The Big Picture
The Capitals are back in the driver’s seat in the Metro division after a fantastic 3-0-1 week. After dropping two in a row to end last week’s slate by three goals each, there were reasons to be concerned for our boys in red, white, and blue. Those reasons didn’t really stop after the Caps dropped another one in overtime to the Dallas Stars (who we just. Can’t. Beat. In. Dallas.) However Washington ripped off three in a row to give them a four point lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins at the time of writing.
In other news Todd Reardan was named the coach of the Metro all-star team for the upcoming NHL all-star game in San Jose. Nicklas Backstrom is in the running for the “last men in” fan vote contest, click here to vote for him. Some guy is getting a tattoo of Brett Connolly getting a tattoo (no, really). Kuzy got his 300th point, and the game against the Bruins was a mess. All, is well in Capsland.
The Last Week
OTL @ DAL 2-1 (1/4)
Most people know about the disaster of a situation going on big D (you know, the one about the CEO of the organization publicly calling out the Stars two franchise players instead of talking to them about it first), but the Stars have been playing pretty well since that happened, at least in my opinion. Anyway, in the first period, much like the two games before this one, the effort was just not there for Washington. Tyler Seguin (one of the two guys called out) slotted in a power play goal in the first which prompted a dominating performance during the rest of the game from Washington.
The issue was, despite out shooting the Stars 37-29, they were only able to get the puck in the back of the net once on a Lars Eller attempt. As it has been for the last 24 years (the Capitals last won in Dallas in 1995), the puck was just not bouncing Washington’s way in this game. The effort is worth praise after sleep walking over the last two games, but the fact remains that Tyler Seguin notched his second goal of the night in overtime, and the Capitals lost this one.
W @ DET 3-2 (1/6)
Washington avoided going zero for three during this midwest road trip with a win over pitiful Detroit Red Wings. This was also the Caps first win in 2019, and it was a bit of stinker. At this point I think a lot of us are questioning what is going on with the effort in this team, because even though the Capitals won, they only really played the first period hard. This truly was a game where you had to see it to know what I mean because, statically speaking, the Capitals won the battle. They outshot and outchanced the Red Wings by pretty significant margins, but they just didn’t finish the plays.
I’ve gotten this far in Cap Tip without mentioning the power play, but after facing one of the league’s worst penalty kills four times and again not scoring, we need to address this. Washington is 1-31 in the last 31 pp’s, that is horrible. Since landing Ovi in 2005 the power play has been among the league’s best for the most part, but this season we are among the worst in the league. I don’t know the answer and I don’t think anyone else does, but something isn’t working here.
W vs PHI 5-3 (1/8)
Wow…the Flyers really suck huh. I think a lot of people knew they had some issues, but like, they may be the worst team in the league. They do have a lot of good players though, it’s possible that we land one of the players they attempt to sell off closer to the deadline (I got my eye on Sean Couturier).
Jakub Varna and TJ Oshie were cooking in this one! The two speedsters had two goals and one assist, and two goals respectively. This game was never in question as the Capitals scored three unanswered goals in the 2nd period to put them up 4-1 and they were able to kinda-sorta take the third period off. Pheonix Copley was also excellent in this one with 37 saves on 40 shots. He has continued to play very well for big number 70 in relief, with Ilya Samsonov down in Hershey now, the Caps have one of the deepest goalie pools in the league.
It’s worth noting that, while the Flyers did have 40 shots, they were not good ones. They had very few attempts that qualify as “high danger shots” in advanced stat categories. Also, the Philly fans just started cheering for the Eagles in the middle of the game, that was annoying.
W @ BOS 4-2 (1/10)
If you like old school, hard checking, drop the gloves, rough and tumble hockey, then man do I have a game for you! After a smooth and fun first period which featured yet another very nice goal from Jake Varna, the game turn chippy and rough starting with Ovi checking the 6-9 Zdeno Chara over the boards into the Washington bench. Things just escalated from there, with TJ Oshie getting smashed to the boards and retaliating with a monster hit of his own (albeit, on a different player) before he was sent into the locker to be checked out, he would later return and continue play.
There was more nastiness, but you get the gist. In the actual game the Caps played really well, Holts in particular was fantastic with 39 saves. Ovi added two goals of his own along with one from Backy. The Capitals have now won a mind blowing 14 straight against the Boston Bruins, that’s almost as amazing as losing 23 straight in Dallas.