Photo: Francois Lacasse
Finally. The Caps got positively crushed over the past few weeks, but it’s over now. Before they lost that game to Buffalo on the 12th, the Caps had a 60% chance of making the playoffs. It got as low as 12% before they finally won on Saturday. That losing streak hurt badly, but as we’ve seen from the last two weeks it has been driven by bad shooting and save percentages, not overall awful play (unlike the Habs, who really are eroding).
The streak ended in spectacular fashion, a five-goal shutout that typified everything we’ve learned about this team: their puck possession is getting better, their shooting percentage couldn’t possibly stay so low, their opponents’ shooting percentage couldn’t possibly stay so high. Saturday was a perfect metaphorical storm of regression and solid underlying play asserting itself.
None of that means the Caps won’t get ice cold again, but it should help us remember a simple truth: no team is as bad as it looks during a seven-game losing streak.
These are the numbers as of (a little after) noon on Sunday, January 26th. The sample is restricted to 5-on-5 play while the score is close. That means within one goal in the first two periods and tied in the third. That way special teams, blowouts, and comebacks don’t color the data. Stats of note are highlighted in powderpuff pink and discussed below.
See previous snapshots: week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5, week 6, week 7, week 8, week 9, week 10, week 11, week 12, week 13, week 14, week 15, week 16
Player | Pos | GP | TOI | GF | GA | SA% | Sh% | Sv% | PDO | ZS% |
Aaron Volpatti | L | 39 | 192.4 | 3 | 5 | 39.2% | 4.6% | 94.7% | 99.4 | 53.6% |
Alex Ovechkin | L | 48 | 459.9 | 14 | 17 | 49.9% | 5.5% | 93.4% | 98.9 | 59.5% |
Brooks Laich | C | 38 | 307.4 | 9 | 9 | 46.4% | 6.9% | 94.2% | 101.1 | 51.4% |
Eric Fehr | R | 43 | 355.2 | 11 | 16 | 51.1% | 6% | 91.1% | 97.1 | 48.2% |
Jason Chimera | L | 52 | 426.8 | 21 | 23 | 47.1% | 9.4% | 90.7% | 100.1 | 46% |
Jay Beagle | C | 32 | 183.7 | 2 | 3 | 45.8% | 2.8% | 96.3% | 99.1 | 51.7% |
Joel Ward | R | 52 | 409.7 | 19 | 21 | 49.4% | 8.8% | 90.7% | 99.5 | 46.9% |
Marcus Johansson | C | 52 | 445.5 | 14 | 21 | 48.2% | 6.7% | 91.1% | 97.9 | 55.1% |
Martin Erat | R | 44 | 307.4 | 13 | 14 | 51.1% | 8.4% | 91.3% | 99.7 | 48.9% |
Michael Latta | C | 17 | 67.6 | 3 | 4 | 48.1% | 10.3% | 88.2% | 98.6 | 48.5% |
Mikhail Grabovski | C | 49 | 418.4 | 20 | 14 | 50.5% | 8.7% | 93.9% | 102.5 | 51.8% |
Nicklas Backstrom | C | 52 | 477.1 | 13 | 20 | 49.8% | 5.2% | 92.5% | 97.7 | 56.1% |
Tom Wilson | R | 52 | 241.1 | 7 | 9 | 44.1% | 7.9% | 92.2% | 100 | 57.7% |
Troy Brouwer | R | 52 | 424.1 | 12 | 12 | 47.7% | 6.8% | 94.4% | 101.2 | 50.2% |
Player | Pos | GP | TOI | GF | GA | SA% | Sh% | Sv% | PDO | ZS% |
Nate Schmidt | D | 29 | 283.1 | 12 | 10 | 50.6% | 8.5% | 93.4% | 101.8 | 55.9% |
John Erskine | D | 26 | 255.4 | 10 | 11 | 47.4% | 8.5% | 91.4% | 100 | 49.2% |
John Carlson | D | 52 | 536.9 | 17 | 26 | 46.3% | 6.4% | 91.5% | 97.9 | 49.9% |
Karl Alzner | D | 52 | 543.1 | 16 | 20 | 47% | 6.1% | 93.2% | 99.3 | 50.3% |
Mike Green | D | 45 | 576.1 | 16 | 20 | 53.1% | 5.4% | 92.8% | 98.2 | 56.1% |
Steve Oleksy | D | 33 | 293.8 | 18 | 11 | 47.5% | 13% | 92.8% | 105.7 | 52.2% |
Dmitry Orlov | D | 26 | 320 | 7 | 12 | 53.4% | 4.3% | 92% | 96.3 | 51.1% |
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