third player in
team history to hit that mark (Marleau: 1,517; Thornton: 1,062). Vlasic is second only to Burns in team history
in goals among defensemen (71 to Burns’ 126), assists (248 to 313), and points
(319 to 439). His career plus-134 rating is second in team history among all
skaters to Thornton’s plus-175 and is fifth-best among active defensemen. This season, his four goals trail only Burns
(five) among Shark defensemen. Vlasic
goes into this game with points in consecutive games, the second time he has
cobbled together consecutive games point streaks (he had points in Games 14 and
15 against Winnipeg and Vancouver to open November). Odd Vlasic fact… The Metropolitan Division is
the only one against which Vlasic does not have a point this season. He is 2-0-2 in seven games against the Atlantic,
0-2-2 in seven games against the Central, and 2-2-4 in 12 games against the
Pacific Division. On the other hand,
this will be only his third game against a Metro opponent this season. Vlasic is 3-3-6, plus-6, in 18 career games
against the Capitals.
The Sharks are widely viewed as a veteran team, but they
have dressed seven rookie skaters this season.
None have played more games than center Dylan Gambrell (23 games). Gambrell owns a bit of an odd place in Sharks
draft history. He was taken with the 60th
overall pick in the 2016 Entry Draft, the second lowest “first” pick in any
draft in San Jose history except for 2008, when Justin Daniels was taken by the
Sharks with the 62nd overall pick as their first pick in that draft
(Daniels never played in the NHL).
Although this is technically Gambrell’s “rookie” season, he did get
glimpses of the NHL in each of the last two seasons, dressing for three games
in 2017-2018 and another eight last season without recording a point in any of
those 11 games. He got off to a decent
start this season with four points in eight games, including his first NHL goal
in a 4-3 overtime win over Buffalo on October 22nd, but since
scoring that goal, Gambrell is 1-1-2, minus-4, in 15 games. Odd Gambrell fact… He does not have a point
in 11 home games this season; all of his six points were recorded on the
road. This will be his first career
appearance against the Caps.
1. San Jose’s power
play struggled in November. Only the
Buffalo Sabres finished the month with fewer power play goals (one) than did
the Sharks (four, tied with Anaheim).
Only Buffalo was worse, conversion-wise (2.7 percent) than the Sharks
(9.5 percent).
2. On the other side,
the Sharks allowed fewer power play goals (four) than any other club in
November, and their 91.7 percent penalty kill was best in the league for the month.
3. The Sharks were
credited with the most takeaways in the league in November (142).
4. San Jose was the
only club in the league to face ten or more shots in the Gimmick and stop all
of them (10-for-10).
5. The Sharks had the
best differential in shot attempts at 5-on-5 in close situations in November
(plus-97).
1. When Tom Wilson
scored against Detroit on Saturday, he became the Caps’ fifth player to hit
double digits in goals in 28 games this season.
The Caps did not have their fifth player with ten goals last season
until Game 34. Oddly enough, it was
Wilson who became the fifth to reach that mark when he scored the game-winning
goal in the Caps’ 2-1 win over Buffalo on December 21st. His goal against Detroit to get to ten goals
last Saturday was also the game-winner in the Caps’ 5-2 win.
2. The Caps finished
November with the highest standings points per game played among Eastern
Conference teams (1.57/22 points in 14 games).
Only the Dallas Stars did better overall (1.62/21 points in 13 games).
3. Only teams
finished November with fewer power play chances than the Caps (36). Dallas had 35, and Boston had 34.
4. Who led the Caps
in game-winning goals in November? Alex
Ovechkin?...nope. Jakub
Vrana?...nope Evgeny Kuznetsov?...nope. Tom Wilson and Chandler Stephenson had two
apiece to lead the team.
5. Washington
finished November as one of four teams to neither score a shorthanded goal, nor
allow one. Boston, Florida, and Winnipeg
were the others.
The Peerless’ Players to Ponder
San Jose: Martin Jones
Goaltenders are an odd lot.
Hey can be hot, until they are not, and vice versa. Take Martin Jones. In his first two NHL seasons, spent primarily
in a backup role with the Los Angeles Kings, he had a good 16-11-2, 1.99, .923
record in 34 appearances and seven shutouts.
In his first year in San Jose after being traded by the Kings In June
2015 with Colin Miller and a 2015 first round pick to Boston for Milan Lucic
and then again to San Jose four days later by the Bruins for Sean Kuraly and a
first round pick in the 2016 Entry Draft, Jones took on the heavy load and
finished 37-23-4, 2.27, .918, with six shutouts and finished seventh in Vezina
Trophy voting as the league’s top goaltender.
But then, the wheels got loose.
In his next three seasons, he won a lot, posting a 101-64-17 record with
a 2.62 goals against average and a .908 save percentage. You could not say he was washed up at age 29,
but three seasons of deteriorating goals against averages and save percentage
were not good signs.
This season it looked like more of the same – bleak. Jones started the season 2-7-1, 3.52, .887
(one no decisions) in 11 appearances.
Then, it was as if a switch was flipped on. In his last 11 appearances, Jones is 10-1-0,
2.59, .905. Those ten wins were three
more than any goalie recorded in November.
His underlying numbers in this recent run were not elite, ranking near
the middle of the pack of goalies with at least 250 minutes played in the
month, but at least they are back to trending in the right direction, and he
was named last week’s third star by the NHL.
In eight career appearances against the Caps, Jones is 5-3-0, 2.40, .917, with
two shutouts. It might worth noting that
his record against the Caps with the Sharks cleaves cleanly into two halves of
four games apiece. In his first four
appearances against the Caps he was 4-0-0, 1.00, .963, with two shutouts. In his last four appearances against
Washington, Jones is 1-3-0, 3.82, .876.
Washington: Braden Holtby
This game might end up being the matchup of the hot
goaltenders. Braden Holtby has certainly
done his part to hold up his end of the bargain. Since October 18th and his first
appearance after allowing three goals on as many shots in less than eight
minutes in a 6-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, Holtby is 12-1-2, 2.48, .924. No goalie has as many wins in that span, and
Holtby is highly ranked in both goals against average (tenth) and save
percentage (11th) among 40 goalies with at least 500 minutes played
over that period.
If there is a concern in that recent run of success for
Holtby, it is in his home/road split. At
home over that period, he is 6-0-1, 1.96, .938.
But on the road, his record, while still sporting a fine 6-1-1 win-loss
mark, is a much more ordinary 2.92 goals against average and .911 save
percentage. What is more, Holtby’s
record on the road against Pacific Division teams has not been very
impressive. In 26 games played on the
road against Pacific Division teams in his career, he is 12-13-1, 3.09, .891. In nine career appearances against the
Sharks, Holtby is 3-4-1, 3.79, .877.
In the end…
This game is among the toughest gets on the regular season
schedule, the recent success of the Caps against the Sharks
notwithstanding. The challenge is
compounded by the Shark’s reversal of fortunes of late that have made them
almost unbeatable anywhere over the last month, although there are hints that
might be coming to an end, at least at home, where the Sharks have split their
last four decisions (2-2-0). The Caps
have found a lot of ways to win on the road – win big (four multi-goal wins) or
win small (seven wins by one goal), win with offense (seven wins with four or
more goals scored) or with defense (six wins with two or fewer goals allowed),
win by playing overtime (six wins in extra time). It makes for a resilient and opportunistic
club when playing on the road. They will
need to be both against the Sharks.
Capitals 4 – Sharks 3