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Snapshots of the Week Ahead: Week 20

After a week off on the schedule, the Washington Capitals will wrap up their four-game journey away from Capital One Arena with a pair of games against a pair of long-time rivals in hopes of making progress up the Metropolitan Division standings.

The Opponents

New York Rangers (Thursday/7:00 – Madison Square Garden)

It was supposed to take longer. After missing the playoffs in three of the last four seasons, and being swept out of the qualifying round by Carolina in the one year they did reach the postseason, the New York Rangers started this season painstakingly rebuilding their roster to once more be a competitive team. But instead of making incremental progress this season, the Rangers have already eclipsed last year’s 27 wins in 56 games with 32 wins in 50 games going into Week 20. Their third-place position in the Metropolitan Division standings is their highest since they finished third in the Metro in 2015-2016, and they are only three points behind Carolina for the division lead as the new week begins.

The Rangers’ success is largely the product of defense and goaltending. Their 2.50 goals allowed per game rank third in the league and is their best scoring defense since they held opponents to 2.28 goals per game in 2014-2015. What is more, that scoring defense has been consistent. In 50 games, the Rangers allowed two or fewer goals 27 times, tied for second most in the league behind Pittsburgh’s 29 instances.

Special teams are also an area of improvement. In fact, the Rangers’ special teams index of 109.8 (26.6 percent power play plus 83.2 percent penalty kill) ranks fourth in the league and is their best since the NHL began compiling special teams statistics in 1977-1978. Again, consistency in special teams has been an important element in success. The Rangers have scored at least one power play goal in 29 games so far this season, fourth-most in the league. They have been slightly less successful in penalty killing, shutting out opponents’ power plays in 30 games, but they are still a top-ten team, tied with Columbus in that tenth spot.

The Rangers have punished opponents on home ice in the new year. Since January 1st, they are 8-1-1 and have outscored opponents on a per game basis, 3.60 to 1.90. They did not allow any opponent more than three goals in those ten games while scoring more than three five times. And, their special teams at home in the 2022 portion of the schedule have been lethal, their power play blazing at 35.5 percent (third in the league over that span) and their penalty kill operating at 83.9 percent (12th).

The Caps are 113-95-8 (18 ties) in their all-time series against the Rangers, 51-53-4 (nine ties) in New York. They are 5-4-1 in their last ten games overall against the New Yorkers.

Philadelphia Flyers (Saturday/12:30pm – Wells Fargo Center)

Nine days after beating the Flyers, 5-3, at Wells Fargo Center, the Caps return to Philadelphia to complete the road portion of the four-game season series against the Flyers. The Orange and Black continue to slide in the standings. They enter the new week on a four-game losing streak (0-3-1) and are 2-13-4 in their last 19 games dating back to December 30th. They are last in the league in wins over that period, and their .211 points percentage is also last in the league.

The Flyers just cannot score. Over that 19-game stretch, they are averaging 2.37 goals per game, 30th in the league. No Flyer ranks in the top-100 in goals scored over that span (Cam Atkinson and Claude Giroux tied for 103rd with five goals apiece), and no Flyer ranks in the top-50 in points (Atkinson is tied for 64th with 17 points). And it isn’t that the Flyers are sacrificing offense to play a suffocating defensive style. They might aspire to that, but their 3.89 goals allowed per game over their last 19 games is tied with New Jersey for 29th in the league in scoring defense.

Dig deeper, and it gets worse. The Flyers rank 30th on the power play in their 19-game slide (12.1 percent) and dead last in penalty killing (66.7 percent). How bad it that? Since the NHL started capturing power play and penalty killing statistics in 1977-1978, no team finished a season with a power play under 15 percent and a penalty kill under 70 percent. The Flyers likely will not become the first team to accomplish this feat (their penalty kill is at 76.0 percent for the season overall), but it does reflect how bad those special teams have been lately.

The Caps are 94-109-11 (19 ties) in their all-time series against the Flyers, 43-63-7 (six ties) in Philadelphia. Washington is 7-3-0 against the Flyers in their last ten meetings overall.

Hot Caps:

Cold Caps:

Weird Facts:

Potential Milestones to Reach This Week (or soon):

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Nicklas Backstrom

John Carlson

Dmitry Orlov

Evgeny Kuznetsov

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T.J. Oshie

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