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’re assessing the team based on their games between November 19 and November 30.
Opponents: Avalanche (2-1 L), Devils (3-2 L), Panthers (4-1 W), Lightning (5-4 W), Islanders (5-4 OTW), Devils (6-5 W)
Hot Front
The power play. No one is more shocked than we are that this is the first item on our “hot” list this week, but the power play? It’s seriously en fuego right now – and that’s without the captain, who had been largely responsible for it starting to heat up before he was injured against Utah. In the six games since Alex Ovechkin got hurt, the team has scored eight power-play goals on 20 opportunities (40%) – three of those in the win over New Jersey back on Saturday, a team ranked sixth in the NHL in penalty killing – and jumped up from 23rd to 12th. Not too shabby.
Jakob Chychrun. Over the last six games, no one on the Caps has registered more points than Chychrun, who has put together a very nice three-goal, seven-point stretch for himself that included two game-winners. Not only does that offensive output lead his team, but it’s also tied for third-best in goals and fourth-best in points among defensemen since November 19. He’s now sitting at eight goals and 15 points in 19 games this season – on pace to demolish his previous career-highs in both departments. Playing a nice little bit of defense along the way, too, which is certainly appreciated.
Dylan Strome. Strome has never really gotten cold, to be honest, and there are plenty of guys who picked up points over the last two weeks that we could call out here. But Strome is the only one to have done so while also getting a high-stick to the mouth – twice – so we’re giving him an extra shoutout and hopes for relatively painless trips to the dentist. Poor guy.
Team offense. As has been the case for most of the season, the Caps have been getting contributions up and down the lineup over the last six games. During that stretch, 14 different guys scored a goal, seven of them had at least two goals, and every single player to pull on a jersey registered at least a point (except for Jakub Vrana, whose only appearance in this run of games was the low-scoring loss to Colorado). They scored 23 goals altogether in the last two weeks, a goals-per-game rate of 3.83 (sixth-best over that span), and extends their league-leading rate to a gaudy 4.21 goals per game.
The Mentors Trip. For the first time since November 2018, the Caps took both games of the annual Mentors Trip, toppling Florida and following it up with a comeback win in Tampa. Chalk up an undefeated record for Papa Mangiapane.
Cold Snap
Team defense. It’s really great that this team has regained its scoring touch, because they haven’t been so great at keeping the puck out of their own net – at least in the second half of this six-game stretch, during which they’ve given up 13 goals (including four to an Islanders team in the bottom third of the league in offense). All that said – because we love a positive twist – their underlying numbers over the past two weeks? Pretty stellar, trailing only Carolina in even-strength CF%, outshooting teams 131-113 at even strength, and generating an xGF% of 53.77, which is sixth-best over that span.
The penalty kill. While the power play continued to dominate, the penalty kill, not so much (although it is still good enough for fourth-best overall, so we won’t dwell on this too long). The Caps allowed power play goals in four of their six games over the last two weeks, getting particularly caved in by the Devils, who scored four of the six total. Of course, it doesn’t help when one of your better penalty-killers is in the box…
Nic Dowd’s discipline. Eight penalty minutes in six games is too many; the only person with more PIMs over the last six games is Brandon Duhaime with 10, and he earned those by getting into a couple of fights. (Honorable mention in this department goes to Lars Eller, but at least he’s offset his three minors by drawing one, as well.)
We’ll leave the last word on Dowd to esteemed Caps’ beat writer for the Washington Post, Bailey Johnson:
Spot on.