Record: 2-1-0
The consistency of the Caps continues. The winning week in Week 15 leaves the Caps with 10 winning weeks for the season, three breakeven weeks, and two losing weeks, none since Week 5. The Caps got off to a slow start on the week with a 6-3 loss to the Boston Bruins, but they wrapped it up in fine fashion by taking the first two games of a three-game set with the New York Islanders. The 2-1-0 record on the road for the week left the Caps with a 7-2-0 record in their last nine road games and the best road record in the league at week’s end (17-7-2).
Offense: 3.00/game (season: 3.48 / 2nd)
It was an up-an-down week for the Caps’ offense, ending the week with a no-goal and six-goal performance after splitting that difference in the opening game of the week. But averaging three goals per game against teams that finished the week ranked second (the Islanders) and sixth (the Bruins) in scoring defense is hardly a lackluster performance. Couple that with the Caps posting six goals on the Islanders with Alex Ovechkin sidelined by a lower-body injury, and it could be considered a good week.
T.J. Oshie led the Caps with three goals in three games, two of them in the loss to Boston to open the week and the other in the Caps’ 6-3 win over the Islanders to finish it. His week gave Oshie ten goals in his last 15 games, raising his total to 17 for the season, now second on the team behind Ovechkin (24). Daniel Sprong was the other multiple goal scorer for the week, getting both of his tallies in the 6-3 win over New York on Saturday night. Sprong now has nine goals in 35 games and is shooting an impressive 16.1 percent for the season.
Evgeny Kuznetsov led the Caps with four points in the three-game week (1-3-4). He is quietly putting together an impressive close to the season. After going 2-4-6, minus-2, in his first 14 games this season, he is 7-15-22, plus-9, in his last 24 games. T.J. Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom had three points apiece for the week, Oshie recording his entirely with goals, Backstrom recording his with assists.
Defense: 3.00/game (season: 2.96 / 18th)
The defense was the mirror image of the offense in Week 15, opening the week with the worst of the three game before following it up with one of their best games of the season and settling in for an odd performance in the last game of the week.
The Caps held the Bruins to 27 shots (they added an empty netter late for a total of 28), well below their 32.8 shots per game average that ranked third in the league at week’s end. They also held Boston to just 28 shot attempts at 5-on-5 (19 on net), the second fewest attempts at fives recorded by Boston in any game this season.
The Caps did not allow the Islanders much more in their first meeting of the week. The Caps gave up only 26 shots to the Islanders in 65 minutes of play, 24 at 5-on-5, and only 34 shot attempts at fives, fifth-fewest in 24 games (to that point) on home ice this season for the New Yorkers.
That brings us to the somewhat odd finish to the week for the Caps’ defense. The 6-3 win and the three goals allowed might give the impression that the defense faltered a bit (and it did, but we will get to that below). However, the Caps did allow only 24 shots on goal and were impressive in 5-on-5 defense. While they did allow 40 shot attempts at fives, the highest total for the week, it was something of a product of higher tempo. The Caps did finish that game with a plus-14 in 5-on-5 shot attempts, their best differential for the week. And, they allowed no goals at 5-on-5, always a plus.
Goaltending: 2.61 / .896 / one shutout (season: 2.73 / .905 / 3 shutouts)
The goaltending for Week 15 looks a bit odd. There is the goals against average, which is decent, but then there is the overall save percentage, which is not. There was the even strength save percentage, which was very good (.938) but not quite as good on an individual level. Let us get to that first. Ilya Samsonov had a very good week in that regard. He stopped all 45 shots he faced at even strength. No goalie for the week faced more shots at evens and stopped all of them. On the other hand, Samsonov stopped two of four shots he faced on opponents’ power plays, that .500 save percentage tied for 51st among 59 goalies dressing in Week 15. And, he allowed a goal on the only shot he faced with the Caps on a power play. Still, a 2-0-0, 1.44, .940 week with one shutout is an excellent week.
Vitek Vanecek was not as fortunate. He got the first game of the week and struggled. He made only 15 saves on 20 shots through two periods against Boston in a 6-3 loss (Boston’s last goal was an empty netter) and finished 22-for-27 (.815 save percentage) for the week. After a fine four-game stretch over which he stopped 124 of 130 shots (.954) and going 3-1-0, he finished Week 15 with lesser performances in his most recent two outings – losses to Buffalo and Boston – stopping only 39 of 48 shots (.813 save percentage). He has been up and down over the last two months, posting a four game run with a .928 save percentage, following that up with a pair of games at .837, another pair at .982, and three games at .847, before his last up and down cycle noted above.
Power Play: 2-for-10 / 20.0 percent (season: 26.7 percent / 2nd)
The power play in Week 15 was not good, not bad, not memorable. What it did do was suffer in comparison with the 47.1 percent effort in Week 14. Still, the Caps did reach 20 percent for the week against teams that finished the week second in the league in penalty killing (Boston) and seventh (New York). But there is a problem here – shorthanded goals. The Caps allowed two in three games this week, one to Boston to open the week and one to the Islanders to close it – and that makes three shorties allowed in the Caps last five games and five in their last 14 games. No team has allowed more shorthanded goals this season than the Caps (eight).
And the power play itself deteriorated over the course of the week. The Caps were 2-for-6 against Boston, 0-for-3 in the first game against the Islanders, and 0-for-1 in the second game against New York. Efficiency and chances dropped like a stone, leaving the Caps 2-for-10 with only 12 shots on goal in 18:01 of power play ice time.
Penalty Killing: 5-for-7 / 71.4 percent (season: 82.5 percent / 8th)
The best to be said for the penalty killing is that the Caps did not have to employ it much. The 2.33 shorthanded situations faced per game were tied for eighth-fewest in the league for the week, and the incidences were balanced – three power plays for Boston, two for the Islanders in each of their two meetings for the week. The trouble was how the week ended, the Caps allowing power play goals to New York on each of their power play chances on each of the two shots they took, and the Islanders expending only 1:03 in power play time to inflict the two-goal damage. It was quite a blot on a week that started with the Caps allowing only five power play shots in 13 minutes of shorthanded ice time.
Faceoffs: 72-for-151 / 47.7 percent (season: 48.8 percent / 23rd)
It was an average week in the faceoff circle, by Caps’ standards for the season, which is to say not impressive. And again, it was inconsistent. Washington was underwater in the offensive zone for the week (46.0 percent) but very good in the defensive end (54.0 percent), although the difference between one and the other is four wins on 50 draws in each end, not a large margin.
The offensive-defensive zone disparity, such as it was, was reflected at the individual level. The “offensive” centers had a difficult week in the offensive end, with Nicklas Backstrom finishing at 36.4 percent (4-for-11) and Evgeny Kuznetsov finishing at 37.5 percent (6-for-16). At the other end, the “defensive” centers did better, Lars Eller at 53.3 percent (8-for-15) and Nic Dowd at 55.6 percent (15-for-27). Dowd and Eller have put together decent seasons in the circle, ranking in the top third of 132 skaters taking at least 250 draws. Dowd ranks 25th (55.1 percent), and Eller ranks 43rd (52.5 percent).
Goals by Period:
The unusual part about Week 15 in this category for the Caps is that it was the second periods of games in which they ended with a minus goal differential. This has been the Caps’ best period this season (plus-24 goal differential coming into the week), but they were a minus-1 this week. They still ended the week with the most second period goals scored for the season (70). The Caps did a good job holding things down late, which also goes against the season trend, allowing only an empty-net goal in the third period against Boston for the week.
Year-over-Year:
This year’s edition of the Caps is holding its ground with last year’s on a year-over-year basis. Only one win and three points separate the two editions, and the scoring for and against is almost identical. This year’s club still trails significantly in shots on goal and shot attempts for, but the flip side of that is more scoring efficiency with the shots/attempts they do record. The Caps of this season are also substantially more protective of the puck, at least by the judgmental category of giveaways, where the Caps are down more than 30 percent this year over last season. The discipline extends to penalties, where the Caps are down 17.3 percent in penalties taken and 19.6 percent in penalty minutes.
In the end…
The Caps keep on churning out winning weeks, or at the least avoiding losing weeks. That consistency has allowed them to hold the top spot in the East in almost unbroken fashion (save for April 8th, when the Islanders held it, and a few hours yesterday, when Pittsburgh held it) for the last month. The two wins against the Islanders were arguably more important to the Caps than the loss to Boston since it gave the Caps a three-point lead on the Isles, a 25-21 edge in regulation wins, and a 28-25 advantage in regulation-plus-overtime wins. Add in that the Caps have clinched the season series against New York (they are 5-2-0 with one game left to play), and the Isles are in a bind if it comes to tiebreakers.
But now, Pittsburgh awaits in Week 16 after the Caps wrap up their season series with the Isles on Tuesday. If the Caps can do to the Pens what they did to the Isles in Week 15, they will tighten their grip on that top spot in the East.
Three Stars:
- First Star: Evgeny Kuznetsov (1-3-4, minus-2, game-deciding Gimmick goal, no giveaways, 5.46 points per 60 minutes (second best on team))
- Second Star: T.J. Oshie (3-0-3, minus-2, seven shots on goal, seven shot attempts, four takeaways (led team), 63.1 personal shot attempts-for on ice at 5-on-5 (second best on team))
- Third Star: Ilya Samsonov (2-0-0, 1.44, .940, third career shutout, 1.000 even strength save percentage (tied for league lead))
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