[Ed. note: Capitals During Wartime is a series analyzing Washington’s struggles before the 2012 trade deadline. We’ve discussed weakness at center, a poor road record, and negativity among fans so far.]
In the latest edition of Capitals During Wartime, I mused about how and why we discuss the negative stuff going on with Capitals right now. Concluding, in short, that our foremost responsibility is to the Truth, and not just Good Feelings, I promised not to shy away from D.C.’s ongoing hockey bummers– but also not to drench that analysis in hyperbole.
This article is a statistical rundown of the Washington Capitals through 54 games for the purpose comparing the tenures of Bruce Boudreau and Dale Hunter head to head. But I will not be offering any commentary. My voice is limited to the selection of statistics below. Any conclusions you make or narratives you perceive are your own. I have included traditional stats, some advanced stats, and some individual curiosities that we’ve discussed recently on the site.
Stat | Bruce | Dale |
Games | 22 | 32 |
Record | 12-9-1 | 16-12-4 |
Win % | 54.6% | 50% |
Road Win % | 36.4% | 33.3% |
Home Win % | 72.7% | 64.7% |
Shots per game1 | 30.6 | 25.3 |
Goals per game | 3.2 | 2.6 |
Goals against per game | 3.3 | 2.4 |
Even-strength save % | .900 | .930 |
Shots against / game | 29.7 | 31 |
Fenwick | 73 | -205 |
Shot differential2 | 20 | -154 |
Goal differential | -3 | 4 |
PK opp/game | 3.64 | 3.38 |
PK% | 80.0% | 81.4% |
PP opp/game | 3.91 | 2.69 |
PP% | 16.3% | 21.0% |
Faceoff win % | .497 | .508 |
Ovi goals per game | 0.36 | 0.52 |
Ovi ATOI | 18:36 | 20:51 |
JC74 +/-3 | +5 | -9 |
Semin PIMs per game | 1.52 | 0.50 |
Knuble shots per game | 1.68 | 0.94 |
% without Green | 65.0% | 93.8% |
% without Backstrom | 0% | 47% |
Wideman ATOI | 23:01 | 25:24 |
So obviously there’s some author bias present in the figures I chose to use here. I chose stats that I thought would be illuminating or provocative in comparing the two. The stats are not uniformly flattering of either coach, and the actual efficacy of the coach upon many of these numbers should be debated. But I’m not going to do that for you– because that would be far too depressing.
No, basically this is like what the editor at the The New Frontiersman says to the intern in that last scene from Watchmen: I leave it entirely in your hands.
What do the numbers tell you?
Thanks to Ian for suggestions and Neil Greenberg for planting the seed. Check out Arctic Ice Hockey’s item on Alex Ovechkin’s possession and conversion under the two coaches for a similar digestion.
Russian Machine Never Breaks is not associated with the Washington Capitals; Monumental Sports, the NHL, or its properties. Not even a little bit.
All original content on russianmachineneverbreaks.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)– unless otherwise stated or superseded by another license. You are free to share, copy, and remix this content so long as it is attributed, done for noncommercial purposes, and done so under a license similar to this one.
Share On