The Washington Capitals currently sit 29th in the NHL in terms of power play effectiveness with a 12.4 percent success rate. While that mark is still unimpressive and not where the team would like to be, things were a lot worse a month ago.
At the end of November, the Capitals’ man advantage was by far the worst special teams unit in the league and things did not look like they would be getting any better. Through 20 games, the Capitals’ power play had scored just five times and reached the grim milestone of not scoring for over an hour of game time.
Things came to a head after a late November 0-for-5 performance against the Edmonton Oilers. The poor outing led to head coach Spencer Carbery pledging to make wholesale, major changes to the special teams unit. Since then, the team’s power play has markedly improved.
Carbery chatted with 106.7 The Fan’s Sports Junkies on Wednesday morning about that turnaround.
“Way more consistent, have more of an identity, everybody is way more connected with what we’re doing,” Carbery said. “It’s not a surprise or just happenstance that now all of a sudden pucks are going in the net.”
Over their last 10 games in the month of December, the Capitals are operating at a 20.7 percent effectiveness rate on the power play. That’s a 12.2 percent improvement from what they had amassed through November.
In those 10 games, the Capitals have scored six power-play goals, eclipsing their total from the opening months of the season in half as many games. During that stretch, the team’s most notable move of placing Dylan Strome permanently on the top unit has paid dividends.
Previously, Strome’s minutes and role were cut into by Evgeny Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov now primarily leads the team’s second unit.
Strome is tied with Alex Ovechkin for the most December power play points on the team with five (2g, 3a) and is playing the third-most minutes up a man per game (3:28) behind only Ovechkin (4:36) and John Carlson (3:38). The sniping pivot is the team’s leading goal scorer overall this season with 13 markers so getting him more opportunity in offensive roles has paid dividends.
“We were getting unlucky at the beginning of the year with not finishing and a lot of chances weren’t going in and that’s changed a little bit which is nice but it also looks a lot better,” Carbery said. “So, that tells you why they’re going into the net for the power play and it’s been huge. Special teams has a been a big part of our recent success — penalty kill and power play.”
The Capitals are also giving more opportunity to Anthony Mantha who has played the fifth-most minutes on the man advantage (16:45) in the past 10 games. Mantha, who scored a power play goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets last week, has seen a recent revival in his game.
The big winger has five goals and eight total points in his last nine outings. Getting a streaking and confident Mantha on the ice more in scoring situations has paid off for the Capitals and Carbery has noticed the uptick in production.
“These are very significant goals,” Carbery said. “To get us a lead early, to get a game tied when we’ve fallen down one. [Mantha] and his line have continued to do a huge job for us offensively and production wise. Mantha, specifically, has done a job for us of putting pucks in the net to score impactful goals for the group.”
The Capitals will have three more games in December to see if they can keep their power play “hot streak” going. They’ll have a good chance of doing so as two of those games come against two of the worst penalty kills in the league in the form of the New York Islanders (32nd) and Nashville Predators (25th).
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
