It is a little known fact…
- Only two teams have two defensemen with ten or more points – the Calgary Flames (Mark Giordano with 18 and TJ Brodie with 14) and the Capitals (John Carlson with 11 and Mike Green with 10).
- There are 41 forwards with six or more goals. Of that group Alex Ovechkin has the worst shooting percentage (9.2). In fact, Ovechkin has the worst shooting percentage of the top 70 goal scorers among forwards.
- Maybe it’s the lights? Nicklas Backstrom has a faceoff winning percentage of 59.0 percent at home, 48.8 percent on the road. Among 52 players taking 200 or more draws, only three players – Kyle Turris, Claude Giroux, and Bryan Little – have a larger spread between home and road faceoff winning percentage.
- Anyone have Marcus Johansson leading the Caps in even strength goals (5) after a month of the season?
- The Caps and the St. Louis Blues are the only teams remaining not to have had a shorthanded goal scored for or against in a game so far this season.
- The Caps have allowed only 370 shots on goal in 14 games (26.4 per game). Last season the Caps hit the 370-shot mark in the third period of Game 11. The Caps have held opponents under 30 shots 11 times. Last season they did not record their 11th game holding an opponent under 30 shots until Game 50.
- The Caps have the second-ranked power play in the league (28.9 percent) behind the Pittsburgh Penguins (37.5 percent). The Caps have the second-ranked power play in another efficiency measure, minutes-per-power play goal. The Caps have scored one power play goal every 4:49 of power play time. The Penguins have scored one power play goal every 4:02 of power play time.
- In the trick shot phase of the game, only Montreal has scored more goals (7) than the Caps (5). On the other hand, no team has allowed more goals than the Caps (5), who are tied with Detroit at the top of that list.
- The Caps are one of five teams yet to reach the 10-goal mark in third period scoring (they have nine). Dallas, Buffalo, Florida, and Winnipeg are the others.
- Over last season and this, only Brenden Morrow (22.0) has a higher shooting percentage than Joel Ward (19.6) among players appearing in more than 50 games. Ward is currently second in the league (28.0 percent) to Pittsburgh’s Chris Kunitz (28.6 percent).