We are getting to the end of it. The regular season, that is. The penultimate week of the season — the last full week — on the Washington Capitals schedule features for games that reach bank into antiquity, by hockey standards. Four games against two opponents that they have faced off against since the first days of the franchise. In one case literally from the first game the Capitals ever played in the venue where it all began.
The Opponents
New York Rangers (Monday and Wednesday/7:00pm at Madison Square Garden)
October 9, 1974, New York… for the Washington Capitals, that is where it started. And not in a good way. The Caps lost to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, 6-3, in what would be the first loss in a 37-game road losing streak. On Monday, the Caps will face the Rangers for the 232nd time in their history and 116th game in New York. The Caps can earn their 50th win in franchise history in New York (currently 49-53-4, with nine ties) with a victory in either the Monday or Wednesday contest.
The Rangers come into this two-game set have enjoyed the comforts of home for five of their last six games, and the only “road” contest was against the New York Islanders, about a 30 mile drive from the Garden. The Rangers have become a formidable home team. After a 3-5-2 start on home ice, they are 11-4-1 in their last 16 games at MSG. Their 23 standings points over those 16 games is tied for eighth-most in the league and ranks eighth in points percentage.
New York has built their recent home record on offense. In that 11-4-1 run they averaged 4.25 goals per game, best in the league. Seven times in those 16 games, the Rangers put up five or more goals, including a 9-0 pasting of the Philadelphia Flyers on March 17th and an 8-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 6th.
That offense has been fueled in large part by a 30.4 percent power play that also ranks first in the league on home ice since the 16-game run started on February 26th. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, power play success has been an indicator of success. New York is 8-1-0 when they scored at least one power play goal in that run, 3-3-1 when they did not.
The problem for the Rangers, regardless of where they play, is that they are out of time. Trailing the Boston Bruins by eight points for fourth place, with four games left in the schedule, and Boston holding two games in hand, the Blueshirts must run the table to have even a remote chance of reaching the postseason. They do have the advantage, such as it is, of facing Boston in the last two games of the season, but unless they sweep the Caps in MSG and get a little help in the meantime, those games will not matter.
Philadelphia Flyers (Friday and Saturday/ 7:00pm at Capital One Arena)
The Caps opened their rivalry with the Flyers on November 9, 1974, in Philadelphia. Having already lost their first five road games by a combined 31-13 margin, things did not look good for a new club facing a team that would go on to win the Stanley Cup in that 1974-1975 season. But the Caps scored the first goal of that contest, Bill Mikkelson doing the honors. But then, things took a turn. The Flyers scored the next five goals and won, 6-2.
The Caps will be facing the Flyers for the 230th time when they open their two-game set to close the week. They have not been all that successful against the Flyers, posting a 92-107-11 (19 ties) record over their first 229 meetings, but they do enjoy a 50-44-4 (13 ties) all-time record against the Orange and Black in Washington.
Philadelphia was a team with playoff expectations when the season began, but the Flyers are limping to the finish, carrying the look of beaten, broken squad that has not won consecutive games in regulation in more than two months and is 11-18-4 since doing so. On the road, consistency has been an issue, as it has overall. Since March 2nd, they have three road wins in regulation and have a record of 7-9-2. They won consecutive road games only once in that span – wins over the Penguins (in a shootout) and the Rangers on April 15th and 22nd, but they have lost three straight games on the road since then, two of them against the out-of-contention New Jersey Devils, their 5-3 loss to the Devils on Thursday officially eliminating the Flyers from playoff contention.
Much has been made of the Flyers goaltending and defense (or lack of it), but the offense has sputtered as well. In their 7-9-2 road record since March 2nd, the Flyers’ 2.44 goals per game ranks just 21st in the league. At 5-on-5, Philadelphia ranks tied for 20th in goals-per-game (1.67) on the road over that span, and their power play efficiency ranks 21st (14.8 percent). At least there is some consistency in their road performance, though not in the best way imaginable.
But there is still that matter of goaltending and defense. Since March 2nd, the Flyers’ are last in the league in scoring defense overall (3.94 goals against per game) and last in scoring defense on the road (4.06). Over that span, the Flyers allowed five or more goals 12 times in 32 games overall and seven times in 18 road games. And the misery has been undiscriminating as far as the goalies are concerned. Although the losses and the poor numbers are not always the fault of the goalies, the Flyers’ pair of Brian Elliott and Carter Hart rank 44th (3.39) and 47th (3.94, dead last), respectively, among 47 goalies with at least 500 minutes logged since March 2nd. It is worse in their save percentages where Elliott ranks 46th (.871) and Hart 47th (.852) among those same 46 goalies. At evens, Elliott (.877), and Hart (.865) rank next to last and last among 48 goalies with ten games played since March 2nd.
Not that any of the defensemen have helped a lot. Since March 2nd, five Flyer defensemen have been on ice for more than 25 even strength goals against. Only 39 defensemen in the entire league are members of that group. Eight of the nine defensemen to dress for the Flyers in that span have negative even-strength goal differentials (Egor Zamula, who played in two games, is plus-1). This is a team that has been a dumpster fire in its own end for two months.
Hot Caps:
Cold Caps:
Weird Facts:
Potential Milestones to Reach This Week (or soon):
Nicklas Backstrom:
Alex Ovechkin:
Evgeny Kuznetsov:
John Carlson:
Zdeno Chara:
Carl Hagelin:
T.J. Oshie:
Anthony Mantha
Dmitry Orlov