8 – Number of days remaining until the 2016-17 season. But it’s also…
…the number of losses for the 2015-16 Caps on home ice, fewest in the League and part of an outstanding 29-8-4 record overall at Verizon Center – for a League-leading 62 points – last season.
The Caps had the second-best goal differential at home in the League, their +34 trailing only Chicago’s +37, scoring a fifth-best 127 goals and giving up just 93 (fourth best). They also boasted a second-best Special Teams Index (combined power play and penalty kill percentage) of 108..4 on home ice (21.1% with the extra man, 87.3% on the PK); only Anaheim’s 112.1 was better.