Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was - Week 14

Week 14 was not a good week for the Washington Capitals.  Their return to contests against Metropolitan Division teams – Columbus and Philadelphia, both below them in standings – was an opportunity to keep their recent momentum, advance in the standings, and put some more distance between themselves and teams below them in the division.  It did not turn out entirely as Caps fans would have liked.

Record (1-2-0)

The Caps opened the week in promising fashion, scoring the game’s first goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets less than three minutes into the contest at Capital One Arena on Sunday.  But that would be all the Caps would get, and despite holding on for a 1-0 win, the writing was on the wall that this might be a week in which they would struggle.  When the Caps faced the Philadelphia Flyers in a home-and-home set of games to close the week, they had a chance to take advantage of a club that, despite the fact that they had a successful run of late, that they were still seventh of eight teams in the Metro.  Losing both games by multi-goal margins was concerning, especially since the Caps had been 10-3-0 in the previous 13 meetings of the teams dating back to March 2021.  Instead of finishing the week in third place in the Metro Division, had they swept the Flyers, they finished the week as the first wild-card team in the Eastern Conference and only four points ahead of Pittsburgh, lurking just outside the playoff-eligible group of teams in the East with the Penguins holding three games in hand.

Offense: 1.67 /game (season: 3.20 / 15th)

Five goals in three games.  Five different goal scorers, which might not have been a bad thing but for the fact that none of them had more than one.  And there was the lack of shooting balance.  Alex Ovechkin had his customary place at the top of the shots on goal rankings (16), but no other Capital has as many as ten (T.J. Oshie had nine), and only six Caps had more than five.

There was also the matter of points overall and the fact that Garnet Hathaway and Nic Dowd – fourth line forwards – were the only Capital skaters with more than one point for the week (each player had two).

Erik Gustafsson was the only Capital to record a goal for the week, his strike in the first three minutes of the Caps/Blue Jackets contest being the only goal scored in that game.  Only three Caps defensemen would record points in Week 14, Nick Jensen and Martin Fehervary recording single assists.  Jensen’s assist against Philadelphia in the 5-3 loss on Wednesday extended a decent run of assists – five assists in seven games.

Defense: 2.67 / game (season: 2.76 / 9th)

Shots on goal can be a funny thing.  On the one hand there were the Flyers, who averaged allowing 33.0 shots per game for the week but finished with a 3-1-0 record.  The Caps also allowed 33.0 shots per game but finished with a 1-2-0 record. 

And it was not all that bad a week for the Caps at 5-on-5.  Only four teams allowed fewer goals at fives than did the Caps (five).  The Caps allowed only 137 shot attempts at 5-on-5, eighth-fewest in the league.  No Capital was on ice for more than two goals against at even strength, but having Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov be two of those skaters, especially when each player was on ice for only one goal for at even strength, speaks to whether on the basis of scoring outcomes they should be on the same line.  Garnet Hathaway and Marcus Johansson did not have a goal scored against them on ice at evens for the week, and Nic Dowd was on ice for only one such goal.  It was a decent week for the bottom six forwards, but that is not the highest praise.

Goaltending: 2.38 / .929 (season: 2.56 / .915 / 4 shutouts)

Darcy Kuemper took all the minutes in Week 14, and he might have deserved better, at least in terms of scoring support.  He pitched his league-leading fourth shutout of the season to open the week, and while he stopped just  53 of 60 shots in the two games against the Flyers (.883 save percentage), it was not a bad overall week.  More of one in which an extra win might have been squeezed out with more scoring support. 

Kuemper’s week was characterized by comparatively slow starts, at least in the two games against the Flyers (.850 save percentage in the first periods of the two games) and stronger performances as the games went on (.939 save percentage over the last 40 minutes of the three games overall).  What might be of mild concern is his uneven performance on home ice in recent games.  Of 58 goalies with at least 250 minutes on home ice, his .910 save percentage ranks 24^th, while his .925 save percentage on the road ranks seventh of 70 goalies with 250 minutes played in road games.

Power Play: 0-for-6 / 0.0 percent (season: 21.4 percent / 17th)

Few chances, four shots on goal, no goals.  It was an awful week for the power play.  The first time in 14 weeks that the Caps were shut out on the power play.  And this despite 11 Capitals logging at least one power play minute of ice time.  At least Tom Wilson and Nicklas Backstrom, both coming back to the lineup this week after spending the first half of the season rehabilitating injuries, had shots on goal (one apiece).  There just is not much to say about what might have been the worst week for the power play this season.

Penalty Killing 8-for-11 / 72.7 percent (season: 80.6 percent / 11th)

The Caps did themselves no favors on the other side of special teams.  The 3.67 shorthanded instances per game were fifth-most in the league for the week.  Only three teams allowed more power play goals than the three allowed by the Caps.  Wek 14 broke a streak of seven straight weeks over which the Caps had penalty kills of 80.0 percent or better (49-for-58/84.5 percent).  It was also the third week in the last five in which the Caps faced at least ten shorthanded situations. 

Faceoffs: 86-for-162 / 53.1 percent (season: 49.7 percent / 17th)

The Caps are getting better at this part of the game.  On November 22^nd, they were 25^th in the league in faceoff winning percentage at 46.8 percent, but since then they rank tenth in the league at 52.3 percent.  In Week 14, three of the five Caps taking at least ten draws overall finished at 50 percent or better, led by Lars Eller (64.0 percent).  Eller had a very good week in the defensive zone, winning nine of 13 faceoffs (69.2 percent).  Evgency Kuznetsov was a surprising 12-for-20 in the offensive zone (60.0 percent).  Overall, the Caps were 50 percent or better in all three zones for the week.

Goals by Period

How bad was Week 14?  The Caps came into the week with 58 second period goals, second-most in the league to Seattle’s 59.  At the end of the week, the Caps still had 58 second period goals scored.  It was the hole in the donut (they had three first period goals and two third period goals) that might have cost them a win; they were outscored, 2-0, in the second periods of games in Week 14. 

Year-over-Year

The Caps are holding on to a pace that is not all that different from last year’s team as theyhit the 45-game mark.  The principal difference in record is that this year’s team has swapped in a few more losses in regulation for losses in extra time to account for most of the points difference between last year’s team and this year’s.  Scoring offense, scoring defense, shots per game, penalty killing, shot attempts-for at 5-on-5 are all close to one another on a year-to-year basis through the same number of games.  The power play is better, both in terms of generating opportunities and efficiency.  The number of shorthanded situations faced is significantly higher this season and bears watching as the Caps move forward.

In the end…

This was a week one would like to forget but probably shouldn’t.  It was an opportunity missed, mostly because the Caps’ offense dried up.  Perhaps this is the price the team is paying to re-integrate Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson into the lineup and figure out what line combinations work.  But the Caps do not have a large margin for error in the standings, which suggests that the time for tinkering might be short.

Three Stars

• First Star: Darcy Kuemper (1-2-0, 2.38, .929, one shutout)
• Second Star: Garnet Hathaway (1-1-2, plus-3, no goals against on-ice at even strength, seven hits, three blocked shots, no giveaways)
• Third Star: Erik Gustafsson (1-0-1, plus-2, one game-winning goal, seven shots on goal, no goals against on-ice at even strength, 20:36 in ice time per game).