The Narrative: Low Fives, Burying the Lead and Third Pair, Don’t Care
Three things we’re talking about today when we’re talking about the Caps
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1. Low Fives
During the regular season the, Washington Capitals scored 131 goals at five-on-five (2.3 per game), one great Alex Ovechkin night behind League-leading Vegas’s total of 135. Through three playoff games (really ten periods and change), they’re just a bit below that pace, having managed six tallies at fives, though they’re scoring rate is off by a more significant amount (2.16 goals-for per sixty minutes at five-on-five after clicking at a 2.89 mark during the regular season, a 25 percent drop).
How Do You Stop “Perfection”?
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Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Let’s cut to the chase and answer the title question of this post bluntly: you don’t.
The Bruins’ “Perfection Line” of David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand may have one of the most absurdly hyperbolic nicknames in the history of sports, but they also have the skill and at least some of the results to make good on the moniker.
And they’ve been a handful for the Caps all season long.
In seven games against Washington, the trio in 64 minutes of five-on-five hockey has outscored the Caps 9-3, more or less in line with their 70.6 expected goals-for (xGF) percentage, 68.4 Corsi-for (CF) percentage, 66.0 scoring chance-for (SCF) percentage and 75.0 high-danger chance-for (HDCF) percentage (stats per NatStatTrick), all despite starting more shifts in their own end of the rink than in the offensive zone. They have an on-ice shooting percentage of 20 percent (but only an .84
Capitals Alex Ovechkin returns from injury in season finale vs. Bruins
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin celebrates a goal. (Nick Wass/AP) | May 11, 2021, 7:00 PM
May 11, 2021, 7:00 PM
The Washington Capitals will get their captain back in the lineup when they host the Boston Bruins in their season finale Tuesday.
Alex Ovechkin will start at left wing alongside Nick Backstrom and Anthony Mantha. It will be only Ovechkin s second game since April 22 due to a lower-body injury, with his one appearance lasting less than a minute on May 3 before the injury was reaggravated.
The 35-year-old has 24 goals and 42 points in 44 games, making this the first season in his 16-year career that he won t reach the 30-goal plateau.
How the Caps Ended Up Where They Ended Up
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Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
When the final buzzer sounds on Tuesday night, the Washington Capitals will have fallen anywhere from one to three points short of a sixth consecutive Division title, ending an impressive span in which they had a League-best 249 wins and .676 points percentage, and won two Presidents’ Trophies and a Stanley Cup.
That they came so tantalizingly close to winning the MassMutual East Division (a division in which they were the favorites to be crowned champs as recently as late last week) in this incredibly challenging year leads to the inevitable question: what if.? What if they’d gotten a couple more saves or a couple more bounces
How Good (or Bad) is the Caps Power Play?
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Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
Through 21 games, the Washington Capitals’ power play has scored on a gaudy 29.1 percent of its opportunities, good for fourth in the NHL at an efficiency rate that would put them in historical company (think Canadiens/Oilers/Islanders of the late-70s/early-80s and last year’s Oilers) if they were to finish the season there.
But they won’t.
They won’t because, you see, the Washington Capitals’ power play is actually not very good (at least not consistently so).
It seems strange to say that, given their nearly three-in-ten conversion rate, but a closer look at the stats (or at some recent shot-less power plays during which they had a harder time entering the opponents zone than Americans trying to get into New Zealand in January) reveals the truth: this Caps power play ain’t what it used to be.