With the Caps on Day Two of a two-games-in-ten-days stretch, it’s time to focus in on the big issues facing the team as the playoffs loom, and near the top of that list, of course, is discipline.
Peerless made the point recently that the Caps’ penalty killing woes are exacerbated by the fact that they’ve been shorthanded way too often (with nearly 10% of the scheduled yet to be played, they’ve already had to kill more penalties this season than they had all of last season), and that the team’s lethal power play isn’t making opponents pay as often as it could, because the Caps are in the bottom half of the League in extra man opportunities. Now it’s time to name some names as to who’s part of the problem and who’s part of the solution.
First, a look at the forwards (and we’re just looking at five-on-five non-coincidental penalties and guys who have played at least thirty games; PD is penalties drawn, PT penalties taken, +/- the difference and +/-Per60 the +/- per sixty minutes of five-on-five ice time):
| Player | PD | PT | +/- | +/-Per60 |
| Brooks Laich | 23 | 5 | 18 | 1.3 |
| Eric Fehr | 16 | 6 | 10 | 1.1 |
| Viktor Kozlov | 11 | 6 | 5 | 0.4 |
| Matt Bradley | 10 | 6 | 4 | 0.3 |
| Boyd Gordon | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0.2 |
| Chris Clark | 9 | 8 | 1 | 0.2 |
| Alexander Ovechkin | 26 | 24 | 2 | 0.1 |
| Tomas Fleischmann | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Alexander Semin | 19 | 20 | -1 | -0.1 |
| Michael Nylander | 10 | 11 | -1 | -0.1 |
| David Steckel | 11 | 12 | -1 | -0.1 |
| Nicklas Backstrom | 9 | 15 | -6 | -0.3 |
| Donald Brashear | 11 | 19 | -8 | -0.9 |
| Sergei Fedorov | 3 | 17 | -14 | -1.7 |
And now the blueliners, same criteria apply:
| Player | PD | PT | +/- | +/-Per60 |
| Karl Alzner | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0.4 |
| Jeff Schultz | 3 | 5 | -2 | -0.1 |
| Tom Poti | 4 | 9 | -5 | -0.4 |
| Mike Green | 14 | 23 | -9 | -0.6 |
| Shaone Morrisonn | 7 | 17 | -10 | -0.6 |
| John Erskine | 6 | 15 | -9 | -0.9 |
| Milan Jurcina | 4 | 27 | -23 | -1.3 |
A few things jump out:
We could go on (and if anything sticks out to you, by all means mention it in the comments), but the bottom line here is a few obvious points we’ve been harping on for what seems like ages – this team needs to drive the net to draw penalties (as much as to score goals) and stay out of the box if it’s going to have a prayer in the second season. Some guys have already gotten the memo. Others hopefully will before it’s too late.