The Washington Capitals were shut out at home against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night with a final score of 4-0. Things are not going well.
Is this something they can turn around or is this their new normal?
- To put it simply, this was a tale of two teams on opposite ends of the hockey spectrum. The Avs have a young, healthy core in its prime and the Caps have an aging, very injured core mostly in the back portion of their careers. We know that juxtaposition very well as the Caps were once the predators preying on teams in the state they are currently in. It means the Avs can have poor periods like the first against the Caps where they were outshot 14 to 3 and out-chanced 9 to 4 but still prevail based on sheer talent and younger legs. I think this was a big reality check for our favorite team and that reality is rather cold.
- The Caps have now lost nine of their last eleven games (2-6-3). Their .425 points percentage is 25th in the NHL. They have played at least one more game than any other team in the Eastern Conference and are currently five points back of third in the Metropolitan Division (New York Islanders – 22 points) and five points back of the second Wild Card position (New York Rangers – 22 points).
- In general, I don’t think the Caps were that “bad” in this game. They just aren’t at the level right now, and frankly not in the portion of their schedule this season, where they can take a 60-40 or 55-45 split of play in the wrong direction and still win. The Caps could only manage two high-danger chances in the final two periods at five-on-five compared to Colorado’s eleven. That just isn’t going to get it done against one of the league’s best teams.
It's official. With their 4-0 L to the Avalance, the Capitals have lost 9 of their last 11 games and 4 in a row. pic.twitter.com/bZkSACPZhs
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) November 20, 2022
- The typical train of thought in the NHL is that you want to be in a playoff position by Thanksgiving. This has been anything but a typical season for the Caps though as they have so much of their salary cap ($32.33 million) sitting out of the lineup injured. I’m not saying give them a “break” or anything as a lot of those issues were known preseason, but maybe Christmas is a better stage of the season to look toward. Then, decisions will likely need to be made in terms of trying to make the playoffs versus trying to get some value back for the thirteen players that will be unrestricted free agents in the summer.
- I know head coach Peter Laviolette is working with a roster that is made up of a lot of spare parts right now but I can’t help but think that his constant in-game mixing up of the lines is not helping things. I’m not a huge believer in “chemistry” when it comes to a full 12-man forward lineup but at the same time when Natural Stat Trick is showing nine different lines getting some sort of time at five-on-five…that strikes me as odd. And, that is happening pretty much every single night.
- Darcy Kuemper made 25 stops on 29 stops against his former team. He wasn’t the difference but it’d be nice if he could steal one for the flailing team in front of him right now.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
