A TWO-Point Night -- Game 7: Washington Capitals 5 - Vancouver Canucks 2

It might have been a bit too long coming for Capitals fans, but the Caps shook off the rust that was clogging their offensive game and won a 5-2 decision over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.  It was the first time in seven games that the Caps recorded more than four goals in a game and just the second time they recorded more than three goals.

The offense for the Caps did not come early, but when it arrived it did so in waves. Late in the first period, Brendan Gaunce tried to backhand the puck off the side boards and out of the Vancouver zone, but managed only to get as far as Matt Niskanen at the blue line.  Niskanen sent a shot at the Canuck net, just as Marcus Johansson was crossing in front in the low slot. Johansson got enough of the puck as it was sailing by to redirect it past goalie Jacob Markstrom, and it was 1-0 for the Caps at the 17:17 mark.

Fifteen seconds later, the Caps had a 2-0 lead. From behind his net, Markstrom tried to send the puck around the boards and out of danger, but Karl Alzner pinched down the wall and sent the puck back the way it came.  Johansson got to the puck and fed Evgeny Kuznetsov behind the cage.  Kuznetsov sent the puck out into the high slot where Tom Wilson was filling in.  His shot snuck under a leaping Alzner and past Markstrom at the 17:33 mark.

It might have made for a great end to the first period, but Vancouver halved the lead with just 5.6 seconds left when Jannik Hansen was left all alone to the right of goalie Philipp Grubauer, in the right position to snap home a rebound of an Eric Gudbranson shot to close the first period scoring.

Washington restored their two-goal lead mid-way through the second period on a power play.  Nicklas Backstrom patiently surveyed the Canuck defensive layout from the right wing wall, selecting T.J. Oshie for a shot from between the hash marks. Oshie’s drive hit the post to Markstrom’s right and caromed behind him to the other side of the net.  Johansson batted home the loose puck before Markstrom could recover, and it was 3-1 8:58 into the period. 

Vancouver got back within a goal late in the period, a case of just one too many Canucks getting to loose pucks in close.  A shot by Jake Virtanen was stopped by Grubauer, but the puck popped out to Sven Baertschi to Grubauer’s left.  His shot caromed behind Grubauer to Bo Horvat on the other side of the net, and Horvat had a lay up to make it 3-2 with just 2:43 left in the period.

Washington nursed the one-goal lead for 17 minutes of the third period; then they put the game away.  Nate Schmidt fed the puck from his blue line up to Andre Burakovsky sailing down the right wing.  Gaining the Vancouver zone, Burakovsky fed the puck to T.J. Oshie skating down the middle.  Oshie unloaded a howitzer that beat Markstrom cleanly over his blocker, and it was 4-2 with just 2:27 left in the game. 

Karl Alzner closed the scoring when he collected a loose puck in the corner to the left of Grubauer and fired the puck off the boards and down the ice, a shot that took six full seconds from Alzner’s stick to the back of the empty Canuck net (we timed it).  And with that, the two-game losing streak was history, Caps beating the Canucks, 5-2.

Other stuff…

-- Goals by Tom Wilson and Karl Alzner were their first goals of the season, respectively.

-- T.J. Oshie’s “assist” on Marcus Johansson’s power play goal, coming off a shot attempt that hit the post and caromed to Johansson, was Oshie’s first assist of the season.

-- The Caps killed all three Vancouver power plays, breaking a three-game streak in which the Caps allowed a power play goal.  It was the second time in seven games the Caps shut out the opponent’s power play.

-- Every Capital had at least one shot on goal except Dmitry Orlov and Zach Sanford.

-- The Caps were 14-for-23 on offensive zone faceoffs (60.9 percent), offsetting a 12-for-25 effort in the defensive zone (48.0 percent).

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov had an assist, making it four games in five that he recorded a point.  He also was on the good side of 50 percent on draws (7-for-13/53.8 percent), which has not been a regular feature of his game this year.

-- This was the sixth straight game in which the Caps allowed fewer than 30 shots on goal.  They have yet to allow more than 30 in a game this season, having allowed 30 shots to Pittsburgh in the season opener against the Penguins.

-- Alex Ovechkin did not record a point, the first time he failed to record a point in a game in which the Caps scored five or more goals since he was blanked in a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on November 12, 2015.  He had at least a point in ten straight games in which the Caps scored five or more goals until last night.

-- Andre Burakovsky had a bit of an odd game.  He had an assist, three shots on goal, five shot attempts.  He did not have another mark on his score sheet.  No hits, no blocked shots, no takeaways, no giveaways, no faceoffs taken.

-- The Caps had an overwhelming possession edge, outshooting Vancouver, 31-20 at 5-on-5, and out-attempting them 56-35 (61.5 percent Corsi-for; numbers from Corsica.hockey).

In the end…

Good game, good timing.  This is more what Caps fans expect, but it is hard to perform at this level consistently, especially on the road.  But the Caps got a lot of contributions from a lot of different sources.   Four different players had goals (none named “Ovechkin), and nine of the 18 skaters had points, including three of the six defensemen (Karl Alzner, Matt Niskanen, and Nate Schmidt).  It was a nice result to serve as just the lead-in for the next game, Sunday night against Calgary.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 7: Capitals at Canucks, October 29th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals will take the ice in the second of a four-game road trip through western Canada when they visit Vancouver on Saturday night to face the Canucks.  The Caps will be looking to start a winning streak after losing consecutive games to the New York Rangers and Edmonton Oilers, while the Canucks will be trying to end a three-game losing streak (0-2-1) after starting the season with four wins.

Vancouver has not been an especially hospitable place for the Caps.  Their 3-2 win over the Canucks last October was their first since they skated off with a 4-3 overtime win in February 2001, breaking a six-game losing streak in British Columbia (0-5-1).

Through seven games, the Canucks have not been an especially dominating offensive team.  In fact, they are anemic in that regard.  They scored more than three goals just once, and that was in an overtime win (4-3 over Carolina on October 16th) and average just 2.00 goals per game, last in the league.  The difference in their four-game winning streak to start the season and the three-game losing streak they bring into this game is in allowing goals.  The Canucks allowed just six goals in their four wins, but they allowed ten in their three losses.

Vancouver’s offense, such as it is, comes from the usual suspects – the Sedin brothers, Daniel and Henrik.  Now 36 years of age, the twins show little evidence of slowing down.  Daniel, the left winger of the pair, recorded 28 goals last season, the most he had since he finished with 30 in 2011-2012.  In fact, since he had 12 goals in the season that followed, the abbreviated 2012-2013 season, his goals have increased with each year (from 12 to 16 to 20 to 28 last year).  He is in a bit of a rut, coming into this contest having posted consecutive games without a point for the first time this season.  Daniel is 7-6-13, plus-3 in 16 career games against the Caps.

Brother Henrik, the center of the duo, is tied for the team lead in goals (3, with Bo Horvat) and points (5, with Brandon Sutter).  His numbers, unlike those of brother Daniel, did dip a bit last season.  His games played in 2015-2016 dropped from 82 in 2014-2015 to 74, his goals dropped from 18 to 11, and his total points slid from 73 to 55.  His 44 assists in 74 games was the second lowest on a per game basis (0.59/game) since the 2004-2005 lockout (0.56 in 2013-2014).  Going into Friday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers, his minus-4 is second worst on the team (Phillip Larsen is minus-5).  That is a particularly odd situation for Henrik to find himself in, since he has not finished a season in minus territory since he was minus-2 in his rookie season in 2000-2001.  But, it’s early.  He is 3-11-14, plus-3 in 17 career games against Washington.

To the extent the Canucks have had their troubles, it has not been a product of goaltending.  The only difference between the performances of Ryan Miller and Jacob Markstrom thus far has been the scoring support in front of them.  Their goals against averages are almost identical (Markstrom: 1.95; Miller: 1.97), as are their save percentages (Markstrom: .923; Miller: .933), the difference between them being one goal Markstrom allowed that, had he stopped it, would leave him with the same save percentage as Miller.  Perhaps that goal was the game-tying goal he allowed to the Los Angeles Kings in his last time out that led to the only blemish on his record, a Gimmick loss that left him 3-0-1.  On the other hand, Miller is just 1-2-0, but he’s had just three goals of offensive support in three games.  His lone win came in the trick shot competition, a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames in the season opener.  Markstrom is 0-3-0, 3.97, .875 in three career appearances against the Caps, while Miller is 17-14-0, 2.54, .916, with three shutouts in 32 appearances against Washington.

 

1.  Goals in general are hard to come by in games involving the Canucks.  So far, only the New Jersey Devils (4.17 total goals) feature fewer total goals by both teams per game than the 4.29 in Canuck games.

2.  Vancouver is last in the league in shots on goal (24.9), leaving little in the way of surprise as to why they are last in scoring offense.

3.  The Canucks are 28th in the league in home power play efficiency (6.3 percent on 1-for-16).  One of the teams below them (Carolina) has not yet played a home game.

4.  Vancouver replaced the Caps as the least penalized team in the league.  They have taken only 20 penalties thus far (tied with Columbus for fewest), only 19 minor penalties (tied with Columbus and the Caps), and their 6:08 in penalty minutes per game is lowest in the league.

5.  All of Vancouver’s wins so far are of the one-goal variety (tied for most one-goal wins in the league).  They have not yet won a multi-goal decision (0-2-1).

1.  The Caps are coming into this game looking to avoid losing three straight games in regulation time since Games 61-63 of the 2014-2015 season (to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Carolina).

2.  Alex Ovechkin is on a four-game goal streak. The last one of those he had was in Games 49-52 last season (against Philadelphia, Nashville, Minnesota (a hat trick), and Dallas).  The last time he had a longer streak was in the five games to start last season.  Coincidentally, the fifth game in that five-game streak to open last season came against the Canucks in Vancouver.

3.  Washington is second in the league in shots on goal (33.5).  They are also last in the league in shooting percentage (7.0).

4.  The Caps have scored first in five of six games so far, but they have just three wins in those games (tied for 13th in winning percentage…don’t make a lot of that at this point of the season).

5.  If he gets the call on Saturday, it will be Braden Holtby’s 250th game in the NHL.  He would join Don Beaupre (269) and Olaf Kolzig (711) as the only goalies to reach the 250 game mark in club history.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Vancouver: Brandon Sutter

Last season was something of a lost year for center Brandon Sutter. After being traded by the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Vancouver Canucks along with a third-round draft pick for Nick Bonino, Adam Clendening, and a second-round draft pick, he played in just 20 games for the Canucks last season, losing 33 games to a hernia and the last 29 to a broken jaw from a puck to the face barely a week after he returned from his hernia injury.  He finished the season 5-4-9 in 20 games, about the same scoring pace he had in his last season in Pittsburgh in which he tied his career high in goals (21) and recorded more than 30 points (33) for the first time in three seasons.  He has started quickly, points-wise (five points, tied for the team lead), even if his goals are few (one so far).  He comes into this game with his first consecutive games of the year without a point and his first two “minus” games.  Sutter is 3-6-9, plus-5, in 32 career games against the Caps.

Washington: Daniel Winnik

Fourth liners scoring goals is unusual.  Fourth liners having a multi-goal game is shocking.  Such was the case for Daniel Winnik when he recorded both of the Caps’ goals, including the game-winner, in a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders on October 15th.  However shocking that might be, it is usually the fans who are shocked.  In this instance, Winnik appears to have sustained something of an after-shock.  In four games since his outburst, he does not have a goal, he does not have a point, and his has just one shot on goal.  On the other hand, the lack of scoring hasn’t been accompanied by being a liability in the defensive end.  Winnik is “even” in each of his last four games, and he remains a positive Corsi player at 5-on-5 (51.35 percent; numbers from Corsica.hockey).  Players can contribute in many ways.  He is 6-7-13, plus-10, in 30 career games against the Canucks.

In the end…

Six games is 7.3 percent of an NHL season.  In that respect, losing a couple of games in a row is no reason for panic.  And, as if it means much just 7.3 percent of the way through the season, the Caps are still a wild-card team.  But this is an interesting stretch of games coming up for the Caps, staring in Vancouver.  The Canucks have lost three in a row (pending their game against Edmonton on Friday night), Calgary is 3-4-1, Winnipeg (with whom the Caps have a home-and-home coming up) are 3-4-0, and Florida is 3-3-1.  These are all winnable games, but the Caps need to improve on both sides of special teams and generally give their goalies more support than they have thus far received.  It’s only “early” for so long.

Capitals 4 – Canucks 2

A NO-Point Night -- Game 6: Edmonton Oilers 4 - Washington Capitals 1

The Washington Capitals got off on the wrong foot in the first of their four-game western Canada trip, dropping a 4-1 decision to the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night. The Caps held phenom Connor McDavid without a goal, but they could not keep the secondary scorers off the score sheet, and their offensive struggles in the early season continued.

After a scoreless first period, the Oilers got a pair of goals from the well-traveled Benoit Pouliot in the second period. The first came in the eighth minute of the period when he and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins pressed the Caps back into their own end. As Nugent-Hopkins carried the puck into the Caps’ zone on a 2-on-2 rush, Pouliot drove down the middle to the net. It put him in perfect position to redirect a shot past goalie Braden Holtby to give the Oilers the lead.

Late in the period, Pouliot struck again. Holtby stopped a Nugent-Hopkins shot, but left the rebound to his right. Pouliot swept in an backhanded the puck off the end boards to himself. Then, from below the goal line he swatted the puck off Holtby’s leg and banked it into the net to make it 2-0 going into the second intermission.

The Caps halved the lead off the opening faceoff of the third period. Andre Burakovsky gathered up the loose puck in the neutral zone and skated into the Edmonton end. He turned and sent the puck back to Matt Niskanen at the right point, and from there Niskanen sent it to the Oiler net. Goalie Cam Talbot made the initial stop, but Alex Ovechkin was standing at the top of the crease to put back the rebound, and it was 2-1 just nine seconds into the period.

That was as close as the Caps got. Patrick Maroon restored the two-goal lead barely a minute after the Ovechkin goal, converting a rebound off a 3-on-2 rush. Milan Lucic ended the scoring on a power play, deflecting an Andrej Sekera drive from the top of the crease at the 9:57 mark to make it 4-1, Oilers, and send the Edmonton fans home in a happy mood.

Other stuff…

-- Until last night, the Caps went 100 straight games without losing consecutive regular season games in regulation time, including the entire 2015-2016 season.  The Caps have now lost consecutive games in regulation to the Oilers and to the New York Rangers.

--  Game 6 makes five times in six outings that the Caps allowed a power play goal.  It might be a signal of how bad things are that the Caps allowed a power play goal on four Oiler power play opportunities, and the Caps improved their penalty killing efficiency (from 71.4 to 72.2 percent).

-- The power play went 0-for-3, the fifth time in six games that the Caps failed to turn on the red light with a man advantage.  They are now 28^th in the league on the power play (10.5 percent).

-- The power play did not lack for shots.  They had nine shots on goal in six minutes of power play ice time.  It says something that T.J. Oshie had four of them.  What that something is, we are not quite sure.

-- Karl Alzner, Lars Eller, and Johno Carlson led the Caps in even strength shots on goal (three apiece). The top two forward lines had a total of six even strength shots on goal.

-- The second period continues to be a concern.  Washington allowed two goals in the middle frame last night, bringing their season total of second period goals allowed to eight.  They have allowed only five goals combined in the first and third periods, and overtime.  They have been outscored in the second periods of games, 8-2.

-- Brooks Orpik and Daniel Winnik were the only Caps not to record a shot attempt. 

-- Since recording a pair of goals against the New York Islanders, Winnik has just one shot on goal in four games.

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov is still struggling to get to the 40 percent line in faceoff winning percentage.  He was 9-for-22 last night (40.9 percent), leaving him at 39.4 percent for the season, 127^th of 139 players having taken at least 25 draws.

-- Braden Holtby allowed his first third period goal of the season last night, then allowed another one.  The Caps have still allowed the fewest third period goals this season (3).  They are also tied for having allowed the fewest first period goals (2, with three other teams).

In the end…

You get the feeling that the Caps just are not taking things seriously yet.  They have stretches of decent play, but the goals Edmonton scored last night largely reflected a more hungry attitude than the Caps displayed.  And there are aspects of performance that have gone from being odd to annoying to a concern – both sides of special teams and their ability to hold teams in the second periods of games.  They are getting a fine and consistent effort from Alex Ovechkin (goals in four straight games), but the rest of the team’s offense is a step or two too slow.  The road is a chance to work things out, and the Caps have three more games to shake the rust off, or they could find themselves looking up at more than the three teams now ahead of them in the Metropolitan Division standings.  And even if it is “early,” it can get late pretty quick if there are a lot of teams to climb over in the standings.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 6: Capitals at Oilers, October 26th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals embark on their first extended road trip of the young season this week, starting their journey with a stop in Edmonton on Wednesday night to take on the Oilers.  An early season meeting against the Oilers has become an early season staple of the Capitals schedule, and this is the fourth time the Caps will meet the Oilers in October in five years (the only interruption being the abbreviated 2012-2013 season).  Washington and Edmonton have alternated victories in that four-game stretch, the Caps winning the last meeting of the clubs in Edmonton by a 7-4 margin last season.

The Oilers that the Caps will face this time around have to qualify as one of the big early season surprises.  Entering this contest on a three-game winning streak, Edmonton has a 5-1-0 record that is best in the Western Conference and is second in the league only to the Montreal Canadiens (5-0-1).  What sets this team apart from recent, disappointing versions of the Oilers is that this version is adding defense and goaltending to a prolific offense.  Last year’s 27^th-ranked scoring defense is currently ranked ninth in that category.  The improvement in their scoring defense, married to a deadly offense (tied for first in goals per game) has the Oilers second in the league in scoring differential (plus-1.16 goals per game).

The Oilers have seven players with at least two goals so far, a group led by Connor McDavid.  Coming off an injury-shortened rookie season that still left him fourth among rookies in points and third in assists, McDavid was named the youngest team captain in NHL history this season, at 19 years and 266 days old when named, 20 days younger than Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog when he was named the Avs’ captain in 2012.  Going into Tuesday’s games, McDavid was tied for the league lead in multi-point games (three), and he is the only player in the league with two three-point games.  The odd part about his scoring profile is that he recorded all four goals and five assists he has so far in four games against Western Conference teams.  He is looking for his first points against an Eastern Conference team, having been blanked by Buffalo and Carolina.  He has faced the Caps just once so far in his career, going 1-1-2, minus-2, in the Oilers’ 7-4 loss to the Caps last October.

At the other end of the age scale among the multi-goal scorers for the Oilers is Mark Letestu (31).  His goal scoring has an odd aspect to it as well.  Both of his tallies came on the road, in Calgary in a 5-3 win and in Winnipeg in a 3-0 win last Sunday.  Letestu has carved out a solid career as primarily a checking line forward that can chip in occasional offense.  He has had at least ten goals in five of his six full seasons in the league coming into this season, missing out when he sat out 28 games of the 2014-2015 season with a groin injury and finishing with seven goals.  Now in his second year in Edmonton, the Oilers are his third NHL team, having played for Pittsburgh and Columbus.

Edmonton’s offense is certainly weighted on the forward side of the roster.  Only one defenseman has a goal this season.  That one came off the stick of Darnell Nurse in the Oilers’ last game, a 3-0 win over Winnipeg.  Nurse, who was the seventh overall pick in the 2013 entry draft, is the youngest defenseman to dress for the Oilers so far this season (he will turn 22 in February).  Only 13 of the 214 defensemen to dress so far this season are younger than Nurse.  Last season was his first full season with the Oilers, and he finished with three goals and ten points in 69 games.  He is also a middle-of-the-pack defenseman on a team with poor possession numbers among their blueliners (47.20 Corsi-for at 5-on-5).    He is without a point and even in plus-minus in his only appearance against the Caps.

1.  Speaking of poor possession numbers, no defenseman for Edmonton is at 50 percent or better in Corsi-for at fives.  Oscar Klefbom is tops at 49.11 percent (numbers from Corsica.hockey).

2.  Twelve of 21 skaters to dress for Edmonton so far this season are 25 or younger.

3.  The Oilers lead the league in overall shooting percentage (13.3 percent).  It’s a good thing, too, because they have the fifth-worst shots per game differential in the league (minus-4.4).

4.  Only Calgary (53:39) and Anaheim (47:57) have spent more time (through Monday’s games) killing penalties this year that the Oilers (40:50).  The power play/penalty killing time differential is sixth worst in the league (minus-9:10).  Only four teams have taken more minor penalties than Edmonton (28).

5.  Edmonton is 24^th in team Corsi-for at 5-on-5 (47.07 percent).  This is part of an odd early-season scenario in which four of the top seven teams in the league standings (Montreal, Vancouver, Detroit, and the Oilers) are among the bottom 11 in Corsi-for (numbers from Corsica.hockey).

1.  No Capitals defenseman has recorded a goal so far this season.  As a group, they are shooting 0-for-49.  However, all six of them have points.  But, only one of them (Dmitry Orlov) has a power play point.

2.  Washington is the least penalized team in the league, fewest overall (17) and fewest minor penalties (14).  However, the fact that they have two fighting majors on their record means that they are fifth-lowest in penalty minutes per game (8:00).

3.  Only Columbus (39:02) has spent less ice time on special teams (power play time plus penalty kill time) than the Caps, who are tied for second least (49:31).

4.  No team in the league has taken fewer faceoffs per game than the Caps.  They are tied with Carolina, taking 57.2 faceoffs per game (Carolina’s winning percentage is better, 56.3 percent to the Caps’ 52.1 percent).

5.  Washington has allowed the fewest shot attempts per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 so far this season (47.38; numbers from Corsica.Hockey).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Edmonton: Milan Lucic

On a team with 12 skaters age 25 or younger, Milan Lucic is almost a graybeard at the age of 28. After spending his first eight NHL seasons with the Boston Bruins, Lucic was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in June 2015 and signed with Edmonton as a free agent this past summer.  Lucic has been a player with an interesting mix of offensive skill (six straight seasons coming into this one averaging at least half a point per game) and a physical edge (more than 200 hits in four of his last five seasons, interrupted only by the abbreviated 2012-2013 season).  He is getting a lot of work with his new team, currently posting the highest average ice time of his career (18:25) and second among forwards only to Connor McDavid (21:07).  On a team with considerable skill among its forwards, Lucic’ contributions in that area make the Oilers a much more formidable team.  He is 6-14-20, minus-3, in 29 career games against the Capitals.

Washington: John Carlson

John Carlson leads the Capitals in ice time per game (23:57) and is second among skaters in shots on goal (17 to Alex Ovechkin’s 21).  But all he has to show for that in the offensive end to date is one point, an assist in the Caps’ 2-1 win over the New York Islanders in the home opener.  Only Los Angeles’ Jake Muzzin has fewer points (none) with more ice time per game (24:10).  Carlson ranks fifth in shots on goal by league defensemen, but his 17 shots on goal without a tally is the most shots on goal for a defensemen without a goal in the league.  He is keeping some good company in that regard, though.  Through Monday’s games, Kevin Bieksa was 0-for-16, Kris Letang was 0-for-16, Duncan Keith was 0-for-16.  With Carlson, that would be a pretty good top-four.  But the Caps need to get more out of their blueline than what they have so far (no goals among the six defensemen to dress).  And it starts with Carlson.  He is 1-5-6, plus-11, in 22 career games against Edmonton.

In the end…

These aren’t your father's Oilers.  Well, not your older brother’s Oilers.  At the moment they do look a little like your father’s Oilers with Connor McDavid doing a passable version of Wayne Gretzky, Jordan Eberle doing a decent job of being Jari Kurri, and…well, there is no current version of Paul Coffey.  The point being that this team, at least in the early going, has made life difficult for goalies, and unlike recent editions of the club appear to have an ability to keep pucks out of their own net.  It remains to be seen if this is merely an early-season blip, or if it is a hint of things to come with this team.  For purposes of this game it hardly matters.  If the Caps get caught up in a track meet with the Oilers, the start of the western Canada trip is likely to get off to a bad start.  It will be important for the Caps to impose their will on the Oilers’ skill.  Break out those t-shirts.

Capitals 3 – Oilers 2

Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was -- Week 2

The Washington Capitals dropped the puck on their 2016-2017 season this week, and it was something of a mixed bag.  A win and a loss, some fine 5-on-5 play, less than fine play from special teams, performances you expect from some players, and performances from some players Caps fans will hope improves before too long. 

Record: 2-1-0

The Caps opened Week 2 with a pair of wins, putting them in a position to end the week with their best five-game start since opening the 2011-2012 season with seven wins.  The New York Rangers put an end to that thinking with a 4-2 win over Washington to end the week.  It did not keep the Caps from ending the week on top of the Metropolitan Division, a rather clogged division at the moment with three points separating the top spot (Washington with 7) and eighth place (Carolina with four).  When the Caps lost their last game of the week, they became the 28^th team to lose their first game in regulation time.  Only the Vancouver Canucks and Montreal Canadiens (both with 4-0-1 records) remain as clubs yet to lose their first game in regulation time.

Offense:  3.00/game (season: 2.60 /game; rank: T-24th)

It was the top line’s week to shine, accounting for six of the nine goals scored by the Caps for the week.  Alex Ovechkin put aside the donut he had in Week 1 and scored in each of the week’s three contests.  T.J. Oshie had a pair in the Caps’ 3-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche to open the week, and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored one in the Caps’ 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers in the middle game of the week.  Justin Williams cracked the seal on his season with a goal to open the Caps’ win over Florida, and Lars Eller did the same in opening the scoring in the 4-2 loss to the Rangers.  Marcus Johansson had a goal and two assists to tie Kuznetsov for second on the team in points for the week.  It was a week that might have been better had the Caps not gone dry after taking a 2-0 lead on the Rangers in the game to end the week.

Defense: 2.00/game (season:  1.80/game; rank: T-2nd)

When Week 2 ended, only two teams in the league had not allowed more than 30 shots on goal in a game – the Florida Panthers (who have yet to allow as many as 30) and the Caps (who allowed 30 only in an overtime game against the Penguins).  The Caps held three opponents in Week 2 to an average of 27.3 shots per game, only 18 of them to the Colorado Avalanche in a 3-0 win. It left the Caps with the second-fewest shots allowed per game in the league (24.8; the New York Rangers have allowed 24.6).

From a shot attempts perspective it was a good week.  At 5-on-5 the Caps out attempted their opponents by a 127-108 margin, a Corsi-for of 54.04 percent (numbers from Corsica.hockey).  That went a long way to explaining the Caps shots on goal advantage at fives (78-55/58.65 percent) and their 5-on-5 goal differential (plus-4).

Goaltending: 1.68 /.930 / 1 SO (season: 1.58 / .935 / 1 SO)

Few Capitals fans would have bet it would be Philipp Grubauer would be the first Capital goalie to get a shutout this season, but he did, against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday (he beat Semyon Varlamov, who happens to be the only goalie in the Western Conference with a shutout through two weeks).  Grubauer faced just 18 shots in the shutout, the fewest a Capital goaltender faced in a shutout since Varlamov faced 17 with the Caps in a 6-0 win over Tampa Bay on November 26, 2010.

Braden Holtby got the other two starts of the week, and in five of the six periods he played, he was very good.  That second period against the Rangers to close the week, though. Three goals on five shots faced.  It certainly was not all his fault.  As is often the case, defensive breakdowns contributed, at least on two of the goals (the shot through a screen by Brandon Pirri to start the scoring for the Rangers was a goal that is not unusual).  As it was, he finished the week with a .906 save percentage, not usually what Caps fans see from Holtby.

Power Play: 2-for-8 / 25..0 percent (season:  percent; rank: T-21st)

It looked as if the Caps’ power play shook off the early season rust in the first game of the week, scoring two power play goals in three chances to open the game against Colorado on Tuesday.  It would be all they would get, though.  The Caps went 0-for-5 to close the week.  Overall they shot 2-for-14 on their eight power plays in 12:54 of power play time.  They overpowered the Avalanche with 11 shots in just 6:54 of power play time, and they were barren against the Rangers, managing only one shot on goal in 4:00.  It might be worth noting at this point that Alex Ovechkin, the first shooting option on the power play, had just two shots on goal for the week, both against the Avalanche (one goal).  Teams seem to be forcing the set-up guys with pressure, making them give up the puck earlier than they might want to in trying to set up plays for Ovechkin. 

Penalty Killing: 8-for-10 / 80.0 percent (season:  percent; rank: T-26th)

The Caps managed something they failed to do in Week 1, hold a team without a power play goal.  But they only did it once in three games in Week 2.  Colorado was the victim, failing on three chances to find the back of the Washington net.  Florida got one in the 4-2 loss to the Caps, and the Rangers got one in their 4-2 win over Washington.  All in all, the Caps did kill eight of ten shorthanded situations.  It was not as if teams riddled the Caps with shots.  The three opponents managed just 12 shots on goal in 16:59 in ice time.  There was an odd juxtaposition in the power play goals allowed for the week.  The first of them was scored by Jaromir Jagr, a veteran in his 23^rd season with more than 1,800 regular season and playoff games in the NHL.  The other was scored by Jimmy Vesey, a rookie born two and a half years after Jagr played his first game in the league who was playing in his fifth NHL game.

Faceoffs: 81-for-161 / 50.3 percent (season: 52.1% / rank: 8th)

It was the good, the bad, and the “meh” in the fsaceoff circle for Week 2.  The good was the Caps winning 59 percent of their offensive zone draws for the week.  Nicklas Backstrom had a great week in the offensive end, going 14-for-20 in the offensive end.  Lars Eller was 6-for-9.  The defensive end was a different story.  The Caps were just 39.1 percent in their own end, Jay Beagle and Backstrom the only players taking more than five draws to win 50 percent of their draws.  Eller had a difficult week in the defensive end, going 4-for-13 (30.8 percent).  In the neutral zone, the Caps went 27-for-54 to complete the “meh” portion of the week.  The concern here overall is the performance of the top line center, Evgeny Kuznetsov.  He was 14-for-39 for the week and is just 38.9 percent through five games.  Of 130 players having taken at least 25 draws so far, Kuznetsov ranks 118^th in winning percentage.

Goals by Period:

The second period kept the Caps from a perfect week.  Three goals in 12 minutes did the Caps in against the Rangers in the 4-2 loss to close the week.  Washington allowed four second period goals for the week, pushing their total to six for the season and putting them in the top ten of most goals allowed in the middle frame (tied for 10^th with San Jose and St. Louis).  Those six goals allowed in the second period are twice as many as the Caps allowed in the other two periods and overtime combined through five games.

In the end…

A 2-1-0 record in week two is hardly a poor outcome, but that second period against the Rangers is probably going to be the takeaway for the week.  The problem was summed up nicely by captain Alex Ovechkin after the game: “We scored first two goals, and I think we felt like it’s going to be over.”   You would think guys with as many games in hockey as those who play for the Caps would, in just the fifth game of the season, not succumb to such perils, but yet it happens, and not just to the Caps.  Still, it was the wrong way to end the early eastern portion of the season as the Caps get ready to head to western Canada for a four-game tour.

Three Stars:

• First Star: Alex Ovechkin (3-1-4, plus-3, 13 shots, 20 shot attempts, nine hits)
• Second Star: Philipp Grubauer (1-0-0, 0.00, 1.000, 18-save shutout)
• Third Star: Evgeny Kuznetsov (1-2-3, plus-3, nine shots, 15 shot attempts)

A NO-Point Night -- Game 5: New York Rangers 4 - Washington Capitals 2

For 15 minutes on Saturday night, it looked as if the Washington Capitals would continue their early season run of success.  Then, in a 12 minute stretch in the second period, it fell apart as the New York Rangers skated off with a 4-2 win at Verizon Center.

Lars Eller got the Caps off and running less than two minutes into the game when he redirected a shot from Brooks Orpik up and past the left shoulder of goalie Henrik Lundqvist to make it 1-0.  Alex Ovechkin pulled one out of the old right wing playbook for the Caps’ second goal when skating into the right wing circle in the Rangers’ zone, he faked pushing the puck to the middle, pulled it back to the outside, and as defenseman Marc Staal bit on the fake, Ovechkin snapped a shot past Lundqvist’s blocker on the far side to make it 2-0, 14:49 into the period.

That was how the teams went to the first period intermission, and after that it was all Rangers.  Or, more precisely, it was all Rangers for a 12:01 stretch of the second period.  It started with Brandon Pirri using Nate Schmist as a screen and snapping a shot past the glove of goalie Braden Holtby 2:21 into the second period.  At 11:22, Jimmy Vesey tied the game on a power play, converting a pass from Rick Nash for a tap in to the left of Holtby. 

Three minutes later, Vesey scored what would be the game-winner.  Taking a pass from Mats Zuccarello inside the Caps’ blue line, Vesey curled in and got position on defenseman Karl Alzner before backhanding the puck over Holtby’s left pad at the 14:22 mark.

The teams fought on even terms thereafter, the Rangers holding on and the Caps searching for the equalizer, but it was Rick Nash getting an empty netter in the last minute to give the Rangers the 4-2 win.

Other stuff…

-- With the Caps’ loss, there are now two teams (at least of this writing) that have yet to lose in regulation – Vancouver and Montreal.

-- The penalty kill continues to struggle.  The goal by Jimmy Vesey made it four games in five in which the Caps allowed a power play goal.  They are now 10-for-14 (71.4 percent).

-- The empty net goal was the first third period goal the Caps allowed this season.

-- Over the first 29:20 of the game, the Caps were charged with 12 giveaways, the Ranger with none.

-- We had Justin Williams as the player to ponder against Florida, and he scored his first goal of the season.  We had Lars Eller as the player to ponder for this game, and he scored his first goal of the season.  Better start thinking about the Edmonton game.

-- There were only 14 faceoffs in the Capitals’ defensive zone all night.  The Caps won six of them.

-- Nicklas Backstrom was a minus-2 for the night, his first minus-2 since March 4^th of last season, also against the Rangers.

-- The Caps still have not allowed an opponent more than 30 shots on goal in a game.  The Rangers had 26.  The only time an opponent hit the 30-shot mark was the Penguins in the opener, a game that wen the full 65 minutes of regulation and overtime.

-- Jay Beagle and Marcus Johansson did not record a shot attempt.  One of those is unsurprising.  Another one is disappointing.

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov gets the buffet coupon for this game… one assist, two shots, three attempts blocked, two misses, two hits, a giveaway, a takeaway, and he won five of 14 draws.

In the end…

Scoring first is among the best predictors of success in the NHL. Getting out to a two-goal lead, especially when you haven’t allowed more than two goals in a game yet, should have been a lock.  That it was not spoke to some lackadaisical play on the part of the Caps in the second period.  The Caps allowed the Rangers too much freedom too close to their own net to convert opportunities.  And once the Caps lost the momentum, they could not quite get it back, even though they held the Rangers to 12 shots on their goaltender in the last two periods.  It was not the way the team wanted to wrap things up at home before heading out to western Canada next week.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 5: Rangers at Capitals, October 22nd

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

After a brief trip out of town and out of the Metropolitan Division, the Washington Capitals return home to face a familiar foe on Saturday night.  The New York Rangers make their first trip to Washington having stumbled to a 2-2-0 record in their first four games of the season.  But if you think that start has any hidden meaning Caps fans, just remember that after starting the 2014-2015 season 1-3-0, the Blueshirts went on to post a 53-22-7 record and win the Presidents Trophy.

As for this club, so far it has been a case of if they score, they win; if they don’t, they don’t.  New York scored a total of 12 goals in their two wins (5-3 over the New York Islanders in the season opener and 7-4 over the San Jose Sharks last Monday), while they managed just a total of three goals in losses to the St. Louis Blues (3-2) and the Red Wings (2-1).

As it is, the Rangers are tied for fourth in the league in team scoring (3.75 goals per game), and ten players share the 15 goals scored.  That group is led by Chris Kreider who, after some suspense, avoided salary arbitration and signed a four-year deal over the summer to extend his stay in Manhattan through the 2019-2020 season.  Kreider has confirmed the faith of Ranger management, at least in the early going.  He had a goal and an assist in each of the Rangers’ first three games and recorded an assist in his last game, the 2-1 loss to the Red Wings on Thursday.  This should make Ranger fans happy, since in each of the past two seasons Kreider recorded a single goal in his first six contests (in 2014-2015).  failed to record a goal in his first Kreider has established himself as a solid complementary scorer, having pushed past the 40-point threshold in each of the last two seasons.  In 12 career games against the Caps, he is 3-1-4, plus-1.

Mika Zibenijad is second on the club in points (2-3-5) and has a good start toward extending a personal streak of what is now five straight seasons of improvements in goal scoring and points.  Last season, with the Ottawa Senators, Zibanejad set personal highs in goals (21), assists (30), and points (51).  In four games with the Rangers so far this season he has been held without a point just once.  That, oddly enough, came in the Rangers’ 7-4 win over San Jose on Monday.  He was one of only seven skaters not to record a point.  In 13 career games against the Caps, Zibanejad is 4-2-6, minus-2.

The Rangers have one rookie among their goal-scorers.  Jimmy Vesey was a highly sought after free agent last summer coming off his winning the 2016 Hobey Baker Award as the top player in collegiate hockey.  He became a free agent when the Buffalo Sabres, who obtained the rights to Vesey from the Nashville Predators (who drafted him in 2012), could not sign him to a deal.  He recorded his first NHL goal in the 7-4 win over San Jose, it coming in a tap-in of a Derek Stepan feed that would be the game-winning goal.  This will be Vesey’s first appearance against the Caps.

1.  The Rangers have a whopping plus-10.2 shots for/shots against differential, best in the league (but only 0.2 shots per game better than the Caps).

2.  New York is tied for third in most third period goals allowed (7), but they have done it in fewer games (4) than any of the two teams ahead of them (San Jose and Chicago with five games apiece) or one of the teams with which they are tied (Chicago with 5 games).

3.  The Rangers and the Chicago Blackhawks are the only teams in the league to have lost two one-goal games without winning one.

4.  New York is third in the league in offensive zone faceoff efficiency (61.3 percent) trailing only Minnesota (62.6) and Carolina (64.3).

5.  What happened to Rick Nash?  Through four games he ranks eighth among forwards in power play ice time per game (2:04).  Jimmy Vesey (2:15), Pavel Buchnevich (3:20), and Brandon Pirri (3:20) have more.

1.  The Rangers are a team against which the Caps have struggled in the Rock the Red era.  Since the 2005-2006 season, the Caps are just 21-20-3.  And lest you think the toughest part of that stretch were in those first years after the 2004-2005 lockout, when the Caps were still rebuilding, Washington is just 9-13-1 in the last 23 meetings dating back to December 2010.

2.  Washington has allowed the fewest goals in the league (5) and fewest per game (1.25).  They have allowed the third-fewest number of shots per game (24.5).

3.  Only Vancouver (13) and Columbus (11) have taken fewer penalties than the Caps (14).  No team has taken fewer minor penalties (11), tied with the Canucks and Blue Jackets.

4.  Washington has allowed only two goals at 5-on-5 so far this season, three when shorthanded.  Colorado and Chicago are the only other teams to have allowed fewer goals at 5-on-5 than when at 4-on-5 (Chicago has allowed ten goals at 4-on-5 so far).

5.  The Caps remain the only team in the league yet to allow a goal after the second intermission of games this season.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

New York: Henrik Lundqvist

Sure, it’s early, but seeing a line of 1-2-0, 2.71, .875 attached to the name of Henrik Lundqvist is unexpected, but certainly not unusual.  Last season, Lundqvist won his first three decisions (3-0-0, 2.01, .903).  But in each of his previous five seasons, Lundqvist lost two or more of his first three decisions of the season.  Fast starts do not appear to be his thing.  Then again, he is the fourth-oldest goalie in the league (34).  A problem so far is, as you might expect, stopping pucks at even strength.  Among 44 goalies facing at least 25 shots at evens so far, he ranks 31^st in save percentage (.887).  Lundqvist is 19-9-4, 2.65, .906, with four shutouts in 32 career games against the Caps.

Washington: Lars Eller

In four games, Lars Eller has yet to record his first point as a Capital, has a 42.6 percent faceoff winning percentage, has barely more shots on goal (6) than penalty minutes (4), and has the worst Corsi-for at 5-on-5 on the team (48.28 percent, numbers from Corsica.hockey).  Yet one is hesitant to put the label “poor” on his play.  He has not been on ice for a goal against at even strength, or any strength.  And that faceoff winning percentage is depressed by a woeful (or victim of a small population of draws) offensive zone performance (30.0 percent).  Eller has not been an especially fast starter in recent years (two points in his first six games last season, none in his first five in 2014-2015), so one might hold the thought that he’s just working things out with his new club.  Eller is 3-4-7, plus-2 in 19 career games against the Rangers.

In the end…

Take a look at the Rangers, Caps fans.  That is a team whose window is closing rapidly, perhaps open only a crack.  Rick Nash is not nearly the goal scorer he once was, three rookies have dressed already for the club (Jimmy Vesey, Pavel Buchnevich, and Brady Skjei), they have new players sprinkled throughout their lineup (Mika Zibenajad, Michael Grabner, Josh Jooris), and Henrik Lundqvist is not going to last forever as a number one goalie.  That is a team in its third year removed from a Stanley Cup final and not on a short list of contenders to return there.  More than anything else in this game, the Rangers are an example of the stakes of this season for the Caps.  Teams do not get many chances to grab the brass ring – or hoist the Cup.  If not this year, the team the Caps are facing tonight might be what they look like a year or two down the road.

Capitals 4 – Rangers 1

A TWO-Point Night -- Game 4: Washington Capitals 4 - Florida Panthers 2

When the horn sounded at the end of last night’s contest between the Washington Capitals and the Florida Panthers, a Panther hit a milestone, but it was the Capitals skating off with the 4-2 win and two points.

The Caps started the scoring mid-way through the first period. Nate Schmidt skated the length of the ice and down the left wing wall to the corner to the right of goalie Roberto Luongo. Ducking under defenseman Aaron Ekblad, Schmidt sent the puck to the front of the net where it rattled around and ended up on the stick of Justin Williams. The first attempt by Williams hit Luongo’s pad and popped up in front of him. Williams got another whack at it and banked it off the post and behind Luongo to make it 1-0 at the 8:25 mark.

Less than two minutes later the Caps doubled their lead. Evgeny Kuznetsov started and ended the play. It began with Kuznetsov feeding Alex Ovechkin on the left wing heading into the Florida zone. Ovechkin tried to send the puck to T.J. Oshie, but the pass was broken up. Matt Niskanen stepped up and fired the loose puck at the Panther net, and before Luongo could glove the shot down, Kuznetsov skated through and redirected the puck down and past Luongo to give the Caps a two-goal lead 10:21 into the period.

Florida struck back on a goal by Mike Matheson three minutes later, and the teams went off at the end of the first period with the Caps holding a 2-1 lead. Fourteen minutes into the second period, the Panthers tied the game when a familiar face reached a career milestone. Having been stifled once already by goalie Braden Holtby, Jaromir Jagr found the back of the net for the 750th goal of his career. On a power play, Jagr backhanded the puck down the right wing wall to Jon Marchessault, who sent the puck deep to Aleksander Barkov below the goal line to the left of Holtby. Barkov sent the puck back out to Jagr skating down the slot, and Jagr one-timed it past Holtby to become just the third player in NHL history with 750 or more goals, joining Wayne Gretzky (894) and Gordie Howe (801).

The teams opened the third period tied at two apiece, but the Caps regained the lead in the eighth minute. T.J. Oshie tried to feed Alex Ovechkin at the right wing hash mark, but Ovechkin had his stick lifted before he could get off a shot. The puck slid out to Karl Alzner, who fed Matt Niskanen for a one-timer. On the way through, the puck was redirected by Ovechkin past Luongo’s left pad, and it was 3-2, Caps, at the 7:33 mark.

Marcus Johansson closed the scoring with less than two minutes left in regulation. Nicklas Backstrom chipped the puck off the right wing wall and down the ice where Jason Demers gave chase. Demers glanced back to see who was in pursuit, and it was just enough to allow the puck to escape his control. Johansson pounced on the loose puck, cut to the middle past Demers, and snapped the puck past Luongo with 1:20 remaining for the final margin in the Caps’ 4-2 win.

Other stuff…

-- Balanced scoring for the Caps was the key on offense. Three Caps recorded their first goals of the season: Justin Williams, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Marcus Johansson. Alex Ovechkin’s second goal of the season made it four goals from four different players. Seven different players recorded a total of eight points (Matt Niskanen had two assists).

-- Niskanen’s two-point game was his first on the road since he had a two-assist night against the Columbus Blue Jackets last January 19th, a 6-3 Caps win.

-- Four of the Caps’ defensemen did not record a shot on goal (Brooks Orpik, Karl Alzner, Nate Schmidt, and Dmitry Orlov). Niskanen and John Carlson had one apiece.

-- Washington was awarded just one power play, failing to convert on two shots. On the other side, they killed three of four Panther power plays, but that makes three games in four in which the Caps allowed a power play goal.  They are 26th in penalty killing (72.7 percent).

-- The Caps were just 24-for-55 in the faceoff circle (43.6 percent). If not for Lars Eller’s 9-for-13 performance, it would have looked a lot worse.

-- Florida out-attempted the Caps, 57-45, although the Caps outshot the Panthers at even-strength, 27-21.

-- Odd fact… seven of the 18 skaters recorded 22 shifts, including five of the 12 forwards.

-- Among goalies appearing in more than one game to date, Braden Holtby is third in save percentage (.938), trailing Montreal’s Al Montoya ((.962) and Boston’s Tuukka Rask (.947).

-- Home scoring? Washington was credited with only four takeaways, while the Panthers were credited with 16.

-- Four games, four times the Caps have not yielded a goal after the second intermission (four third periods and an overtime).  Washington is the only team left in the league that has not yielded a third period goal.

In the end…

Punch in, punch out.  Another solid, workmanlike performance by the Caps.  Balanced scoring, defending the Panther’s speed, opportunistic offense, solid goaltending (except for that throw-it-from-the-wall goal by Mike Matheson).  Before anyone thinks this was a less-than-dominating performance by the Caps, remember that this is a team that made the postseason last year and took the season series from the Caps.  It is good that the Caps are banking these points now, before they head to western Canada next week.  They get a chance to bank a couple more against the Rangers on Saturday.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 4: Capitals at Panthers, October 20th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

After sweeping their short two-game home stand, the Washington Capitals go on the road to try to win their first game away from Verizon Center this season and their third in a row overall when they visit the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.

The Caps and Panthers are similar in different ways.  Both have 2-0-1 records, but while the Caps recorded their two wins after opening the season with a Gimmick loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Panthers lost in the trick shot competition to the Tampa Bay Lightning after winning their first two games.  Both teams have a plus-3 goal differential, but while the Caps have done it with defense and goaltending (not allowing two goals in any game and four in all), the Panthers have had a little more of an offensive emphasis (three or more goals twice, nine in all).  Washington special teams have been good and bad, but it was a case of the “good” finally showing up in Game 3, when they had two power play goals in five chances and shut out the Colorado Avalanche on three opportunities.  The Panthers have been good and bad on a consistent basis.  Their power play (“bad”) has yet to record a goal, while the penalty kill (“good”0 has yet to allow a power play goal.

Florida does bring balance in goal scoring into this game.  Four players account for eight of the nine Panther goals, each of them with two in the early going.  And it is a young group.  Colton Sceviour is the oldest of the quartet at age 27, and he is in his first season with the Panthers after spending five seasons with the Dallas Stars.  His history has been as a modest secondary scorer (28 goals in 170 career games before this season), last year being the first in which he cracked double-digits (11 in 71 games).  What his goal scoring has been is timely.  One was a shorthanded goal in the Panthers’ 4-3 trick shot loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday, and the other was the game-winning goal in Florida’s 4-1 win over Detroit last Saturday.  In five career games against the Caps, Sceviour is 1-1-2, even.

Jonathan Marchessault is the next oldest member of the two-goal brigade (25), and he is with his third NHL team in his four-season career (Columbus and Tampa Bay were his previous stops).  Sticking with an NHL team has been the struggle, evidenced by his appearing in just 49 games over three seasons prior to this one, 45 of those games last year with the Lightning.  With eight goals in those 49 games prior to this season, it remains a question if he can keep up what scoring pace he has shown so far (we’re guessing he won’t), but he was a goal scorer in junior and the AHL (despite not having been drafted by an NHL club), recording 98 goals in 254 games with the Quebec Remparts in the QMJHL and 45 goals in 150 games with three teams in the AHL.  He is 0-1-1, even, in three career games against the Caps.

Vincent Trocheck’s early production should come as no surprise.  In his first two seasons with the Panthers, he recorded just 12 goals in 70 games.  Last year, though, he finished tied for third on the club with 25 goals in 76 contests.  He was also tied for second in game-winning goals for the Panthers last season (4), a year he closed with a rush, scoring four goals in his last five games of the regular season and six in his last ten games.  In those last ten games he was 6-6-12.  He seems not to have cooled off, and given he is 2-2-4, plus-1, in four career games against the Caps, he might not be cooling off on Thursday night, either.

Aleksander Barkov is the youngest of the group (21) and perhaps of whom the most is expected.  The second overall draft pick in 2013 took the express train the NHL, and his progress has been persistent and impressive.  He had eight goals in 54 games in his rookie season, 16 in 71 games in his sophomore campaign, and a team-leading 28 goals last season.  He is well-seasoned for a 21 year old, embarking on his fourth NHL season and having represented Finland in international tournaments in each of the last three years, including the just-completed World Cup.  He is not just a wonder at the offensive end of the ice, either.  He received votes for the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward, finishing sixth in the voting last season.  Barkov is 2-1-3, plus-5, in seven career games against Washington.

1.  Jaromir Jagr is the oldest skater in the league, by a lot.  He is 1,699 days older than Arizona’s Shane Doan.  His first game in the NHL (against the Caps…naturally) was on October 5, 1990.  How long ago is that?  It was four days after the first Walmart opened in the northeastern United States (in York, Pennsylvania).

2.  Jagr is the active leader in NHL games played with 1,632.  How many is that?  The entire likely defensive squad for the Caps (John Carlson, Karl Alzner, Matt Niskanen, Nate Schmidt, Dmitry Orlov, and Brooks Orpik) has a combined 1,605 games in a Capitals jersey.

3.  271 skaters who have dressed for games this season (of 593) and had not yet been born when Jagr took the ice for the first time in the NHL.

4.  Jagr is the active leader in career points with 1,869.  He could have sat out every season since 2005-2006 and still have an almost 100-point lead on the second place player.  He would have 1,432 points to 1,346 to Joe Thornton.

5.  If Jagr is getting old(er), he didn’t show it at the end of last season.  In his last 25 regular season games last year he went consecutive games without a point just once and finished 10-16-26, plus-10 in those 25 games.

1.  Jaromir Jagr is the active leader in career power play goals among active players, but he could yield that top spot to Alex Ovechkin this season.  Ovechkin, with 196, is just 13 behind Jagr (209).

2.  Ovechkin and Jagr are tied among active players for the top spot in career hat tricks (15).

3.  Ovechkin has only Jagr and Jarome Iginla ahead of him among active goal scorers (Ovechkin has 525).  Among players whose career began in the same year or later than Ovechkin  (2005-2006), the next leading active goal scorer is Anaheim’s Corey Perry (331).

4.  Ovechkin has only Jagr and Iginla ahead of him in total shots on goal among active players.  Among players entering the league in 2005-2006 or later, Ovechkin has 4,241 shots on goal to Jeff Carter’s 2,698.

5.  There are seven active players who have been on the ice for more goals-for than Alex Ovechkin.  All of them started their careers before 1998 (Ovechkin started his career in 2005-2006).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Florida: Roberto Luongo

Isn’t this guy supposed to be old and washed up? He is 37 years old, for heaven’s sake.  He is not showing many signs of age.   Since returning to Florida for his second tour with the Panthers late in the 2013-2014 season, he is 71-45-19, 2.34, .922, with seven shutouts.  That includes a 2-0-0 record so far this season and only two goals allowed on 46 shots faced (.957).  He is, by far, the leader among active goaltenders in games played (928 to Henrik Lundqvist’s 687), wins (438 to Lundqvist’s 375), and shutouts (72 to Lundqvist’s 59).  And age has done little to affect his consistency.  He has not allowed more than three goals in consecutive games since March 2013, a streak of 187 games.  In 36 career games against the Caps, Luongo is 20-10-0, 2.29, .926, with two shutouts.

Washington: Justin Williams

No Capital has fewer shots on goal so far than Justin Williams – one in three games.  This is not a cause for concern as much as it is an observation.  And, based on last year’s results, it hardly seems to matter.  The Caps were 50-17-6 in games in which Williams recorded at least one shot last year, 6-1-2 in games in which he did not. Higher frequency did not seem to matter, either.  Washington was 25-11-2 when Williams had three or more shots on goal, 21-7-6 when he did not.  It suggests that at worst, the absence of Williams’ shooting activity is not a liability for the club.  The more flattering interpretation would be that he can contribute in other ways than shooting the puck for the Caps to be successful.  We will go with that one.  Williams is 15-16-31, plus-12, in 50 career games against Florida.

In the end…

This will be a good test for the Caps.  Florida has to be considered a playoff favorite off their 47-26-9 record last season and the bevy of good young players with more experience on their resumes.  What this game might come down to, though, is a familiar battle and whether Alex Ovechkin can solve Roberto Luongo a time or two.  Well, so long as the Caps can find a way to keep Jaromir Jagr in his rocking chair.

Capitals 3 – Panthers 2