Editor’s Note: Cap Tip is back after a six week break! Apologize for the break, but many circumstances occurred here that prevented my work on writing, hopefully going forward this won’t happen again.
The Big Picture
Oh boy where to begin. Since we last gathered on 11/15 the Caps have had a bit of a surge including a seven game win streak, a five game win streak, and a four game win streak, for a total record of 16-5-0. That qualifies as pretty damn good. We have seen fantastic play from Tom Wilson and Ovi has been on an absolute tear. Right now things are good and healthy in the nation’s capital. Of course as we rise to the top, the Penguins are rising to meet us as they seemingly always do.
Right now the Caps are leading the surging Metro division by one point over the Pittsburgh Penguins, who in turn only are a point ahead of the third place Columbus Blue Jackets. Rounding out the top four are the Barry Trotz led New York Islanders who are five points behind the Capitals with 46 points. After that we see a bit of drop off as the back half of the division features the tanking Rangers, the back down to earth after a hot start Carolina Hurricanes, and the disappointing duo of the New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers.
Things are looking up in the second half of the season for the Capitals as they can hopefully keep the good times rolling.
The Last Week
W vs CAR 3-1 (12/27)
This game was a quiet affair until the second period when Chandler Stephenson scored off a Devante Smith-Pelly turnover and TJ Oshie deflected a John Carlson slap shot. This game also featured a very strong performance from all-star goalie Braden Holtby with 28 saves only allowing one goal. The most notable affair in this game was Matt Niskanen getting injured after a hit against the boards. It is possible that he received a concussion and he sat out the next two games and didn’t return until tonight’s game in St. Louis.
One of the more impressive performances of the night was the line of Varna-Kuzy-Wilson who dominated over the Hurricanes coveted young line of Brock McGinn, Sebastian Aho,and Teuvo Teräväinen. Varna buzzed the net all night, and even though he didn’t get on the scoring sheet, he may have had the best game out of anyone not in net.
W @ OTT 3-2 (12/29)
Man has Phoenix Copley earned his roster spot this season. The Caps absolutely rolled through the first period and finished winning 2-0 featuring goals from Tom Wilson and a first career goal from defenseman Tyler Lewington in only his second career game. Lewington also assisted the Wilson goal. Speaking of first goals, Madison Bowey finally notched his first career goal in his 79th game. While the Capitals rolled through the first period, in the second and third periods the Caps got rolled.
In the second and third periods combined the Capitals were outshot 26-14. Overall the defensive play in this game was just porous, All-Star defenseman John Carlson and his partner Michal Kempny both had rather poor performance with -8 and -6 chance differentials while on the ice respectively. Meanwhile Madison Bowey was promoted to the second pairing and immediately made Todd Rearden look foolish for doing so posting a -12 rating. The team just left Copley out to dry for most of this one and he earned his win with 31 saves.
L vs NSH 6-3 (12/31)
Considering how great a year 2018 was for the Washington Capitals and their long suffering fanbase, this was a really rotten way for the year to end. I think this game was just a classic case of one team needing a win more than the other. Nashville had lost six straight games and had fallen out of first place in central division. The Capitals meanwhile were winners of four straight and were sitting in first place. The Predators just needed to win and it showed.
Despite things hitting the fan in the 2nd period in this game, it still featured some very interesting notes. For the first time this season, Tom Wilson and Brooks Orpik were in the lineup in the same game. Michal Kempny netted his 4th goal of the season, matching a career season high for him. Jake Varna scored his 12th goal of the season, putting him one short of his total from last season.
Overall Washington just didn’t have the eye of tiger in this game, they were outshot by nine goals and Nashville had much better chances. The defense just didn’t have the juice. Maybe it was just the holiday
L @ STL 5-2 (1/3)
It wasn’t just the holiday. The Capitals were blown out the 2nd half of this game, and for the 3rd game in a row the defense lacked the punch needed to win games in the National Hockey League. Perhaps most concerningly is the opponent in this affair, the Blues are among the worst teams in the NHL this season, in fact at the time of writing the Blues are tied for the 4th least points in the league. They are 26th in goals for and 25th in goals against. St. Louis is not a good team and they dragged the Caps.
The Blues struck first before Ovi scored for the first time in six games for his 30th goal of the season. After an ok, but certainly not great first period Washington struck quickly in the second with a Brett Connolly goal. After that everything fell apart, the Blues hit back with Colton Parayko, and Oskar Sundqvist goals to take the lead and Caps just didn’t seem like they wanted to be there in the 3rd period. It’s not even possible to blame this loss on Holtby just by sheer volume of shots, the Blues had a mind blowing 42 shots on goal on this game. The defense just evaporated late in the game.