‘Tis the season, Caps fans, and the Washington Capitals go into Christmas week leading the Metropolitan Division. They will end it having played a light post-Christmas schedule with two games on the docket, continuing their tour through the Eastern Conference that started back on December 8th. They hope to build on their 6-1-0 record against Eastern Conference teams in that span.
The Opponents
The challenge for the Caps this week will be, first, to shake off the holiday hangover, and second, to do it against teams they faced recently, both of them having lost to the Caps earlier this month.
Carolina Hurricanes. The Caps visited Carolina on December 14th, letting the Hurricanes get out to a 4-1 lead before the Caps roared back to tie the game with three goals in less than six minutes late in the second period. After the Caps took a lead on an Alex Ovechkin goal in the third period, it was the Hurricanes’ turn to come back, Justin Williams scoring with less than seven minutes left to knot the game at five apiece. After a scoreless overtime, Jakub Vrana won it for the Caps in the sixth round of the shootout. That game knocked a bit of starch out of the Hurricanes who, after beating Arizona in their next contest, dropped a pair of three-goals decisions – a 4-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings and a 3-0 blanking by the Pittsburgh Penguins, both on home ice.
There has to be a bit of urgency setting in for Carolina, a team that started the month five points behind the first-place Capitals in the Metropolitan Division, secure in a playoff spot as the third-place team in the division. However, Carolina now finds themselves 12 points behind the Caps and in sixth place in the Metro. They are eight points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. None of this is surprising, given that the Hurricanes’ 3-6-1 record is 30th in the league for December.
It is a team that cannot score (24 goals, tied for 27th in the league in December), cannot score at even strength (16 goals in ten games for the month), and are having trouble keeping other teams from scoring (3.30 goals allowed per game). What is hidden in all this is that Carolina has the league’s fifth best penalty kill in the league in December (87.9 percent) going into this week. Of note, almost half of the team’s 24 goals have come off the sticks of Sebastian Aho (seven) and Andrei Svechnikov (four). And, it is worth noting that Petr Mrazek is the only goalie with wins this month, recording all three in Carolina’s 3-6-1 month to date.
Ottawa Senators. The Caps will return to the same ice sheet that they shut out the Ottawa Senators last Saturday when they take on the Senators this Saturday. Ottawa is another of those clubs that has struggled in December, going 4-6-1 for the month going into Week 13. They have a goal differential of minus-11 in 11 games played, tied with Carolina and the St. Louis Blues for worst goal differential in December as the new week begins.
One problem for the Senators is that the ice has been tilted so much in the wrong direction. They have allowed 412 shots on goal this month (third-most in the league) while recording only 296 of their own (tied with the Caps for sixth-fewest). The 607 shot attempts allowed at 5-n-5 are second-highest in the league, while their own 445 shot attempts at fives ranks 20th. Their minus-132 in 5-on-5 shot attempts is worst in the league by a mile (Detroit is at minus-136 with one more game played going into the week). The shot volumes that the Senators are facing are making it difficult for goalies to cope. For instance, Craig Anderson has a decent, if unexceptional .911 save percentage for the month. However, having to face almost 37 shots per 60 minutes he played so far this month, his 3.27 goals against average ranked 30th among 37 goalies appearing in at least five games this month through Saturday’s games.
It is not surprising that the Ottawa offense has been as bad as it has over the course of the month, given the ice tilt, but making it worse is that of the 26 goals they scored over 11 games heading into Week 13, six of them came in the first game of the month, a 6-2 win over the San Jose Sharks. In ten games since, Ottawa has only 20 goals overall and only two games in which they scored more than two goals, a 4-2 win in Detroit over the Red Wings on December 14th, and a 4-3 overtime win over the Nashville Predators on December 17th.
Hot Caps…
Cold Caps…
Weird Facts…
Potential Milestones to Reach This Week…