Week 8 will be hard to top for the Washington Capitals. Four-win weeks are not common at this level of play, and doing so in the midst of holiday distractions said a lot for the team’s focus. That focus will be challenged in a different way in Week 9 as the Caps play through a bit lighter workload.
The Opponents
After a week entirely comprised of Original Six opponents, the Caps return to a divisional slate of games to open Week 9. They visit Brooklyn on Monday to face the New York Islanders at Barclays Center in the first game of the week and the only coach to lead them to a Stanley Cup in team history in Barry Trotz. The Isles might be considered among the surprise teams in the league through the first quarter of the season. After missing the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, they are third in the Metropolitan Division through eight weeks, three points behind the Caps and one point behind the Columbus Blue Jackets with a game in hand on both clubs.
Frankly, one wonders just how the Islanders are doing it. Their scoring offense is not especially impressive (3.18 goals per game/13th through Week 8), nor is their scoring defense (2.86/13th). Their special teams are unimpressive on both sides of the ledger, their power play being among the weaker clubs (17.1 percent/23rd in the league) and their penalty kill almost as weak (79.7 percent/16th). What they do is win at home. After dropping their first home contest of the season to the Nashville Predators, New York is 6-1-2 at Barclays Center. When the Caps beat the Isles, 7-3, last March, it broke a three-game losing streak at Barclays Center.
The Caps host the New Jersey Devils on Friday in another divisional matchup. If the Islanders are a pleasant surprise to open the season, things have been surprising in a more unpleasant way for the Devils. Last season, New Jersey returned to the postseason after a five-year absence, winning more games (44) than they had in any season since 2011-2012 (48), a season in which they reached the Stanley Cup final.
This season, however, the Devils stumbled out of the gate, going 9-9-3 through the first eight weeks of the season. It has been especially slow going for the Devils, who were winners of their first four games to open the season. The road has been particularly unkind for New Jersey, whose two road wins (in ten road contests) is tied for fewest in the league going into Week 9 (with Ottawa and St. Louis). Only Vancouver and Vegas, with nine regulation road losses apiece (but with 17 and 14 road games played, respectively, through eight weeks) have more losses in regulation on the road than New Jersey (eight in ten games).
One problem the Devils have had is a failure to keep games close. They are 2-2-3 in one-goal games this season, a winning percentage (.286) better than only three other teams (Colorado, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis). On the other hand, the Devils are no strangers to blowouts, for or against. They have won six games by three or more goals, tied for seventh-most in the league. They also have lost six games by three or more goals, a total exceeded by only five other teams.
The Caps close the week and open their December schedule with a Sunday afternoon contest with the Anaheim Ducks at Capital One Arena. Going into Sunday’s games, the Ducks were third in the Pacific Division and about to embark on a five-game road trip, four of them to be covered in Week 9, the last of them coming in Washington. This could be a tired team at Capital One Arena come next Sunday. It is also a team that has not won a road game in almost six weeks, not since they defeated the Blues in St. Louis, 3-2, on October 14th. Anaheim is 1-6-0 in their last seven road games.
What the Ducks seem to do well is scratch out wins. Of their ten wins going into Week 9 (pending the results of their game against Nashville Sunday), eight of them were by one goal, and they lost only one game in regulation by that margin. That the Ducks can sustain that kind of lopsided margin of results in one-goal games would seem unlikely, especially given that this team struggles to score (2.17 goals per game/30th in the league), and only the Ottawa Senators allow more shots on goal per game (38.6) than do the Ducks (35.7).
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