A TWO-Point Night -- Game 16: Washington Capitals 7 - Pittsburgh Penguins 1

It might be a just a mid-week, mid-season game for some, but for the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night, it was about making a point against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Having lost last spring’s Eastern Conference semi-final playoff series to the Penguins, and losing to them on Opening Night this season as the Penguins raised their Stanley Cup Champion banner to the rafters, showing themselves to be competitive in this rivalry was something that needed to be established.

The Capitals certainly did that, pasting the Penguins at Verizon Center, 7-1, behind big nights from Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie. It was Oshie getting things started for the Caps in the first period. With Pittsburgh on a power play, Evgeni Malkin was a little too lackadaisical with the puck inside the Caps blue line. Trying to nudge the puck to teammate Kris Letang, it didn’t have enough juice, and Oshie got his stick on it. Oshie then chipped the puck out into open ice in the neutral zone where Jay Beagle gave chase. In alone on goalie Matt Murray, Beagle tried to deke Murray to the ice and tuck in a backhand. Murray got his right pad on the puck, but Oshie followed up to chip the puck over that right pad, and it was 1-0, 7:32 into the game.

Backstrom got on the board ten minutes later. Skating down the right side in front of the player benches, Oshie fed Backstrom in the middle cruising toward the Penguins blue line. Backstrom backed off defenseman Brian Dumoulin and snapped a shot that handcuffed Murray, sneaking under his left arm, to make it 2-0 at the 17:30 mark.

It was Oshie once more just before the first intermission. On a power play, the Caps moved the puck up ice smartly, starting with a pass from goalie Braden Holtby to John Carlson. It was Carlson up ice to Alex Ovechkin, who slid the puck to Oshie entering the zone, then back to Carlson for a shot from outside. Marc-Andre Fleury, in relief of the injured Murray, made the initial save, but Oshie swooped in and almost took the puck off the blade of Backstrom’s stick to chip the puck into the empty net with just 7.9 seconds left in the first period.

Dmitry Orlov got on the board early in the second period. It started when the Penguins fumbled the puck inside the Caps blue line, and Backstrom was there to move it out of harm’s way into the neutral zone. From there, Marcus Johansson scooped it up and headed down the right side. Gaining the offensive zone, he slid it across to Orlov trailing the play. Orlov stepped up and wrong-footed a wrist shot that beat Fleury past his right pad to make it 4-0 just over five minutes into the second period.

Five minutes into the third period, the Caps had their second power play goal of the evening. With Washington on a 5-on-3 advantage, Backstrom sent the puck through the blue paint to Oshie on the far side to Fleury’s right. Oshie collected the puck and threaded a pass into the middle through a maze of sticks where Justin Williams was waiting. Williams was patient enough to settle the puck and flip it under Fleury’s right arm to make it 5-0.

Five minutes later the Caps capitalized on another Penguin turnover. Duimoulin blew a tire just inside the Caps blue line, and Andre Burakovsky pulled the puck free. He fed Ovechkin overtaking him on the right wing, and Ovechkin had a clear lane down ice. With Letang trying to close the distance, Ovechkin warded him off, pulled the puck to his forehand, and tucked it around Fleury’s left pad to give the Caps a 6-0 lead 10:26 into the third period.

After Phil Kessel spoiled Holtby’s shutout bid on a rebound from in close at the 16:28 mark, Backstrom closed the scoring by taking a long feed from Nate Schmidt just outside the Pittsburgh blue line, skating down the middle, and rifling a shot over Fleury’s left shoulder at the 16:58 mark to seal the win.

Other stuff…

-- Before last night, there were 16 instances of a Washington Capital player scoring both a power play and a shorthanded goal in the same game dating back to 1987.  Last night, T.J. Oshie became the 14^th Capital to do it (Peter Bondra did it four times, the only Capital to do it more than once).  Mike Green had been the last one to do it, turning the special teams daily double in a 3-1 win over the Florida Panthers back on February 7, 2009.  It was part of Green’s record-setting eight-game goals streak by a defenseman.

-- Nicklas Backstrom took over second place in total games with five or more points since the 1987-1988 season.   His two-goal, three-assist night gave him his fifth such game in his career, breaking his tie with Alex Ovechkin and put him one behind Peter Bondra.

-- Last night was the first time two Capitals recorded four or more points in a single game since Oshie and Alex Ovechkin did it in a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on December 18, 2015.

-- When the Caps foiled the Penguins on four power play opportunities, it was the first time the Caps shut out an opponent on four or more power plays since the stopped four Winnipeg Jet power plays in a 3-2 win on November 1^st.  Curious thing about that is that in the seven games since that win, last night was just the third time the Caps allowed a team more than two power play chances.

-- Kris Letang…minus-5.  First time that’s happened to a Penguin since March 2016 (cough – Sidney Crosby – cough).

-- Every Capital had a shot on goal except Andre Burakovsky and Zach Sanford.  Eight Capitals had three or more shots, none had more than four.  Marcus Johansson and Nicklas Backstrom were two of the four Caps with four shots on goal.  Who said Swedes don’t shoot the puck.

-- The Caps had seven power play opportunities, their high for the season and the most since they had eight (no goals) in a 5-2 loss to the Florida Panthers last February 2^nd.  Their two power play goals marked the first time since Game 3 (a 3-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche) that the Caps had a multi-power play goal game.

-- Five of the six Capitals defensemen had points.  Only Karl Alzner did not have a mark on his score sheet.

-- This was the worst beating the Caps gave the Penguins in a regular season, game, by goal differential, since the Caps beat the Pens, 8-0, on October 29, 1991, in Pittsburgh.  The last time the Caps beat the Pens by more goals on home ice was in an 8-0 win on January 2, 1989.

-- Lost in the Fleury…uh, flurry of goals is the consistency of Braden Holtby in net.  Since he allowed four goals on 29 shots in a 4-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on October 26^th, he is 6-1-0, 2.14, .935.

In the end…

Put aside that it is November, and just enjoy the highlights.  Games like this don’t happen often.  In 11 seasons since the 2004-2005 lockout, the Caps have scored seven or more goals 24 times, a little more than twice a season.  And to do it against the team that has caused so much pain and despair over the years?  Well, that just makes it better, November or not.  Hope y’all recorded it to get through the next couple of months until the teams meet again.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 16: Penguins at Capitals, November 16th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals complete their third set of back-to-back games this season on Wednesday night when they return home to face the Pittsburgh Penguins at Verizon Center.  The Caps won both ends of their first back-to-back this season, a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks and a 3-1 win over the Calgary Flames on October 29^th and 30^th.  They split their next back-to-back, beating the Chicago Blackhawks on Veterans Day in overtime, 3-2, then losing the next evening in Carolina to the Hurricanes, 5-1.  They will be looking for a split of this back-to-back set after a 2-1 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets last night.

The Penguins will be waiting for the Caps in Washington having won seven of their last nine games. The latest being a 4-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs last Saturday night. Scoring has not been a problem for the Penguins, who rank sixth in league scoring offense (3.07 goals per game).  Four players have at least 13 points for the Pens.  No team has more, and only the Chicago Blackhawks and Winnipeg Jets have as many.

Evgeni Malkin leads that group with 15 points overall (8-7-15) and is in the midst of a four-game points streak (2-2-4).  Holding him off the score sheet has become an increasingly rare occurrence. After recording points in three of his first six contests this season (2-3-5), including a goal and an assist in the Pens’ 3-2 Gimmick win on Opening Night, Malkin has points in eight of his last nine contests (6-4-10).  The odd part of Malkin’s scoring is that his total might be higher if he didn’t lead the club in penalty minutes (22).  His total puts him in the top-25 in the league in PIMs.  In 33 career games against the Caps, Malkin is 12-35-47, plus-2.

Finding Sidney Crosby among the league’s points leaders would hardly be surprising. But so far, his 13 points ranks just a tie for 29^th place in the league.  Part of that is his having played in just nine games so far, the consequence of missing six games to a concussion to start the season.  But in a somewhat surprising turn, Crosby is tied for second in the league in goals scored (10), trailing only Winnipeg’s precocious rookie Patrik Laine (11).  What has been every bit as remarkable is his consistency, which has been (dare we say it) “Ovechkinian.”  Crosby has goals in seven of the nine games in which he played so far and has three two-goal games, tied with Laine for the most multi-goal games this season.  Crosby is 19-36-55, plus-4 in 38 career games against Washington.

Phil Kessel is among that quartet with at least 13 points so far (Patric Hornqvist is the fourth member of the group).  Kessel’s contribution has been primarily on the power play, where he is 3-6-9, those nine power play points ranked in a tie for second in the league, one behind Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux.  The odd part about Kessel’s power play scoring is that all of his power play goals and all but one of his power play points have come at home.  That’s part of the silver lining for the Caps.  If there is another, it is that Kessel is without a power play goal in his last seven games, in fact without a goal of any kind in seven games.  He is 7-15-22, minus-4 in 36 career games against the Caps.

1.  Shots on goal are aplenty in Penguin games.  They rank fourth in shots on goal per game (32.3 percent) and second in shots on goal allowed per game (33.7).  Only the Toronto Maple Leafs feature more total shots on goal, for and against, on a per game basis (67.1) than the Pens (66.0).

2.  No team has fewer power play goals on the road than the Penguins (2).

3.  With an average age of 28.4 years to start the season, the Penguins were the second-oldest club in the league. They also happened to be the fourth smallest club by average weight, giving away more than seven pounds per man to the Capitals.  

4.  The Penguins clamp down on opponents late in games.  No team has allowed fewer third period goals (8) than the Penguins.

5.  Pittsburgh is, at the moment, a middle-of-the-road possession team, ranking just 16^th in Corsi-for at 5-on-5 (49.82 percent; numbers from Corsica.hockey).  They are worse on the road, ranked 19^th (48.92 percent).

1.  The Caps, at 9-5-1, are two wins and three standings points behind their 15-game pace to open last season (11-4-0/22 points).

2.  Through 15 games last season, the Caps were 11-for-47 on the power play (23.4 percent).  So far, through 15 games, they are 5-for-42 (11.9 percent, ranked 25^th).

3.  On the odd side of the season-to-season comparison, last year at this time, Alex Ovechkin had one power play goal through his first 15 games.  He has two man advantage goals through 15 games so far this season.

4.  The Caps, who spent the first few games of this season almost impossible so score upon in the third period, aren’t clamping down so well in the final 20 minutes overall.  They have allowed 13 third period goals, ranked tied for seventh with four other teams.  On the brighter side, only two teams have allowed fewer first period goals than the Caps (8) – the San Jose Sharks and New Jersey Devils with six apiece.

5.  Washington returns home with the tenth-best Corsi-for at 5-on-5 on home ice (52.67 percent).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Pittsburgh: Kris Letang

The line on Kris Letang at tsn.ca describes him as “Excellent, mobile big-minute defenseman, when healthy.”  It is that last part that always seems to be an issue.  Since appearing in all 82 games of the 2010-2011 season, Letang has appeared in 273 of a possible 391 games, missing time to a variety of ailments – upper body injury, wrist, groin, heart ailment.  Despite missing so much time, since the 2011-2012 season, Letang is one of just eight defensemen in the league with at least 50 goals and at least 200 points (he is with 54 and 232).  In doing so, he played 18 fewer games over that span than Brent Burns and a full season’s worth – 82 games – fewer than the player with the next fewest games played, Kevin Shattenkirk.  And, despite appearing in just 10 of 15 games so far this season, he is tied for fourth in most multi-point games by a defenseman (3), one fewer than Duncan Keith, Damon Severson, and Shattenkirk.  Letang is 4-9-13, minus-10 in 28 career games against the Caps.

Washington: T.J. Oshie

Before T.J. Oshie came to Washington, he was a competent, if not elite set-up man.  In seven seasons with the St. Louis Blues, he never averaged fewer than 0.39 assists per game.  Last season, he recorded a career low in average assists per game (0.31).  That looks almost Gretzkian compared to his totals so far this season.  Through 15 games, Oshie has two assists – 0.13 per game.  Neither of those assists came on home ice, although both did come in road wins (at Chicago and at Vancouver).  It is an odd counterpoint to his being on a pace to finish with his first 30-goal season (he is on a pace to finish with 33 goals), and five of his six goals have been scored at Verizon Center.  In 15 career games against Pittsburgh, Oshie is 4-3-7, plus-2.

In the end…

The Caps had to grit their teeth and watch the Penguins hoist their Stanley Cup Champion banner to the rafters on Opening Night.  Then they had to endure a 3-2 trick shot loss that lasted eight rounds before it was decided.  This on top of falling in overtime in a Game 6 in the playoffs last spring.  Makes one wonder what it takes to build up a healthy anger toward this team and, more specifically, how to channel that anger constructively into a win.  The Caps are not playing well at the moment, but there should be no problem in getting up for this game.  It is November, but this game means something.  Will, skill…just win the damn game.

Capitals 3 – Penguins 2

A ONE-Point Night -- Game 15: Columbus Blue Jackets 2 - Washington Capitals 1 (OT)

The Washington Capitals had a third period lead against the Columbus Blue Jackets, but they could not hold it as the Blue Jackets tied things late in the third period and won the contest in overtime, 2-1.

The teams fought to a scoreless draw in the first period and almost escaped the second period without a goal recorded.  However, late in the middle frame, Nicklas Backstrom took a Brooks Orpik pass in stride, skated through the neutral zone, eased in down the middle, and snapped a shot past the glove of Sergei Bobrovsky.  The goal at the 15:43 mark would be the only scoring through 40 minutes.

It might have been enough, but Zach Werenski, who seemed to be all over the ice in this game, tied it 13 minutes into the third period with a laser that beat goalie Philipp Grubauer on the glove side off the post to make it 1-1.

That would be all the scoring in regulation, a goal by Nicklas Backstrom having been disallowed on video appeal due to an offside.  In overtime, the Blue Jackets ended things in the first minute when Brandon Dubinsky won a draw, Cam Atkinson picked up the loose puck, and Atkinson snapped the puck past Grubauer’s blocker for the 2-1 Columbus win.

Other stuff…

-- Washington and Columbus combined for a total of just 28 shot attempts and 11 shots on goal in the first period.

-- At one point, Justin Williams, Dmitry Orlov, and Lars Eller had nine of the Caps’ 16 shot attempts and half of the team’s six shots on goal.  That is not a good mix for the offensive load early in games. 

-- Weird stat.  In six games coming into this one in which Columbus had two or fewer power play opportunities, they recorded at least one power play goal in five of those games and were 6-for-11 overall (55.6 percent).  In games in which they had three or more power play opportunities, they had power play goals in three of them and were 6-for-25 (24.0 percent) in those games.  Columbus was 0-for-3 in this game.

-- The Caps had three shots in the third period, none in overtime.

-- The Caps had two power play shots (no goals) in 3:31 of power play ice time.  Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson were the shot makers.  Again, nothing low or in the middle.  There just seems to be a general lack of aggression on the man advantage.

-- Only three forwards had less even strength ice time than Ovechkin (11:20) – Zach Sanford (10:12), Daniel Winnik (10:21), and Jay Beagle (10:17).

-- Backstrom’s goal was his first in five games and just his second of the season.  Backstrom has had some slow starts in his career, but last year he has his second goal in Game 2 of the season.

-- We noted in the prognosto that Cam Atkinson has been something of a one-trick pony so far, being mostly a power play phenomenon.  He did have three of Columbus’ five power play shots, and Nick Foligno and Sam Gagner contributed a shot.  It suggested that Philipp Grubauer was the Caps’ best penalty killer.

-- Brooks Orpik had an assist on the night, his fourth assist and point of the season.  All of them have come on the road.

-- T.J. Oshie led the Caps in shot attempts for the evening, getting a total of seven (3 shots on goal, 2 missed shots, two shots blocked).

In the end…

The Caps are a team in a fog at the moment.  Their offense has no continuity, their power play has no cohesion, and they can’t seem to hold a lead when they get one (late leads lost to Chicago in a win and in this game).  Last season, the Caps had a unique ability to keep one loss from becoming two, even if they were not playing particularly well.  So far this season, the club looks as if it is still sleepwalking a bit after their loss to the Penguins in the second round of the postseason.  Well, they get to do something about that on Wednesday night.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 15: Capitals at Blue Jackets, November 15th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals wrap up their three-game road swing with a visit to Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, to face the Metropolitan Division rival Blue Jackets.  The Capitals will be looking to salvage a winning road trip after splitting their first two games, an overtime win against the Chicago Blackhawks last Friday and a loss in Raleigh to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.

Columbus comes into this contest having alternated wins and losses over last five contests (3-1-1), with all three wins at home, against the Montreal Canadiens, the Anaheim Ducks and the St. Louis Blues, and losing both games on the road, to the Blues and to the Boston Bruins.  Scoring has been something of an all or none proposition for the Blue Jackets in this five-game run, managing only six goals in the middle three games of it, but bookending those three games with a 10-0 win over Montreal to start the run and an 8-4 win over St. Louis in their most recent contest, last Saturday.

Overall, Columbus has 24 goals in their last four games, propelling them into second place in the league in scoring offense (3.46 goals per game; the New York Rangers are first at 4.06 goals per game).   It is a team with a certain balance among its goal scorers.  No Blue Jacket ranks in the top-20 in goal scoring, but there are seven players with four or more goals among 21 players to dress for Columbus so far this season.

That group is led by Nick Foligno and Sam Gagner.  Foligno, now in his fifth season with the Blue Jackets after spending his first five NHL seasons with the Ottawa Senators, is on a pace to rebound smartly from what was something of a disappointing 2015-2016 campaign.  After recording his first career 30-goal season in 2014-2015 (31), he recorded only 12 goals in 72 games last season.  Four of his six goals this season have been posted in his last five games (4-3-7, plus-3), and he has been a remarkably efficient shooter overall so far.  His six goals have been recorded on a total of 18 shots.  In 26 career games against the Caps, Foligno is 6-12-18, plus-3.

Sam Gagner is in his first seasons in Columbus after signing a one-year/$650,000 contract with the Blue Jackets last summer.  Gagner, a former sixth-overall draft pick (2007), is with his fourth NHL organization in his tenth season.   Over his first eight season he had the double-whammy of being something of an underachiever and being consistent at it in terms of production.  From 2007-2008 through 2014-2015, he never scored fewer than ten goals in a season or more than 18.  Last season he managed just eight goals in 53 games with the Philadelphia Flyers, none of them in his last 11 games.  He is 6-1-7, plus-1, over his last seven games.  Gagner is 1-1-2, minus-6, in 11 career games against Washington.

Zach Werenski is the only defenseman among the seven Blue Jackets with four or more goals.  He has had a fine start to his NHL rookie season, leading all league rookie defensemen in goals (four) and points (12).  Three of those four goals recorded so far have been recorded on the power play.  Werenski’s 21:46 in ice time per game is second among rookie defensemen.  He will be coming into his first career game against Washington with points in nine of his 13 games so far.

1.  Columbus has the lowest shots per game in the league (26.9), but they have the second best shooting percentage (12.9 percent), trailing only the New York Rangers (13.9 percent).

2.  Doing the little things not so well… Columbus is 29^th in faceoff winning percentage (46.5 percent), ahead of only the Winnipeg Jets (45.0 percent). 

3.  The second period might matter in this game.  Columbus has the same goal differential as the Caps in the first periods of games so far (both teams are 16-8/plus-8), and they have similar third period goal differentials (Columbus is 10-13/minus-3, the Caps are 12-12/even).  But the Blue Jackets are plus-8 in the second period (17-9), while the Caps are minus-6 (7-13).

4.  No team has allowed opponents to score first fewer times than the Blue Jackets.  Only twice has Columbus allowed the first goal of a game.  Oddly enough, those instances came against the same opponent, the San Jose Sharks.  Columbus lost both games, 3-2 at home on October 15^th and 3-1 in San Jose on October 27^th.

5.  Possession doesn’t seem to be Columbus’ forte.  The Blue Jackets rank 29^th in the league in Corsi-for at 5-on-5 (46.17 percent; numbers from Corsica.hockey).  They are 25^th on home ice (46.73 percent).

1.  If you are thinking Alex Ovechkin is off his goal scoring game, remember that he has seven goals in 14 games so far.  Through 14 games last season he had eight goals, and in 2014-2015 he had six goals through 14 games.  In both seasons he finished with at least 50 goals.

2.  The Caps have had the second fewest instances in the league of teams scoring first so far (three) and are 1-2-0 in those games.

3.  Marcus Johansson and Alex Ovechkin each have three game-winning goals.  The rest of the team has a combined three game-winning goals (T.J. Oshie, Jay Beagle, Daniel Winnik).

4.  The Caps have had balanced ice time among their skaters.  Only Brett Connolly, having played in just seven games, is averaging less than ten minutes of ice time per game (8:57). 

5.  The Caps continue to rank among the better teams in possession, sitting in eighth place in Corsi-for at 5-on-5 overall (52.14 percent; numbers from Corsica.hockey).  They also rank eighth in Corsi-for away from Verizon Center (51.77 percent).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Columbus: Cam Atkinson

While Cam Atkinson has had a productive start to the 2016-2017 season (4-8-12), he has been something of a one-trick pony so far.  Consider his last game, that against the St. Louis Blues.  The Blue Jackets won, 8-4, and Atkinson had four assists, three of them at even strength.  That brought his season total of even strength points to four (all assists).  Atkinson is 4-4-8 on the power play so far.  His four power play goals is tied for fifth in the league, and his eight power play points is tied for fourth.  He appears to be vulnerable as an even-strength player.  His personal Corsi-for at 5-on-5 is just 43.64 percent, and his minus-5 is tied for worst on the club.  Atkinson is 7-4-11, plus-4, in 13 career games against the Capitals.

Washington: Dmitry Orlov

Dmitry Orlov is averaging more than three more minutes per game (19:24) than he did last season (16:02) and is less than a shift’s worth of time behind his career best average time on ice (19:36 in 2013-2014).  The increased ice time has not come with bigger offensive numbers; his 0-4-4 scoring line lagging behind last year’s pace (8-21-29 in 82 games).  However, he has been addressing the matter of responsibility in his own end.  Eight straight games now, Orlov has been an even or better skater (plus-7 overall).  He has had a bit of a penalty bug hit him, though, with four minor penalties in those eight games.  His scoring might be picking up, though.  He comes into this game with assists in two straight games after going seven games without a point.  Orlov is 0-2-2, minus-3, in seven career games against the Blue Jackets.

In the end…

This is a trap game of sorts for the Caps.  It is the last game of a road trip, and a bitter rival will be on tap in their return to Verizon Center on Wednesday night in a nationally televised game, the Pittsburgh Penguins.  Columbus is a team that certainly has the capacity to make the Caps pay if their attention wavers.  The game might hinge on a very productive and very efficient Columbus power play and an improving Capitals penalty kill, which is not a sentence we thought we would be typing a few weeks ago.  But if the Caps can take advantage of Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who has allowed eight goals on 46 shots over his last two games (.826 save percentage), it could make for a successful end to the road trip.

Capitals 5 – Blue Jackets 3

Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was -- Week 5

It was going to happen sooner or later to the Washington Capitals.  A losing week. It was a long time in coming, but the Caps went 1-2-0 in Week 5, their first losing week since Week 23 of the 2014-2015 season.  If you are counting, that was 34 consecutive weeks of hockey covering 102 regular season games without a losing week – 28 winning weeks and six break-even weeks.

Record: 1-2-0

This week was a tough hand played by the Caps, facing the Stanley Cup finalist San Jose Sharks and the always difficult Chicago Blackhawks to open the week.  Even though the Caps got the Sharks at home, Verizon Center has been no home-ice advantage for the Caps against that team.  The 3-0 loss the Sharks hung on the Caps to open the week was the second straight shutout San Jose recorded at Verizon Center (they had a 5-0 win last season), and it was their sixth straight win on the Verizon Center ice sheet.  The Caps are now 1-10-2 on home ice against the Sharks in their last 13 meetings.

The Caps reached the .500 mark in their all-time record against the Chicago Blackhawks with their win at United Center (41-41-11-1) in the middle game of the week.  The 3-2 overtime win broke a seven-game Chicago winning streak and gave the Caps two wins in their last three visits to the Windy City.

That left the contest against the Carolina Hurricanes to close the week as the one that would leave the Caps with one more in their consecutive non-losing weeks streak or see it come to an end.  Things looked good on that score for about half a minute.  Actually, it was the 35 seconds between Evgeny Kuznetsov opening the scoring in the first period and the first NHL goal scored by Carolina’s Sebastien Aho.  Less than five minutes later, Teuvo Teravainen scored for the Hurricanes, and they never looked back in a 5-1 win to send the Caps to a losing record in Week 5

Offense:  1.33/game (season: 2.64 /game; rank: T-17th)

When half of the goal output comes from a fourth-liner, when neither the top line nor the intact third line records a point, it is not likely to be a fireworks kind of offensive week.  For the Caps in Week 5, it wasn’t.  Jay Beagle got the Caps to the end of regulation against Chicago with a pair of goals (one being the Caps’ first shorthanded goal of the season), and Marcus Johansson scored a 3-on-3 goal in overtime to get the Caps’ only win.  Other than that, it was Evgeny Kuznetsov potting just his second goal of the season in the 5-1 loss to Carolina.  If there is silver lining in this cloud of a week, maybe it is Kuznetsov breaking out of his scoring slump.

But the carnage among the forwards was significant.  Alex Ovechkin… no goals, no points, minus-2, ten shots on goal, 21 shots attempts.  Nicklas Backstrom…no goals, no points, minus-2, two shots on goal, six shot attempts.  Andre Burakovsky… no goals, no points, minus-3, six shots on goal, 13 shot attempts.  Justin Williams… no goals, no points, minus-3, nine shots on goal, 13 shot attempts.  Looking at that production, a 1-2-0 record doesn’t look quite as bad.

Defense: 3.33/game (season:  2.36/game; rank: T-7th)

Two empty net goals (scored by San Jose and Carolina) and a 6-on-5 goal in the last minute of another game make the week look worse than it was as far as scoring defense was concerned, but it was not a good one, either. It was the game against Carolina that was most disappointing.  It was the second half of a back-to-back set of games, the Caps flying in from Chicago after the previous night’s win, but allowing a middle-of-the-road club in shots and goals per game to get off 38 shots and score five goals (one an empty-netter) qualifies as below par for a club among the leaders in fewest shots allowed and scoring defense.

Eighteen skaters were on ice for goals in Week 5, Daniel Winnik (in two games) and Taylor Chorney (in his first game of the year) spared a mark on their ledger.  In that regard, it was a rough week for Matt Niskanen, who had a closer view than most of six of the ten goals scored against the Caps for the week.  Two of them happened to be empty netters, but it still might not be a scrapbook week for Niskanen.

It is a bit early, it seems, to be getting into a rut, but the Caps allowed more than 30 shots on goal in consecutive games for the first time this season in allowing 34 to the Blackhawks and 38 to the Hurricanes.  Both of those games being on the road, the results opened up quite a difference between the shots per game the Caps are allowing on the road (30.4) and those allowed at home (23.3).

If the best defense is a good offense, though, the Caps had a rough week.  A misleading one, too, as it turned out.  That Caps were 51.7 percent Corsi-for at 5-on-5 for the week, but it cleaved distinctly into the first 40 minutes of games and the last 20.  The Caps were 49.3 percent Corsi-for in the first 40 minutes of games for the week, while they were 59.4 percent in the last 20 minutes of games, 77.1 percent in the two losses (numbers from Corsica.hockey).  That’s what score effects are.

Goaltending:  2.67/ .914 (season: 2.13 / .923 / 1 SO)

The goaltending numbers were better than the defense, and the goaltending looked better than the numbers.  As far as the numbers are concerned, they break into the Holtby set and the Grubauer set.  Braden Holtby got the first two games of the week, splitting the decisions with a 1.98 goals against average and a .929 save percentage.  In other words, given the standard he set over the past couple of seasons, a pretty average week.  Philipp Grubauer was dealt the “non-support” card off the bottom of the deck in the last game of the week.  The 37 shots he faced came within shouting difference of the total he faced in his two previous appearances this season (43).  He faced 31 shots on goal in the first 37 minutes of the game. Compare that to the 39 total shots Braden Holtby faced in the first two periods of two games to open the week.

Power Play: 0-for-5 / 0.0 percent (season: 12.5 percent; rank: 24th)

Whatever adjective you care to use to describe the Capitals power play this week, “good” would not be among them. “Infrequent” comes to mind; they had just five power plays for the week, none of them in their win over the Blackhawks in the middle game of the week.  It was the first time the Caps went without a power play opportunity since last New Year’s Eve against Carolina.  Oddly enough, the five power plays only ties their lowest number of man advantages by week for the season (Week 3 had five power plays).  “Unproductive” would be another one.  They Caps had just nine shots on goal in 9:56 of total power play time.  Alex Ovechkin went without a power play goal on three of those shots.  He has just two power play goals on the season, both of them at home.  Dmitry Orlov had a pair of the power play shots, and the rest were split among Andre Burakovsky, John Carlson, and Marcus Johansson. The missing part there is nothing from the middle.  Justin Williams had 2:57 in power play time (all against San Jose), and T.J. Oshie had a total of 6:05 in power play ice time, but neither recorded a power play shot on goal for the week.

Penalty Killing: 8-for-10 / 80.0 percent (season: 80.5 percent; rank: 19th)

An 80 percent week, when two of the games are on the road, is not a bad week.  However, given the impotence on offense for the week, it just gets lost in the wash of a forgettable week.  It might have been a better week but for the game against Carolina.  The Caps faced six shorthanded situations against the Hurricanes, although three of them came in the last 14 minutes of a game that had largely slipped away from them.

Even with the lopsided nature of shorthanded situations faced relative to power plays, there was further evidence that the penalty killing is coming around.  Washington allowed only 11 shots on goal in 17:11 in shorthanded ice time.  And, one might make the case that the power play goals allowed were a matter of goaltending.  The Brian Campbell goal for the Blackhawks was a rocket from the point, but not an impossible shot to stop.  File that under, “sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you.”  The other, a Jordan Staal goal in the game against Carolina, came on a rebound off the right pad of Philipp Grubauer that was put right on his stick.  How many times is he going to be in that position to cover that rebound?  Once was enough on Saturday night.

Faceoffs: 73-for-159 / 45.9 percent (season: 51.3% / rank: 6th)

Was it a good week or a bad week in the circle?  Yes.  Huh?  Okay, more bad than good. Overall the Caps were under 50 percent, but it was not as bad as all that.  Washington finished 55.8 percent in the offensive zone and was just two draws under 50 percent in the defensive end (47.8 percent).  It was the neutral zone that sunk them, winning just 19 of 53 draws (35.8 percent).

Individually, the good-bad effects were felt up and down the lineup. No Capital taking at least ten draws finished over 50 percent for the week.  Jay Beagle was the only Cap to reach that mark (14-for-28).  However, of the four Caps taking at least ten faceoffs for the week, all of them (Beagle, Lars Eller, Nicklas Backstrom, and Evgeny Kuznetsov) all of them were 50 percent or better in the offensive end.  All but Eller were over 50 percent in the defensive end.  But those four were just 17-for-50 in the neutral zone (34.0 percent).

Goals by Period:

Week 5 for the Caps might be described as “one and (almost) done” as far as goal scoring by period.  Of the Caps’ four goals for the week, three of them came in the first period, the other in overtime.  As for the final 40 minutes of regulation, it was 0-for-54 shooting over three games.

The goals against was evenly split among the periods (3-4-3, with none in overtime), but those two empty net goals in the third period of the San Jose and Carolina games make the third period look worse than it was.  That other third period goal is one that should make no one feel good, though. The Caps were nursing a 2-1 lead over Chicago in the last minute when, with the Chicago goalie pulled for an extra attacker, a shot from the left point was muffled slightly by Brooks Orpik, squirted through the skates of John Carlson and eluded the Blackhawks’ Jonathan Toews to the far post to the left of goalie Braden Holtby.  The last person the Caps might have wanted to see there was Marian Hossa.  A player with as many games as he has in his career isn’t going to panic, and when the puck ricocheted off him and behind Holtby, it might have made for an even worse week than it was.  Marcus Johansson made sure it did not by getting the Caps an overtime goal to make them 2-1 in extra time this season, both wins in overtime, the loss in the Gimmick.

In the end…

In three games, the Caps played up to an opponent (Chicago), down to an opponent (Carolina), and sideways to an opponent (San Jose).  It was a week in which persistent hiccups wouldn’t go away – a general lack of offense, an ineffective power play, but it was also one in which other troublesome elements appeared – lack of scoring line production, an inability to sustain pressure over three periods.  And after more than 30 weeks of hockey without one of them of the losing sort, it is a week that stands out. The object now is to keep it from being two in a row.

Three Stars:

• First Star: Jay Beagle (2-0-2, plus-1, 50.0 percent of faceoffs)
• Second Star: Braden Holtby (1-1-0, 1.98, .929)
• Third Star: Marcus Johansson (1-0-1, GWG)

A TWO-Point Night -- Game 13: Washington Capitals 3 - Chicago Blackhawks 2 (OT)

The Washington Capitals parlayed a pair of goals from a fourth-liner and a goal from an early-season surprise into a 3-2 overtime win over the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center. 

Jay Beagle scored the first of his two goals in the seventh minute of the first period, one of the shorthanded variety.  It started at the Capitals blue line, where Matt Niskanen dove at a sliding puck to clear the defensive zone.  The puck was deflected off the stick of Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith and popped into the air.  As Niskanen and Keith gave chase, T.J. Oshie picked up the puck in the neutral zone.  Oshie curled around the two defensemen and headed into the Blackhawk zone on the left side.  As Beagle was cutting in on the right side, Oshie waited until he had a passing lane between Keith and his partner, Brent Seabrook.  Oshie threaded a pass through, and Beagle one-timed it past goalie Corey Crawford to open the scoring.

Brian Campbell tied the game for the Blackhawks on the same power play by taking a pass from Marian Hossa at the left point, taking a step up, and slamming a shot to the top far corner over goalie Braden Holtby’s glove just 22 seconds after the Beagle goal.

Beagle restored the one goal lead at the 14:44 mark on a play not normally associated with one in his role.  Taking a drop pass from Daniel Winnik just inside the Chicago blue line above the right wing circle, Beagle skated in, looking to pass to a teammate.  Finding none open, he continued down and around the circle, curling around the Blackhawk net.  From there he called his own number, wrapping the puck around the far post and beating a late-covering Crawford.

That would be it for the scoring until the dying moments of the third period.  With the Blackhawks having pulled their goaltender and gaining possession in the Caps’ end in the last minute, they worked the puck around the perimeter from right to left.  A shot by Artemi Panarin from the left wing wall made it all the way through to the far post to the left of Holtby.  It was there that Marian Hossa was waiting, and he made the most of the opportunity, stuffing the puck into the back of the net with 22.3 seconds left.

That left it to overtime for things to be settled.  The end came on a strange play.  It started with Marcus Johansson gathering up a loose puck in his own end and heading up the right side past the player benches.  As he fed the puck to Dmitry Orlov on the left side, T.J. Oshie lost his footing in the neutral zone and tumbled to the ice.  Vinnie Hinostroza, paying attention to the play unfolding in front of him, tumbled over Oshie, and the Caps ended up with a 2-on-1 break with Orlov and Johansson pushing Seabrook back into his own end.  Orlov fed Johansson going down the middle, and Johansson buried a shot past Crawford’s glove to give the Caps the 3-2 win.

Other stuff…

-- Jay Beagle’s two goals makes it five points in his last six games (3-2-5).  He has points in four games this season, and the Caps are 4-0-0 in those games.

-- Johansson’s goal was his third game-winner of the season, putting him in a tie for the league lead with four other players.

-- Taylor Chorney got his first game action of the season and had a pair of shots on goal and a hit in 13:31 of ice time.

-- Alex Ovechkin was held to a single shot on goal, a season low, the first time he was held to a single shot since he recorded one in a 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers last March 3^rd.

-- The Caps got points from three defensemen in this contest.  Dmitry Orlov, Matt Niskanen, and John Carlson recorded assists.

-- Niskanen led the Caps in shots on goal along with Justin Williams (five); Beagle was next in line (four), accounting for almost half of the 28 shots on goal the Caps recorded.

-- There were just 53 faceoffs in a game lasting 62 minutes and change, a somewhat low total.  The Caps won just 24 of them (45.3 percent).

-- The Caps were credited with 25 hits.  Only Daniel Winnik and Marcus Johansson were blanked in that column of the score sheet.

-- Orlov led the club with five blocked shots, almost a third of the 17 recorded overall by the Caps. 

-- Johansson’s game-winning goal was scored on the only shot on goal recorded by either team in overtime.

In the end…

Giving up a goal in the last half-minute is not in the script, but all’s well that ends well.  Ending the Blackhawks’ seven-game winning streak in one of the most intimidating arenas in the league is no small feat, and it should be taken as nothing less than a fine start to the road trip.  But the lasting image we have of this game is this one….

Take a good look.  If the Caps are to be successful when the flowers bloom, some of the players in this photo are going to have to step up their games as much as the stars.  Tonight was one of those times.

Photo: Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 13: Capitals at Blachawks, November 11th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

After dropping the last game of their three-game home stand, the Washington Capitals go on the road for three games, starting on Friday night against the Chicago Blackhawks.  Washington, losers of a 3-0 decision to the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night, saw a five-game winning streak come to an end. 

On the other side, the Blackhawks go into the contest owners of a seven-game winning streak and points in nine straight contests (8-0-1).  Stingy has been the word to describe the Blackhawks in their recent run.  In their seven-game winning streak they allowed a total of only nine goals and have two shutouts, both of them authored by Corey Crawford.

Crawford is staking an early claim on posting his career best season.  In ten appearances so far, he is 6-3-1, 2.01 (his best goals against average since he was 1.94 in 2012-2013), .936 (a career best save percentage), and two shutouts (on a pace to top last year’s career high of seven shutouts).  After a slow start, he has been almost impenetrable of late.  In his last six appearances he is 5-0-1, 1.15, .965, with two shutouts.  He has not been particularly successful against the Capitals, going 3-3-1, 3.29, .891 in seven appearances against Washington.   The last time Crawford faced the Caps in Chicago was in the 2015 Winter Classic, a 3-2 win for the Caps.

Crawford got the call against the Blues on Wednesday, so if he gets a night off on Friday, the Caps could face Scott Darling.  He has been consistent in a backup role so far this season, but perhaps not in a way the Blackhawks would prefer.  He does have three wins in his three appearances, but he has allowed ten goals on 105 shots (.905 save percentage), and he has not allowed fewer than three goals in any appearance.  Darling lost his only appearance against the Caps, allowing four goals on 24 shots in a 4-1 loss to the Caps on October 15, 2015.

The Blackhawks have a total of 24 goals in their seven-game winning streak.  It is a balanced ledger, to a point.  Five players account for 21 of those 24 goals, only three goals recorded by the other 16 skaters to dress for those games.

Marian Hossa leads that group of five in goals scored, recording six in all.  Earlier this season, Hossa became the 44^th player in NHL history to record 500 career goals, but he has been on a tear lately, with goals in five of his last seven games (he had a two-goal game in a 4-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche on November 3^rd).  The odd part of that is Hossa only recorded at least one shot on goal in five of those seven games of the winning streak.  When he shoots, or at least gets pucks to the net, he scores.  Overall on the seven-game winning streak, Hossa’s six goals have come on a total of 16 shots, a 37.5 percent shooting percentage that has made him a very efficient shooter.  In 52 career games against the Caps, Hossa is 24-32-56, plus-18.

Artem Anisimov is something of an unexpected member of the group of five, having recorded four goals in the seven-game Blackhawk winning streak.  The four goals gives Anisimov eight for the season, tops on the club, and his seven even strength goals is tied for the league’s best.  The eight goals in 14 games is almost half way to his total in 77 games with the Blackhawks last season (20).  Bring a top-end goal scorer has not been a part of Anisimov’s resume over his seven previous full NHL seasons; he hit the 20-goal mark just twice, last season and in 2013-2014 with the Columbus Blue Jackets (22).  Anisimov is 3-6-9, minus-1, in 19 career games against Washington.

No one should be surprised that Jonathan Toews (four goals) and Patrick Kane (three) are in that group of five.  Since they came into the league together in the 2007-2009 season, they lead the franchise in goals scored, Kane with 256 and Toews with 255.  Toews, very much the two-way player, has just one “minus” game in his last ten games.  Kane, a talented all-around offensive player, comes into this game on a five-game points streak and has points in eight of his last nine and ten of his last 12 games.  Toews is 5-4-9, minus-1, in nine career games against Washington, while Kane is 3-4-7, minus-6, in 10 career games against Washington.

1.  Chicago’s penalty killing unit was brutal in the early going, allowing at least one power play goal in each of their first eight games and killing just 15 of 30 shorthanded situations (50.0 percent).  Since then, however, the Blackhawks have slammed the door shut, killing 18 of 19 opponent power plays (94.7 percent).

2.  On the other hand, the only weakness in the seven-game winning streak seems to be the Blackhawk power play.  In their last four games, Chicago is 1-for-17 (5.9 percent).  It has struggled at home of late, too.  After going 5-for-10 (50.0 percent) in their first three games at United Center this season, Chicago is just 3-for-25 in their last six games on home ice (12.0 percent).

3.  The odd inconsistency in power play success, plus the fact that the Blackhawks are on of ten teams having played in 14 games so far, leads their having spent more time on the power play than any team in the league (98:09), almost ten minutes more than the Winnipeg Jets (89:32).  More games played, more opportunities, an inconsistent ability to retire power plays by way of a goal scored.  But the Hawks do have the largest difference in power play to penalty killing time in the league (22:05).

4.  No team has scored more first period goals so far than the Blackhawks.  Chicago is tied with the Edmonton Oilers with 15 first period goals.  It goes with getting out to leads and success.  Chicago has scored first in ten of their 14 games to date, and their eight wins when doing so is second to the Montreal Canadiens (ten wins).

5.  The Blackhawks are an unexpectedly middle-of-the-road team in terms of possession.  Their 49.64 percent Corsi-for at 5-on-5 ranks just 16^th in the league, and their 49.11 CF% at home ranks 21st (numbers from Corsica.hockey).

1.  The Caps have out-shot opponents 11 times in 12 games this season and have a record of 7-3-1 when doing so.  They have held opponents to 25 or fewer shots in six of 12 games with a record of 5-1-0.  Their only loss in those contests was the 3-0 shutout at the hands of the San Jose Sharks when the Caps held San Jose to 23 shots.

2.  The best penalty killing it the penalty you do not have to kill.  Washington has allowed opponents two or fewer power plays in four of their last five games and is 11-for-12 in killing penalties over those games (91.7 percent).

3.  The Caps are 6-1-1 when leading at the first intermission, the six wins being the most in the league.  They have scored first in nine of 12 games thus far.  Only Montreal and Chicago have done so more often (ten times apiece), and both have played more games than the Caps.

4.  The Caps have scored 33 goals in 12 games, but 19 of them come from three players – Alex Ovechkin (seven), Marcus Johansson (six), and T.J. Oshie (six).  No other Capital has more than two.

5.  The Caps continue to be a good possession team, ranking seventh overall in Corsi-for at 5-on-5 (52.76 percent).  They are even better, rankings-wise, on the road.  Their 52.84 percent Corsi-for at fives ranks fifth overall (numbers from Corsica.hockey).

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Chicago: Artemi Panarin

Artemi Panarin is the fifth member of Chicago’s gang of five goal scorers in their seven-game winning streak, including the overtime game-winner against St. Louis on Wednesday night.  He is also the points leader over that span, having his name included in the scoring of ten of Chicago’s 24 goals scored.  It hardly looks as if Panarin is susceptible to the sophomore slump.  He is 6-9-15, plus-11 in 14 games, his goals, assists, and points on a pace to top the levels he reached in his Calder Trophy-winning rookie season last year (30-47-77).  Chicago has yet to lose a game in which he records a point (8-0-0) while going just 2-3-1 in games in which Panarin is held off the score sheet.  However, managing his time seems to be a factor, too.  Chicago is 10-1-0 in games in which he played 21 or fewer minutes, 0-2-1 in the three games he logged more than 21 minutes.  Panarin has an assist in two games against the Capitals in his brief career to date.

Washington:  Evgeny Kuznetsov

“One (Is the Loneliest Number)” is a song written by Harry Nilsson almost 40 years ago.  These days, it might describe the shots on goal profile of Evgeny Kuznetsov.  In his first five games this season, Kuznetsov recorded one goal on 12 shots.  Since then, though, Kuznetsov had a six-game streak in which he recorded just one shot on goal before that string was broken with a no-shot game against San Jose on Tuesday.  Kuznetsov does not have a goal since he scored his only one of the season against the Florida Panthers on October 20^th (eight games), and he has not recorded a point in his last three games.  He does not have a power play point this season after recording five power play goals and 13 assists last season.  Then there is the faceoff performance.  In 12 games this season he is over 50 percent for a game just twice, and he is 104^th of 107 players taking at least 100 draws so far in faceoff percentage (41.2 percent).  Kuznetsov is 1-3-4, even, in four career games against Chicago.

In the end…

The Caps have cobbled together a good record through their first dozen games.  At 8-3-1, they are just one standings point off last year’s 9-3-0 mark though their first 12 games.  But dig deeper, and there is a muddled picture.  The Caps have gotten good goal scoring from Alex Ovechkin (seven) and T.J. Oshie (six), but the unexpected Marcus Johansson contribution (six goals) has masked the slow starts in this area of Evgeny Kuznetsov (one), Andre Burakovsky (two, none since Opening Night), and Justin Williams (one), all of whom recorded more than 15 goals last season.  One could say that Chicago has put together a long winning streak with a similarly unbalanced goal scoring profile, but if the Caps are going to be as successful going forward as they have to date, they are going to have to get some more production from these players.  And the Blackhawks, who are (with apologies to the defending Stanley Cup champions) are the current gold standard of opponent against which such contributions would be timely.

Capitals 3 – Blackhawks 2

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 12: Sharks at Capitals, November 8th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals wrap up their three-game home stand on Tuesday night when the San Jose Sharks come to town.  The Caps will be looking to extend their season-best five-game winning streak and improve their home record to 5-1-0.

The Sharks come to town looking something like a team with a Stanley Cup finals hangover.  San Jose, losers to the Pittsburgh Penguins in last spring’s six-game Cup final, won three of their first four games of the 2016-2017 season, but they are 3-5-0 in their last eight games and bring a three-game losing streak into this contest.

Scoring defense has not been the problem for the Sharks, who have allowed more than three goals in a game only twice in 12 games.  Their scoring offense, however, has been inconsistent, failing to record more than three goals in a game 10 times in 12 contests while being shut out twice.

The odd thing about San Jose’s scoring offense is that the usual suspects are being heard from.  Joe Pavelski, Brent Burn, and Tomas Hertl are tied for the team lead in goals (four apiece), while Pavelski and Jose Thornton are tied for the team lead in assists (eight).

It is the down-roster players who are coming up a bit short in the early going.  For example, Patrick Marleau, the all-time franchise leader in goals scored (by an almost 2-to-1 margin – 484 to 270 – over Pavelski) has three goals in 12 games (a 21-goal pace), and he has just one assist for four points.  It has been a case or either not getting opportunities or not taking advantage of those he has had.  After recording 12 shots on goal in his first three games, he has a total of 18 in his last nine games, halving his shots-per-game rate from 4.0 to 2.0.  Marleau, who had seven 30-plus goal seasons over a nine year span ending with the 2013-2014 season, did drop off in the two subsequent seasons (19 and 25 goals, both in seasons with 82 games played.  He is 9-12-21, plus-4 in 25 career games against the Caps.

Another player having a slow start of sorts is Logan Couture.  Through 12 games he is 2-4-6, minus-5, but his problem is recent production.  Since going 2-3-5, even, in his first five games, he is 0-1-1, minus-5, in his last seven contests.  Couture missed 23 games with a fractured fibula last season and another seven with a lower body injury that limited him to 52 games.  In that sense one might wonder if there are any lingering physical issues, but there is also this.  Since he averaged 0.44 goals per game in the abbreviated 2012-2013 season, his goals per game has dropped in each year since to where he is averaging 0.17 goals per game at the moment.  Couture is 2-5-7, even, in nine career games against Washington.

The defense is something of a lopsided affair when it comes to scoring.  Brent Burns is picking up where he left off last season, standing at 4-7-11, minus-2, after 12 games.  The other five defensemen to dress for the Sharks so far this season have a combined one goal (Marc-Edouard Vlasic, an overtime game-winner in a 2-1 win over Anaheim on October 25th)) and ten points.  The Sharks defense, as a group last season, accounted for 47 goals (27 by Burns), and four defensemen finished with at least 20 points.  They appear to have some catching up to do.

And that brings us to goaltending and Martin Jones.  Last season, his first as an NHL number one goalie after two years in a substitute role with the Los Angeles Kings, he was 37-23-4, 2.27, .918, with six shutouts.  He finished seventh in the Vezina Trophy voting as the league’s top goaltender.  He stumbled out of the 2016-2017 gate, though.  With a 5-6-0, 2.56, .900 record so far, he is 19th in the league on goals against average and tied for 27th in save percentage among the 38 goalies with at least 250 minutes in goal.  He has been successful in limited exposure to the Caps though, going 2-0-0, 1.00, .964 with one shutout in two appearances against Washington.

1.  Only the Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild have fewer power play goals scored on the road (one apiece) than the Sharks (2-for-19/10.5 percent).

2.  Getting to the first intermission with a lead matters to the Sharks.  In five of their six wins thus far, San Jose led at the first intermission.

3.  Three times so far this season, San Jose last games by at least a three-goal margin.  Only four teams have more losses by three-or more goals.  Twice in those situations, the Sharks were shut out (3-0 to Detroit on October 22nd and 5-0 to the Penguins last Saturday).

4.  This could be an interesting test of strength.  The Caps are adept at winning the shots on goal battle with opponents, but so are the Sharks.  They have out-shot opponents ten times in 12 games so far, but they are just 5-5-0 in those games.

5.  Despite a so-so record, San Jose remains one of the best possession teams in the league.  Their 53.80 Corsi-for at five-on-five ranks third in the league, behind Los Angeles and St. Louis.  They are even better on the road with a 55.08 Corsi-for percentage (ranked third; numbers from Corsica.hockey).

1.  The Caps have 13 players with goals of 19 skaters to have dressed.  Zach Sanford, looking for his first NHL goal, is the only forward yet to turn on the red light.

2.  Balance is good, but I might not have though that through 11 games, Nicklas Backstrom, Justin Williams, and Evgeny Kuznetsov would each have the same number of goals as Jay Beagle (one), and Beagle’s is the only game-winner.

3.  The Caps remain the least penalized team in the league in terms of total penalties charged (37) and minor penalties called (343, tied with Carolina).  Their two fighting majors is what drops them to second in penalty minutes per games (7:16; the New York Rangers have 6:00 per game).

4.  Hits are an arbitrary statistic…they are in the eye of the beholder.  But the Caps have the third-fewest credited hits in the league (201), more than only Carolina (199) and Minnesota (169).  Tom Wilson (25), Alex Ovechkin (24), and Brooks Orpik (24) account for 36.3 percent of the total.

5.  From the what-belongs-in-this-group-and-what-doesn’t file.  Three players having appeared in ten or more games so far this season have averaged 0.60 goals per game and as least 1.00 points per game.  Artem Anisimov, Jeff Skinner, and Alex Ovechkin.  Which one is likely to go deepest in to the season above those thresholds?

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

San Jose: Joel Ward

In his first season with the San Jose Sharks after leaving Washington as a free agent, Joel Ward had a fine season.  He recorded his second career 20-goal season (21) and his second career 40-plus point season (43).  The odd part of that season was that he finished minus-15.  Only two players (Chris Tierney and Patrick Marleau) finished worse in that statistic.  This year, the sluggish plus-minus number remains for Ward (minus-7, worst among forwards), but now his scoring is down considerably.  Ward scored a goal in the Sharks’ 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets in Game 2 of the season, but that is Ward’s only point of the campaign so far.  He is without a goal on 13 shots in ten games and is minus-7 in those games.  He has not yet seen his ice time suffer for it; in fact it is up a coupld of minutes in his last two games, just two of three games this season when he logged more than 16 minutes.  In six career games against Washington, Ward is 0-1-1, plus-3.

Washington: Jay Beagle

When you are not a big goal scorer, you have to earn your keep doing other things, and often that means doing the little things well and attending to detail.  Beagle’s specialty of sorts is taking faceoffs.  Since he came into the league (briefly) in the 2008-2009 season, Beagle is sixth among active players in faceoff winning percentage (55.8 percent; minimum: 2,500 draws).  Which is not to say he can’t be sa clutch player in the offensive end.  Of his 32 career goals, seven are game-winners (including his only one this season).  That makes 21.7 percent of his career goals of the game-winning variety, the same percentage as more celebrated talents such as Boston’;s David Krejci and Los Angeles’ Jeff Carter.  And, in the 30 games in which he has scored a goal in his career, the Caps have a record of 24-1-5.  In seven career games against San Jose, Beagle is 2-1-3, plus-1, all of his scoring coming in a 5-4 overtime win in San Jose on February 11, 2015 in which, coincidentally, Joel Ward scored the game-winning goal (Beagle assisted on the play).

In the end…

This might not be the same San Jose Sharks team that went to the Stanley Cup finals last spring, but it is still a dangerous squad.  A team with as much talent as it has – Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton, Brent Burns, etc. – can make an opponent’s life miserable on any given night.  Their problem has been getting any consistent secondary scoring.  Given their top-notch possession numbers, one would think it would be just a matter of time until their production (scoring) caught up to their productivity (possession numbers).  But the Caps are a skilled team with fine possession numbers of their own.  Even if this represents a bit of a jump in weight class for the Caps in terms of opponent, it is a test the Caps can pass to sweep their home stand.

Capitals 3 – Sharks 2