Throughout the season, we’ll check in on the Washington Capitals to see which players, positions, and/or systems are hot and who is, well, not. Today we’ll be assessing the team based on their games from March 10-16.
[Editor’s Note: Friendly reminder that this is merely meant as a look at the last few weeks in isolation, and is not a commentary on a player or system’s overall success this season – although you can certainly see trends emerge if you read these on a weekly basis.]
Opponents: Ducks (W 7-3); Kings (L 3-0); Sharks (W 5-1)
Hot Front
Aliaksei Protas. The evolution of Protas has been much discussed, here and elsewhere, as we’ve watched him bloom from a tall kid putting up a 13-goal season two years ago into a legit NHL power forward. His rise continued this week, with his first-career hat trick in Anaheim followed by the eventual game-winner in San Jose back on Saturday. Amazingly (especially considering how much offense they’ve produced), Protas was also the only top-six forward to have a positive relative xGF% this week.
Alex Ovechkin. The captain was quieted in LA – as was basically his entire team – but in the other two games this week, he was anything but, and he led the team in scoring with five points despite that shutout by the Kings. First there was the hat trick of assists in the win over the Ducks, including an extremely unselfish play to set up Protas’s hat trick empty-netter, then goal #887 in the win in San Jose. And just like that, eight goals to go…
A balanced attack. Every single skater had at least a point this week, and every single line – and the defense – chipped in with a goal. Yes, even Trevor van Riemsdyk, who had been on a cold streak of epic proportions before finally snapping out of it with just the most beautiful goal you’ll ever see (lol) against the Sharks Saturday evening.
Cold Snap
Power play. The Caps were 0-for-8 this week, including 0-for-5 against the Kings alone (that one’s going to sting), and continuing what has been about a two-week cold spell overall. The last time they scored a power play goal was about two weeks ago in the win over the Rangers. Part of the problem? Not enough shot attempts, and too many shots not getting through.
Over the last three games, the Caps had a CF/60 of 95.6, which already ranked in the bottom half of the league; focus on just the unblocked shot attempts and they drop to a CF/60 of just over 65, 27th in the league this week. As always, small sample sizes abound, and some of this probably goes back to the team trying to force-feed their captain a bit too much…but something to work on for sure.
Connor McMichael. He wasn’t bad this week, but it is weird to see the Caps explode for 12 goals across two games and have McMichael walk away with just a single helper. (He’ll be fine.)
Tom Wilson’s “days without busting his face” counter. Look, can people just stop hitting him in the face already?