The Caps grabbed three of six available standings points this week against teams that are far from the NHL’s elite. Their performance was uneven and uninspiring at times, particularly at even strength. So, it is time to take a long look within to right the ship before their play slides further? No. In fact, it’s time to stay the course.

Uneven play is inevitable over an 82-game season, and standings points can be fickle. In the end, the standings are what matter, but over a week’s time a team’s W-L record can be random and cruel. The process is what a team has more control over and the Caps process remains strong, despite the admission above that they looked a bit uneven at time this pass week.

The Caps 54.8 score-adjusted shot attempt percentage is second in the league and they are also on the right side of the scoring chances at 52.7 percent. The song remains the same: This is a very good hockey team who continues to play very good hockey.

Forwards

Defense

Observations

• Nick Backstrom continues to be nothing short of sublime. He turns every line he’s placed on into possession gold. Per Emmanuel Perry’s line combination site, the Caps have had 13 different forward trios skate at least 10 minutes together this season. Backstrom is a part of three of these trios, all three of which are in the top four (out of the 13) in shot attempt percentage.
• Backstrom’s current line with fellow Swedes Andre Burakovsky and Marcus Johansson is a complete joy to watch. If they get the puck in the offensive zone, a passing clinic is likely to follow. The great passing and smooth skating is some of the pretties hockey you’ll see in the NHL these days. In over 45 minutes together the trio has controlled 55.7 percent of the shot attempts and 52.78 percent of the scoring chances, but they’ve yet to score. If they stay together, look for them to bury a couple goals this week.
• Speaking of Burakovsky, he finally looked more like himself this week. He’s back into the positive in terms of relative shot attempts and found himself on the score sheet as well. He was above 50 percent in possession in all three games, including a ridiculous 78-percent shot-attempt percentage against Philadelphia. Getting him going only makes this team more dangerous.
• Jay Beagle and Jason Chimera‘s shot-attempt percentages have dipped below 50 percent. Their relative possession numbers have been pretty poor all season, but now the Caps are also on the wrong side of the shot-attempt battle when this duo is on the ice. Both were on the score sheet this week, but some adjustments should be made going forward.
• Let me be clear, neither Beagle or Chimera are bad for this team and I’m not being “negative” nor a “hater” of either player. But the Caps should limit the ice time of both players in order to give more ice time to other players who tilt the ice more in the Caps favor. Here’s a look at a few forwards and their four-game rolling average time on ice.

• Chimera and Beagle have seen ice time in the neighborhood of Justin Williams and far more than Burakovsky (until this week) or Brooks Laich. If the Caps want to maximize the probability of outscoring their opponents, they should decrease the ice time of Chimera and Beagle and give it to others, like the three shown in the graph above.
• If the Caps are insistent on keeping the duo together and giving them third-line minutes, Williams is as good of a fit as the team will find. The trio has a 52.05-percent shot-attempt percentage and a minus-0.75 relative shot attempt percentage in the 36 minutes they’ve skated together.
• Remember two weeks ago when I said Tom Wilson needed better linemates if the team hoped the maximize his skill set? Backstrom’s goal against the Flyers is a perfect example. Wilson created a turnover behind the net and centered the puck to Johansson, who dished to Backstrom for the goal. You think that play would have turned out like that if Wilson had centered the puck to any of his primary linemates this season? I’m not advocating for Wilson getting placed on the second line with two Swedes, but a third line with Williams (probably not due to both being RW), Johansson, or Burakovsky riding the opposite wing sure would be nice.
• Nate Schmidt. What the hell else can be said? With Brooks Orpik out for two games this week, Schmidt saw a heavier workload, particularly against the Flames. Schmidt skated almost 18 minutes at 5v5 vs Calgary, the second highest amount of minutes Barry Trotz has ever given the smiley defender. All Schmidt did was lead all skaters with a plus-17 on-ice shot-attempt differential. Of the 190 defensemen to skate 110-plus 5v5 minutes this season, Schmidt’s shot-attempt percentage ranks fourth and his relative shot-attempt percentage ranks seventh. That’ll do, Nate. That. Will. Do.
• Terrance (?) Chorney continues to be solid when called upon. His relative shot-attempt percentage being low compared to his raw shot-attempt percentage suggests he’s benefited from playing in games in which the Caps dominated possession, and he’s certainly benefiting from playing with possession stalwart Dmitry Orlov. But anytime your seventh defender is in the lineup and his play isn’t cringe-worthy, that’s a win. Chorney has been far better than cringe-worthy so far this season.
• Matt Nisknanen is averaging over a minute more of 5v5 ice time per game than any other defensemen. He’s also faced the second toughest relative zone starts and the top four have all faced similar levels of competition. Is it fair to call him the team’s number-one defender at this point?

Glossary

• GP. Games played.
• TOI. Time on ice. The amount of time that player played during 5v5 close.
• SA%. Shot-attempt percentage, a measurement for puck possession. The share of shot attempts that the player’s team got while he was on the ice. Numbers are adjusted for score effects.
• rel SA%. The percentage more or less of the overall shot attempts the Caps see with the player on the ice as opposed to when the player is on the bench
• Goal%. Goal percentage. The share of goals that the player’s team got while he was on the ice.
• PDO. A meaningless acronym. The sum of a player’s on-ice shooting percentage and his goalies’ on-ice save percentage. Above 100 means the player is getting fortunate results that may reflected in goal%.