The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 20: Capitals at Flyers, November 13th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals renew one of their longest and most bitter rivalries on Wednesday night when they visit Philadelphia to take on the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.  The Caps, despite seeing their six-game winning streak snapped in a 4-3 Gimmick loss to the Arizona Coyotes, go into this game with points in 12 straight contests (10-0-2).  The Flyers will host the Caps carrying a three-game winning streak, all of the wins earned in extra time, and five wins in their last six games, four of the wins coming in the post-regulation phase, three of them in trick shot competitions.

Then and Now…

This will be the 220^th regular season meeting in the all-time series between these clubs.  Washington has an 86-103-11 (19 ties) record against the Flyers, 37-62-7 (six ties) in games played in Philadelphia.  The Caps have a more successful recent history against the Flyers, going 29-16-11 overall since 2005-2006 and 13-9-7 in games played in South Philly.  The Caps swept last season’s four-game series, beating the Flyers by 5-3 and 3-1 margins in Washington, while posting 5-3 and 5-2 wins in Philadelphia.  This will be the first of four games between the teams this season.

Active Leaders vs. Opponent…

Noteworthy Opponents…

Claude Giroux featured prominently in the scrapbook of Philadelphia Flyer achievements.  Only Bobby Clarke played in more seasons with the club (15) than Giroux, now in his 13^th season in orange and black.  He is third in games played (837), tenth in goals (240), second in assists (534), fourth in points (774), tied for 11^th in power play goals (74, with Mark Recchi), and is tied for ninth in game-winning goals (39, also with Recchi).  At one point in his career, he was spoken of as the best player in the sport.  Truth be told, Giroux might have had that moment in the spotlight in 2012, but he has been more a reliable, consistent producer than the electric, high-wattage sort of a Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, or Connor McDavid.  That characterization does not diminish Giroux’ achievements.  Since he became a full-time player for the Flyers in 2009-2010, Giroux is fourth among all players in games played (793), 28^th in goals (231), third in assists (516), and fourth in points (747).  What is more, he might have sacrificed sheer numbers in moving from center to a winger spot for much of his recent history.

As he passed through his late 20’s it appeared as if he might be slowing down.  Starting in 2013-2014, when he recorded 86 points, he posted diminishing point totals in each of the next three seasons – 73 in 2014-2015, 67 in 2015-2016, and 58 in 2016-2017.  But turning 30 seems to have agreed with him.  Since he turned 30 in the 2017-2018 season, he is tied for ninth in total points (199, with Alex Ovechkin and Steven Stamkos).  He has been a bit streaky this season, alternating multi-game point streaks with similar streaks without a point.  He is a respectable 4-8-12, plus-6, in 17 games so far, but he brings a two-game streak without a point into this game.  Giroux is 20-20-40, plus-4, in 41 career games against the Caps.

If Claude Giroux is at one end of the experience spectrum, Joel Farabee is at the other.  When he made his NHL debut on October 21^st against the Vegas Golden Knights, he became the youngest skater to dress for the Flyers this season at age 19.  After being taken 14^th overall in the 2018 Entry Draft, Farabee spent a season with the Boston University Terriers in the NCAA’s Hockey East conference.  After one year in Boston, he started this season with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the AHL and made it hard to keep him down on the farm with three goals in four games.  Farabee slid into a spot on the left side of the forward lines comfortably so far with two goals and two assists in 11 games while averaging almost 16 minutes per game in ice time.  Whether a product of his being placed in the lineup or merely coincidence, the Flyers were 2-3-1 before he got a sweater, 8-2-1 since he won a spot in the lineup.  He comes into this game having alternated games with points over his last six games (2-1-3, even) and will be making his first appearance against the Caps.

The goalie starts have been relatively evenly split between Carter Hart and Brian Elliott – ten for the former and seven for the latter – but it is about time to call it Hart’s crease for the Flyers.  The goaltending position for the Flyers has been one of the most difficult jobs in the NHL to fill consistently, let alone well, for decades.  Since Ron Hextall hung up his pads and skates after the 1998-1999 season, the Flyers employed 28 goalies…until Hart made it 29 last season.  Only Steve Mason among the 28 preceding Hart dressed for more than 200 games.  Mason was the only one with at least 100 wins.  How frustrating has it been?  Of the 29 goalies to dress for the Flyers since Hextall, Hart is already 13^th in wins (22) and games played (42).  His save percentage (.912) is fifth among that group.  He struggled in the early going this season (2-3-1, 3.32, .864 with one no-decision in his first seven games), but he is on a roll of late, going 4-0-0, 1.92, .929 over his last four appearances.  Hart allowed four goals on 31 shots in a 5-2 loss to the Caps last March 14^th in what is his only appearance to date against Washington.

1.  The Flyers are the class of the first NHL expansion class of 1967-1968, posting a record of 2,023-1,412-170 (457 ties), 347 more standings points and 151 more wins than the St. Louis Blues.

2.  Philadelphia’s power play against the Caps has lacked wattage.  In the last 12 meetings of the clubs since December 2016, the Flyers are 2-for-38 with the man advantage (5.3 percent).

3.  Through Monday’s games, the Flyers were tied with the Los Angeles Kings for largest positive shots on goal differential (plus-5.7).

4.  The Flyers are one of four teams remaining (through Monday) with a perfect record after leading at the first intermission (6-0-0).  Edmonton (6-0-0), Anaheim (5-0-0), and Pittsburgh (2-0-0) are the others.

5.  Keeping shots down might be important against the Flyers, or at least staying ahead of them in that category.  Through Monday’s games, the Flyers are tied with four other teams for most wins when out-shooting opponents (seven).  Philadelphia has only three wins when out-shot (only six teams have fewer wins).

1.  This will be the 220^th time that the Caps faced the Flyers, breaking a tie with the New Jersey Devils for third-most games played against an opponent in the regular season.  The Caps have played 223 games against the New York Rangers and 225 games against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

2.  The Caps have a four-game winning streak against the Flyers.  It is the Caps’ longest winning streak against Philadelphia since they won four in a row from October 2009 to November 2010.  The last time that the Caps beat the Flyers in five straight was a five-game streak from February 1991 to December 1991.  With a win, the Caps would tie that streak for longest ever against Philadelphia.

3.  Washington’s power play against the Flyers has been productive over a long stretch.  Since the Flyers held the Caps without a power play goal in five straight games from December 2011 to February 2013, the Caps are 22-for-89 (24.7 percent) with at least one power play goal in 16 of 26 games.

4.  When the Caps lost in the Gimmick to Arizona on Monday night, it was their fourth extra time loss this season.  Last season, the Caps had three extra time losses in their first 12 games, but they did not suffer their fourth extra time loss until Game 40, when they dropped a 2-1 overtime decision to Dallas.

5.  So far, the Caps do not get blown out of games.  They have one loss so far of three or more goals (6-3 to Colorado on October 14^th).  Only Boston has not yet suffered a loss of three or more goals.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Philadelphia: Matt Niskanen

Players often go through stages in their professional careers – rookie, developing prospect, contributor, cornerstone, mentor, graybeard, final curtain.  Consider Matt Niskanen.  A 28^th-overall draft pick of the Dallas Stars in 2005, he joined the Stars in 2007-2008 and was third in his rookie defenseman class in goals (seven) and fourth in points (26).  He finished eighth in Calder Trophy voting for top rookie.  He improved in his sophomore season (6-29-35), but after a drop off to start his third season he was shipped to the Pittsburgh Penguins.  He started slowly there, but circumstances led to his moving from a prospect to taking on a bigger role – a cornerstone role on the Penguins’ power play – in his fourth season there (10-36-46 with 15 power play points).  That was his contract year, and he signed a multi-year deal with the Caps with an eye toward his assuming an important role on a contender.  In his first four seasons with the Caps, he was precisely that, posting 131 points in 310 games, playing frequently as a top-pair defenseman, culminating in a Stanley Cup in 2018.

But last season, Niskanen’s production fell a bit, and his reliability in the defensive end was diminished.  At age 32, it might have been a signal of another change in the stages of his career.  The Caps might have thought along the same lines and traded him to the Flyers for Radko Gudas.  With his new club, Niskanen is the oldest blueliner to dress this season and might be thought of as taking on a mentoring role with young blueliners like Ivan Provorov and Travis Sandheim.  If he is not a cornerstone on the Flyers’ defense, he is not out of his productive phase, currently second among defensemen in goals (two) and points (eight).  While he is not getting the ice time he did early with the Caps (22:59 per game over his first four years), his 21:27 per game this season is in line with what he logged last year with the Caps (21:56).  Niskanen started fast with his new team, posting points in three of his first four games (1-2-3).  He then went 1-4-5 over his next ten contests, and he comes into this game without a point in three straight, his longest streak this season without a point.  Niskanen is 1-5-6, plus-8, in 12 career games against Washington.

Washington: Tom Wilson

In another era, you could image Tom Wilson as a Philadelphia Flyer, fitting in squarely with the image of the “Broad Street Bullies.”  He had the size, orneriness, and developing scoring touch of a Paul Holmgren (138 goals and 1,600 penalty minutes in 500 games as a Flyer), or later, a Rick Tocchet (232 goals, 1,815 penalty minutes in 621 games with the Flyers).  But the game has changed, and not even the Flyers are much in the way of “bullies” any longer (25^th in the league in penalty minutes per game this season).  And so it is with Wilson.  His goals per game and penalty minutes per game have gone in different directions since he came into the league in 2013-2014.  In his rookie season, Wilson had only three goals in 82 games (0.04 per game), while he logged 151 penalty minutes (1.84 per game).  While Wilson’s penalty minutes per game remained high over his next four seasons, not averaging less than 1.62 PIMs per game, his goal scoring efficiency improved steadily and dramatically: 0.06 per game in his sophomore season, 0.09 per game in each of his next two seasons, 0.18 per game in 2017-2018, and 0.35 per game last season. 

His development from “Terrible Tom” to “Top Line Tom” might be complete this season.  Through 19 games, he has eight goals (0.42 per game) and only 18 penalty minutes (0.95 per game).  And along with the improvements in goal scoring, he seems to be developing a skill in setting up others.  He has eight assists in 19 games so far, more than a third of the way to a career high (21 in 78 games in 2017-2018).  The only thing that seems able to stop Wilson from continuing his improvements in production is his ornery nature.  When he was suspended for 20 games for an illegal check to the head of St. Louis Oskar Sundqvist in a pre-season game last season, the league noted that it was Wilson’s fourth suspension in a span of 105 games.  Through 19 games this season, Wilson has nine minor penalties (no majors).  His reputation of being a one-dimensional (what others call “dirty”) player will be hard to scrub away, as it can be for young players who come into the league breathing fire, but he has been doing a fine job of it so far this season.

In the end…

Games in Philadelphia between these teams have not lacked for offensive fireworks recently.  In each of the last four games played at Wells Fargo Center, the winning team scored five or more goals, the Caps and Flyers splitting the four decisions, two apiece.  And, the games have not been close, either.  The last five decisions were of a multi-goal variety, four of them by three or more goals.  Five of the last six Capitals wins, dating back to October 2011, have been by three or more goals, the sixth by two goals.  We are thinking that run of fun is going to end with this game between two long and bitter rivals.

Capitals 3 – Flyers 2

A ONE-Point Night: Washington Capitals -- Game 19: Coyotes 4 - Capitals 3 (OT/Gimmick)

The Washington Capitals took the ice of Veterans Day looking to extend their winning streak to seven games when they hosted the Arizona Coyotes.  The Caps started slowly and fell behind, 3-0, before mounting a furious comeback to force extra time.  They looked to have it won, but a game-winning goal was overturned on review, and the Caps fell in the Gimmick, 4-3.

First Period

Washington had the better of the chances over the first half of the period, but it was Arizona who would get the first power play chance when Jakub Vrana was sent off for slashing 10:54 into the period.  The Caps killed off the penalty with having allowed two shots on goal.

The Coyotes did, however, break on top in the 15^th minute when Hinostroza cleaned up some loose change in front of goalie Ilya Samsonov sweeping a loose puck under the goalie from the top of the crease at the 14:15 mark.

The Caps got their first power play 15 minutes in when Nick Schmaltz was sent to the box on a hooking penalty.  Washington managed only one shot on an unsuccessful power play, and the teams played on.  There would be no further scoring as the teams went to the first intermission with Arizona ahead, 1-0.

-- Arizona held a 13-12 edge in shots on goal in the period, but the Caps had a 19-17 advantage in shot attempts.

-- Jakub Vrana led the Caps in shots (three) and shot attempts (five).

-- Tom Wilson skated a team high ten shifts in the period; Alex Ovechkin led in ice time (8:10).

Second Period

Arizona took a 2-0 lead 12 seconds into the period on a bizarre play.  A Christian Fischer shot was gloved by Samsonov at the goal line, and after review was ruled to have been carried by Samsonov over the goal line.

It was 3-0 less than a minute later when the T.J. Oshie flubbed a pass in the neutral zone, and Michael Grabner took off on a breakaway, beating Samsonov cleanly at the 45-second mark.

Clayton Keller had another breakaway chance shortly thereafter, but Samsonov threw out his right pad to deny Keller a shooting path, and the Caps stayed within three.

It was Washington’s turn on the breakaway mid-way through the period.  After escaping a Coyote chance at the other end, Jakub Vrana fed Evgeny Kuznetsov at the Arizona blue line.  Kuznetsov split the Arizona defense and darted in alone on goalie Antti Raanta.  Kuznetsov deked and slid the puck between Raanta’s pads to make it 3-1, 8:47 into the period.

The Caps had a chance late in the period, but a backhand by Chandler Stephenson hit the goalpost and rang out, leaving the margin at two goals.

Jason Demers was whistled for hauling down T.J. Oshie in front of the Arizona net, putting the Caps on a power play in the last minute of the period.  The Caps were not able to convert the power play chance before the end of the period, so it would carry over to the start of the third with the Coyotes in front, 3-1.

-- Arizona had a 13-9 edge in shots on goal and a 23-19 advantage in shot attempts.

-- Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov led the Caps with four shots apiece; Jakub Vrana had six shot attempts.

-- Tom Wilson was credited with five hits through two periods.

Third Period

The Caps started the period with more than a minute left on their man advantage but could not convert. 

The Caps did get within a goal less than three minutes in when off a faceoff win in the Arizona end, Michal Kempny sent a drive wide and off the end boards.  The puck rebounded out to the left of Raanta where Kuznetsov was lurking, chipping a backhand behind the goalie to make it 3-2, 2:23 into the period.

Dmitry Orlov drew a penalty on Derek Stepan 5:33 into the period to give the Caps a chance to tie the game on a power play, but despite Alex Ovechkin getting a chance from in close, the Caps could not convert the opportunity.

The Coyotes went on a power play 9:49 into the period when T.J. Oshie was sent off for high-sticking.  The Caps killed it off to keep it a one-goal game.

The Caps pulled Samsonov in the last two minutes, and the move paid off with just over a minute left.  A one-timer from the left circle by Alex Ovechkin was stopped by Raanta, but he left the puck at the top of the crease, and T.J. Oshie swatted it into the back of the net to make it 3-3, 18:44 into the period.  That would be how the teams ended regulation.

Overtime

It looked as if the Caps had the game won in overtime when Lars Eller fed T.J. Oshie from the Arizona blue line, and Oshie skated the puck into the middle before wristing it over Raanta’s glove.  But after video review, the play was deemed offside, Oshie crossing the blue line before Eller could scrape the puck across the blue line.  It would be the best chance to end the game in the extra frame, but the teams went to the Gimmick.

Shootout

Nick Schmaltz and Conor Garland for Arizona… None for the Caps. ‘Yotes, 4-3.

Other stuff…

-- Tom Wilson recorded an assist, extending his points streak to five games over which he is 4-5-9.

-- Evgeny Kuznetsov’s second period goal extended his points streak to four games, and when he added a goal in the third period he was 3-6-9 over those four games.

-- Jakub Vrana added an assist, giving him points in seven of his last eight games.  He is 6-6-12 in that span.

-- Even with the extra time loss, the Caps extended their points streak to 12 games (10-0-2) and became the first team to 30 points this season.

-- The Caps were out-shot, 35-34, but they had a 66-53 edge in shot attempts.

-- Alex Ovechkin led the team with seven shots on goal and nine shot attempts, but Jakub Vrana had three shots and eight shot attempts.

-- Tom Wilson was credited with seven hits.

-- Richard Panik, Nic Dowd, and Brendan Leipsic finished the game without a shot attempt.

-- John Carlson led the team with 27:17 in ice time.

-- Ilya Samsonov took the loss, but he is still 5-0-1 in his first six NHL starts.

In the end…

Frankly, this was a game that the Caps should have lost.  They were sluggish early, let Arizona set the pace, and at times looked a bit indifferent.  But the three-goal deficit woke them up, and they were clearly the better team over the last 30 minutes.  But this is still a 60 minute game, and for the Caps to get out with a point without that full 60 minute game can be thought of as fortunate, hopefully just a speed bump in their recent run of good fortune.

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 19: Coyotes at Capitals, November 11th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

Veterans Day is on the schedule for the Washington Capitals as they host the Arizona Coyotes at Capital One Arena.  The Caps go into this game riding a six-game winning streak and have points in 11 consecutive games (10-0-1).  On the other side, the Coyotes might qualify as one of the more surprising teams of the early season, but their 9-4-1 start has fallen into an 0-2-1 slide as they come to Washington.

Then and Now…

The Caps will meet the Coyotes for the 80^th time on Monday.  In the 79 games played to date between the Caps and Coyotes (including previous incarnations as Phoenix Coyotes and Winnipeg Jets), the Caps are 35-29-3 (12 ties).  The Caps are 24-10-1 (five ties) in 40 games played on home ice.  Since 2005-2006, the Caps are 9-7-2 overall against Arizona, 6-3-0 on home ice.  The teams split last year’s series, each winning on the other’s rink, Arizona winning last Veterans Day in Washington, 4-1, and the Caps returning the favor in the desert with a 4-2 win last December 6^th.

Active Leaders vs. Opponent…

Noteworthy Opponents…

If someone not calling themselves a Coyote fan were asked, “who leads the team in goals this season,” they might go through a few players before settling on Conor Garland.  But he does in this, his first full season in the NHL after getting 47 games of experience last season and recording 13 goals.  Garland was a fifth-round pick of the Coyotes (123^rd overall) in the 2015 Entry Draft.  After spending a final year in Moncton in the QMJHL and two full seasons with the Tuscon Roadrunners in the AHL, he split time between Tuscon and the Coyotes last season.  The odd part of his development is that while he was a goal scorer in Canadian junior (104 goals in 206 games over four seasons with Moncton), his first two years as a pro were unremarkable (13 goals in 110 games with Tuscon).  Last year he took a leap forward with eight goals in 18 games with the Roadrunners in the AHL in addition to his 13 goals in 47 games with the Coyotes.  He has slowed down a bit, though.  Garland is without a goal in his last four games, his longest streak so far this season without one.  This will be his first appearance against the Capitals.

If it seems Alex Goligoski has been in the league forever, it only seems that way.  Yes, he is among the older defensemen in the league, but at age 34 he is still younger than Brent Burns, Ryan Suter, and Mark Giordano, among others.  Now in his 13^th season and third team (stints with Dallas and Pittsburgh preceding his arrival in Arizona), he is closing in on 400 career points (he has 385) that, should he get there ahead of Alexander Edler (379), would make him the 19^th active defenseman with at least 400 career points.  This season, he leads the Coyote defensemen in assists (nine) and points (ten) and is second only to Oliver Ekman-Larsson among all Arizona skaters in average ice time per game (22:43).  Goligoski has also been the trigger man on the Coyote power play, his three assists tied for the team lead with Clayton Keller.  All of Goligoski’s points came in a ten-game stretch after he opened his season without a point in his first three games.  He goes into this game looking to avoid his second three-game streak without a point this season.  Goligoski is 1-7-8, plus-6, in 21 career games against Washington.

Goaltender Antti Raanta missed the last 59 games of last season with a knee injury.  He started this season missing the first three games of the season coming back from that injury and taking a conditioning assignment in Tuscon in the AHL.  He has been eased back into action so far, appearing in only five games to date, none of them consecutively on the schedule.  The infrequency of his appearances mirrors the inconsistency in his game to date.  He has been very good at times (a 34-save effort against Ottawa in a 5-2 win on October 19^th), not so good in others (four goals on 36 shots in a 4-1 loss to Montreal on October 20^th).

That has left Darcy Kuemper with the bulk of the workload to date.  Kuemper has, from time to time over his seven years in the NHL before this one, displayed some fine performances, but he lacked workload.  Until last season he never appeared in more than 31 games in any season.  But last year, he started 55 games in his first season with the Coyotes and posted a fine 27-20-8, 2.33, .925 record with five shutouts.  He has been better so far this season with a 2.00 goals against average and a .930 save percentage with one shutout, a level of performance that seems to have been unrewarded in his 7-5-0 record in 12 starts.  Kuemper is 1-1-0, 2.03, .939 in two career appearances against the Caps, while Raanta is 1-1-0 (one no-decision), 2.59, .906 in three career appearances against Washington.

 

1.  Each of Arizona’s last three games on the road have gone to extra time, an overtime win against Edmonton and a Gimmick win against Buffalo with an overtime loss to Calgary.  The Coyotes have played five extra time games in nine road contests, none in eight games at home.

2.  Three seems to be the magic number for Arizona – goals allowed, that it.  In seven games in which the Coyotes allowed three of more goals, they are 1-4-2.  In the ten games in which they allowed two or fewer, they are 8-2-0.

3.  Arizona hardly lacks for shots in road games.  They are averaging 31.6 shots on goal per road game.  That has not translated into success.  The Coyotes are shooting just 8.8 percent on the road for the season.

4.  The Coyotes do not finish games strong in the offensive end of the ice.  Their 11 third-period goals rank 29^th in the league.  Only New Jersey (nine) and Columbus (eight) have fewer.

5.  What Arizona has done well on the road is tilt the ice at 5-on-5.  Their 52.88 shot attempts-for percentage at 5-on-5 is third-best in the league in road contests.

1.  In the Caps’ 10-0-1 run of late they scored 51 goals, eight more than the next leading goal scoring teams over that span, Vancouver (43 in 13 games) and Calgary (43 in 14 games).

2.  Over that same span of time, the Caps are one of four teams with a goal differential greater than plaus-10.  The Caps are plus-19 in 11 games, Boston is plus-13 in ten games, Nashville is plus-11 in 12 games, and the New York Islanders are plus-16 in 10 games.

3.  The Caps have the second best power play (27.0 percent) over those 11 games.  Only Boston (30.8 percent in ten games) is better.

4.  The Caps’ 39 even strength goals over those 11 games is more than the total scored by 22 other teams.  Four of the 51 total goals scored over that span were empty netters, leading the league.

5.  Despite all that, the Caps are minus-19 in shot attempt differential at 5-on-5.  Their 48.92 percentage is 22^nd in the league over that span.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Arizona: Phil Kessel

When the Arizona Coyotes traded 25-year old Alex Galchenyuk and a prospect (Pierre-Olivier Joseph) to Pittsburgh for 31-year old Phil Kessel and a prospect (Dane Birks) late last June, the Penguins might have been making a deal to send off a player whose time to go had clearly come, but the Coyotes were getting a veteran player of uncommon durability (nine straight seasons playing every game coming into this one) and reliable production (averaging 29.4 goals per 82 games over his 13 seasons preceding this one).  However, the move west after 13 years playing in the Eastern Conference has not agree with Kessel.  He has only three goals in 17 games to date, none of them scored on the road. 

Further, what contributions Kessel has made on the score sheet seem not to have mattered much.  In eight games in which he recorded at least one point, Arizona is 4-3-1.  They are 5-3-1 in the nine games in which he was blanked on the score sheet.  This from a player who led the league in game-winning goals last season with the Penguins (ten).  Kessel did not get his first even strength goal of the season until Game 13 against Colorado, and that remains his only even strength goal so far this season.  If more was expected of his contributions than a 20^th-ranked scoring offense, it has not yet materialized.  Kessel is 12-22-34, minus-8, in 47 career games against the Capitals.

Washington: Garnet Hathaway

Garnet Hathaway has been as advertised for the Washington Capitals to date.  One scouting report describes his assets as follows: “Owns excellent size (6-2, 208 pounds) and the prototypical NHL-style game for the highest level, so he is capable of winning board battles with consistency. Gets under opponents' skin, too.”  He plays the “heavy” style the Caps want to deploy, his 52 credited hits for the season tied for 12^th most among all players through Saturday, tied for ninth among forwards.  With his 13 blocked shots, he is one of two forwards in the league with more than 50 hits and more than ten blocked shots (Tom Wilson is another with 56 hits and 18 blocked shots). 

Hathaway clearly pays a price in the physical game, and it has had its benefits.  The Caps are 11-1-1 in the 13 games in which he was credited with two or more hits, and they have no lost a game in which he skated more than 13 minutes (6-0-0), evidence that he is reliable in games in which the Caps are trying to hold leads.  On top of that, while his offensive numbers are modest (2-4-6 in 18 games), he is on a pace to surpass his career best in points (19 points with Calgary last season).  Hathaway is no stranger to the Coyotes.  The 14 games he has appeared against them is the most he has against any NHL opponent.  He is 0-1-1, even, in those 14 games.

In the end…

There are many stories of teams out to hot starts in the early season only to fade as the grind of a long season begins to set in.  For instance, last season the Minnesota Wild opened the season 11-4-2 only to fade to a 26-32-7 finish, last in the Central Division.  Whether Arizona suffers a similar fate is only a matter of conjecture at this point.  But what isn’t is that they will be facing one of the hottest teams in the league looking to win their seventh game in a row and their sixth straight on home ice after starting the home portion of the schedule 0-1-2.  Arizona just has not been scoring enough goals for the Coyotes to depend on outscoring the Caps in an old fashioned shootout.  They do have the second-best scoring defense in the league, but the term “ambush” by the home team might apply to the outcome in this contest.

Capitals 5 – Coyotes 2

Washington Capitals: That Was The Week That Was - Week 6

The good times kept rolling for the Washington Capitals in Week 6 as they extended their winning streak to a season-long six games.  They are riding one of the biggest waves of offense in the team’s history to rest atop the league standings through six weeks.

Record: 3-0-0

The 3-0-0 week made it five weeks in six this season that the Caps finished with winning weeks and all six at .500 or better in standings points won.  It was the second week of the season and second consecutive week that the Caps poster a perfect record.  Last season, the Caps did not have their second perfect week on the record ledger until Week 9.  It was their fourth week without a regulation loss, a mark they did not reach last season until Week 9.

It might be something Caps fans take a bit for granted these days, the Caps having been a top-level contender for more than a decade now, but it is a measure of how far they have come since the rebuild and the early days of the Rock the Red era began.  In 2005-2006, the Caps did not earn their 13^th win until Game 36, but this year they have 13 wins in half as many games (18).  It is the earliest that the Caps got to 13 wins since they hit that mark in 18 games to start the 2010-2011 season.  The last time they hit 13 wins earlier on their schedule was 1991-1992, when they started the first 17 games of the season 13-4-0.

Offense: 4.67/game (season: 4.06/1st)

It would surprise few that the Caps led the league in total goals in Week 6, their 14 goals tied with Colorado and Ottawa.  They did it with considerable efficiency, recording those 14 goals on only 97 shots (14.4 percent).  They recorded five goals in two games, wins over Florida and Vegas to close the week.  That brought their total of games with five or more goals to eight, seven of them coming in their last ten contests.  The eight five-goal games leads the league, one better than Nashville and Vancouver.

The deluge of goals to open the season has the Caps leading the league in scoring offense by almost a quarter of a goal per game over the Nashville Predators (4.06 to 3.82) and is, for the moment, only the third time in team history that the Caps averaged more than four goals per game (4.13 in 1991-1992; 4.03 in 1984-1985).

Eight different Caps had goals during the week, Tom Wilson and Jakub Vrana leading the way with three apiece.  Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin (two apiece) also had multi-goal weeks.  Evgeny Kuznetsov led the team in assists (six) and points (seven), but an indicator of the balance the Caps enjoyed was that five different players finished the week with five or more points.  Wilson, Vrana, and John Carlson had five apiece.

Carlson continued his assault on the record book for scoring by defensemen.  He started the week failing to record a point against the Calgary Flames, but he had a three-point game against Florida and followed that up with a two-point effort against Vegas to give him ten multi-point games this season, tops in the league among all skaters.  His 28 points through 18 games is the most for a defenseman over that span of games since Al MacInnis had 32 points in his first 18 games in the 1991-1992 season.

The cherry on top of the sundae for the week in this category might have been in the second period of the game on Saturday against Vegas, when Jonas Siegenthaler recorded his first NHL goal.  It would be the game-winning goal in the 5-2 Caps win:

Defense: 2.67/game (season: 3.06/T-18th)

The Caps did allow eight goals for the week, tied for tenth fewest overall, but five of the nine teams allowing fewer played in fewer than three games.  The defense is coming, though.  After a span of eight games in which they allowed fewer than three goals once, they allowed fewer than three goals three times in four games including three of four in Week 6.  Part of it is keeping shot totals down.  In those eight games in which the Caps had difficulty keeping opponents off the scoreboard, they averaged 33.6 shots allowed per game.  In the four games since, that number was reduced to 31.3 per game.  It does not sound like a lot, but a seven percent reduction in shots allowed per game can have its effects over time.

The Caps also got better over the course of the week in holding down shot attempts.  In the last two games of the week, the Caps held opponents to 35 of fewer attempts at fives (35 against Florida, 34 against Vegas).  The week ended with the Caps having held opponents to 35 of fewer shot attempts at 5-on-5 three times in five games after doing it only once in their previous seven games.

Goaltending: 2.67 / .916 (season: 2.97 / .903)

Slowly but surely, the team goaltending is improving.  After raising the team save percentage over .900 in Week 5, the Caps found themselves under 3.00 in goals against average for the first time since Week 1 after Week 6.

What drove the week as a clean sheet in the third periods of games.  Braden Holtby and Ilya Samsonov stopped all 31 third period shots they faces, and Holtby added another save in overtime for good measure in the Caps’ 5-4 overtime win over Florida.

Holtby won both of his starts for the week, stopping a total of 62 of 68 shots faced against Florida and Vegas.  It brought his record to 7-0-1, 2.72, .920 since his 0-for-3 debacle less than eight minutes against Colorado on October 14^th.  If there was one thing to be concerned about in his performance, it was in stopping 38 of 44 shots over the first two periods of the two games he played this week (.864 save percentage).

Ilya Samsonov had the first game of the week, and after his own shaky start against Calgary (eight saves on ten shots in the first period), he was a wall over the last 40 minutes, stopping all 19 shot he faced and winning his fifth game in five starts, the first goaltender in Caps history to do so.

Power Play: 3-for-12/25.0 percent (season: 25.0 percent/T-5th)

For the third consecutive week, the Caps had a 25.0 percent power play.  They have a season power play of 25.0 percent.  Week 6 was the fifth consecutive week in which the Caps power play was 25.0 percent or better.  Consistency is not a problem with which the Caps suffer in this area of their game.  And to think that after Week 1 (2-for-11/18.2 percent), this was an area of considerable concern, especially given how they finished the regular season last year (7-for-48/14.6 percent over their last five weeks).

It might have been an even better week but for the acrobatics of Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who stopped all but one of the 12 power play shots he faced in 10:14 of Caps power play ice time.  As if was, the Caps had a decent week, efficiency-wise, going 3-for-22 shooting in 20:14 of total power play ice time.  The Caps enjoyed a measure of balance in their shooting.  Four Caps recorded four or more power play shots on goal for the week – Alex Ovechkin (1-for-6), Nicklas Backstrom (1-for-4), Evgeny Kuznetsov (four shots), and John Carlson (five shots).  Lars Eller had the third power play goal.

If there is a bizarre aspect to the Caps’ power play through six weeks, it is the difference between home and road efficiency, and that in an odd way.  Washington finished the week 11-for-33 in road power plays (33.3 percent), second in the league to the New York Islanders (40.0 percent on few chances, only 4-for-10).  The Caps are 5-for-31 at home (16.1 percent), 23^rd in the league in home power play efficiency.

Penalty Killing: 9-for-11/81.8 percent (season:  percent/T-7th)

Washington’s sawtooth patter of penalty killing efficiency – up one week, down the next, repeat – was on display again in Week 6.  The 9-for-11 result was by no means poor, but the 81.8 percent penalty kill for the week was off from 90.0 percent the previous week, which was up from 87.5 percent the week before that, etc.

The Caps were efficient overall in holding shots down, allowing 17 in 18:37 of shorthanded ice time.  But that was tempered by allowing Vegas ten power play shots in just 7:27 of power play ice time in the last game of the week.  Seven of them came from two power plays in the third period, the Caps holding the Golden Knights off the score sheet for the entire four minutes of shorthanded ice time.

Faceoffs: 93-for-178 / 52.2 percent (season: 50.1 percent/13th)

The Caps inched back over the 50 percent mark for the season on faceoffs off their Week 6 effort.  With three games at 50 percent or better, the Caps extended that streak to four games, their longest streak of 50 percent of better in the circle this season.

They were consistent by zone, finishing over 50 percent in all three zones for the week overall.  That the Caps did it against three teams that finished the week ranked 20^th or worse in faceoff winning percentage does not diminish the achievement much; you play the teams in front of you.

Individually, the Caps spread things around for a team playing only three games for the week.  Six different skaters finished with ten or more faceoffs taken. Four of them won more than 50 percent of their draws, including the often unamazing Evgeny Kuznetsov, who not only finished above 50 percent for the week (56.4 percent), but was 50 percent or better in all three zones.  It is worth noting, though, that the two players taking the most draws for the week were the two that finished under 50 percent among the six taking ten or more draws – Nicklas Backstrom (23-for-47/48.9 percent) and Lars Eller (20-for-43/46.5 percent).

Goals by Period:

Part of the idea, “play for a full 60 minutes,” means finishing games well.  In that case, the Caps had a very good week.  The Caps outscored their three opponents by a combined 5-0 margin in the third period and overtime of games.  That margin allowed the Caps to climb into positive differential territory in third period goals for the season (21 scored, 18 allowed).  They continued their second period dominance, albeit slightly for the week.  However, they did score goals in the second period in each of the three games in Week 6, making it 18-for-18 in games in which the Caps scored at least one second period goal.

First periods were less successful.  Although the Caps did score first in two of the games this week, both times in the first minute of play (John Carlson 25 seconds into the game at Florida and Evgeny Kuznetsov 58 seconds into the game against Vegas), the Caps were merely even for the week with five goals scored and five allowed in the first periods of the three games.

Year-over-Year:

The six-game winning and 11-game points streak has the Caps of this season pulling away from last year’s squad at similar points on the schedule.  There is the ten standings points difference between this year’s and last year’s 18-game totals, of course.  But the positive differences extend downward through most statistical categories – goals scored (up 14, almost 25 percent), goals against (down five), shots, shots allowed, penalty killing, faceoffs, shot attempts at 5-on-5, blocked shots, and giveaways.  The completeness with which the Caps have improved across categories after more than 20 percent of the season has been completed suggests that the Caps’ record is no fluke.  It might not be sustainable over the longer run (they are on a 59-win/132-points pace), but they can stake a claim to be among the top clubs in the league to date.

In the end…

The Caps are the only Eastern Conference club not to have lost a game in regulation to an Eastern Conference team (6-0-1).  On the other hand, no team in the East has played fewer games against Eastern Conference rivals than the Caps (seven, tied with Pittsburgh, who is 3-4-0).  The schedule pivots back to the East in Week 7 with three of four games and seven of the next ten on the schedule through the end of November against Eastern foes.  The Caps have set themselves up well in their record to date, positioning themselves to put even more distance between themselves and the rest of the conference in the standings.  Week 6 added to that advantage in a fine all-around performance.

Three Stars:

• First Star: Tom Wilson (3-2-5, plus-5, 1 power play goal, 1 game-winning (overtime) goal, 9:54 in shorthanded ice time (led all skaters), eight credited hits)
• Second Star: Jakub Vrana (3-2-5, plus-4, 1 game-winning goal, 10 shots, 16 shot attempts, three takeaways)
• Third Star: Evgeny Kuznetsov (1-6-7, plus-4, 10 shots, 11 shot attempts, 56.4 percent on faceoffs)

Captain rates the week…

Four puppers