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 17-23.
[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: Red Wings (W 4-1); Flyers (W 3-2); Panthers (W 6-3)
Hot Front
Anthony Beauvillier. The newest Washington Capital has also been one of the hottest of late, putting up three points this week and four total in his first seven games overall. His speed and ability to create offense has injected a spark in the third and fourth lines – or wherever he ends up, as Spencer Carbery has taken to moving him (and the other forwards) around in the lineup. He’s spent the bulk of his time alongside Nic Dowd and Brandon Duhaime, however, and has benefitted from that gritty duo opening space for him to do things like this.
The top six. Just another week when the team’s top players were their top players, with the top two lines combining for eight goals and 19 points. Alex Ovechkin and Aliaksei Protas led the way with four points apiece, but all six of them accounted for at least two points on the week and surprisingly only Protas was held without a goal.
Andrew Mangiapane. It had been a little bit since Mangiapane last hit the scoresheet with a goal – 15 games, to be exact – but he broke out of the slump with the eventual game-winner against the Flyers back on Thursday, and then followed it up with a nice deflection for some extra insurance in the next game vs. Florida. Not only is he now on a two-game scoring streak, but he also led all forwards in SCF% at evens last week and was second in xGF% only to Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Team Discipline. The Caps’ penalty killers have been very good lately – and really all season long – but they didn’t have to do much this week, as they were called upon to kill off just five penalties in the three games. Killed ’em all off, too, which we love to see.
Cold Snap
Jakob Chychrun. He’s been the hot hand for the Caps on the blueline all season, but Chychrun’s gone quiet of late. He picked up just a single assist this week – the only Caps’ blueliner to not have at least two points over the last three games – and has just four points over the last month or so, only one of which was a goal. Have to think his offense will come back eventually; he led the team’s defense in even-strength CF% and xGF%, and was tied with Carlson for the most shots over the three games with seven. Just needs to get one to go in (much like Carlson did against the Panthers).
Power play. The last time the Caps scored a power play goal was almost three weeks ago, a strike with the extra man against the Rangers back on March 5. Since then, they’re 0-for-14 over their last eight games…and if you’re thinking that doesn’t seem like many chances, you’d be right. That shakes out to just 1.75 power play opportunities per game, which is tied for the second-lowest rate in the league over that span, and in six of those eight games they had fewer than three chances with the extra man. It’s not a requirement to score, obviously, but getting more chances certainly improves the odds of cashing in.