45.6 – Shot attempts the Caps are allowing per sixty minutes of five-on-five ice time so far this season, lowest in the League (the Caps are also tops in Fenwick-Against and second in shots-on-goal-against).
The 45.6 attempts (a.k.a. Corsi, which includes shots on goal as well as those that are blocked or miss the net) represents a 20 percent reduction from last year (when they ranked 23rd at 56.9), and it’s the reason the Caps have been able to drop their five-on-five goals-against rate by 15% (2.34 to 1.99 per sixty), despite actually having a worse save percentage (.917 versus .925). (Further to the point, Braden Holtby‘s GAA has dropped six-tenths of a goal, from 2.85 to 2.25, despite his save percentage dropping from .915 last year to .907 so far in 2014-15.)