ARLINGTON, VA — The Washington Capitals have clawed their way back into the playoff picture in the span of a month. With a record of 8-4-0 in March, the Caps won big game after big game to leapfrog the Detroit Red Wings, New York Islanders, and New Jersey Devils into the second wild-card spot. They now sit just two points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for third in the Metropolitan Division and have around a 60% chance of making the postseason.
Much of that late-season jolt can be attributed to a surge from the Capitals’ power play. After a dismal fall that saw Washington go over a month without scoring on the man advantage, the team’s power play has transformed into one of its greatest assets. The Caps have scored on 33.8% of their power-play opportunities since the All-Star Break — ranking first in the league over that span — and show no signs of slowing down.
To head coach Spencer Carbery, the team’s success has compounded over time, giving players the confidence to come back after a bad play rather than going into a tailspin.
“There’s some swagger — you can feel it — to the group,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “And even when we have some power plays, like the first one the other night (against the Winnipeg Jets) was not great, right? I don’t think we got set up in the two minutes — and so you move on. To where, that can sometimes snowball if you’re struggling and now it’s like, two power plays, our next power play now it’s real crisp and so I feel like it’s just like, ‘that was a one off; right back to it.’”
The Capitals failed to score on their first two power plays against the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday and barely managed to hold onto a 0-0 tie through forty minutes. But when Nino Niederreiter took an interference call early in the third, the Caps weren’t focused on the chances they’d already lost. Instead, John Carlson scored the game-winning goal in what TJ Oshie later described as the turning point of the contest.
“It started with the power play right there,” Oshie told Monumental Sports Network’s Al Koken after the win. “We had a couple power plays before that that weren’t too sharp and not up to our standard, and then the boys just followed up after that.”
Carbery highlighted the night as proof of the team’s resilience, which he connected to the power play’s strong body of work in recent weeks.
“That’s, I think, what confidence can bring your group. When you’re scoring consistently, when you’re generating clean entries, when you’re getting puck recoveries, when you’re creating scoring chances, even if you have an off power play — which you’ll have — it’s right back to it. And now you’re just right back to the clean puck movement, puck recoveries, entries, and that’s what I think you’re seeing from our group. So I think the confidence, you’re right, is a huge part that these guys now have.”
Carlson’s strike against Winnipeg was the team’s seventh power-play goal in their last five games alone. Alex Ovechkin, the league’s all-time leader in power-play goals, has chipped in four of those tallies as a new first unit featuring rookie center Hendrix Lapierre continues to get more and more confident and comfortable together.
They have also received contributions from their once rarely-used second unit as names like Ivan Miroshnichenko, Max Pacioretty, Sonny Milano, Rasmus Sandin, and Connor McMichael all have seen an uptick in opportunity. They responded by recording five power-play points of their own during that same five-game stretch.
“It’s both units,” Carbery said. “Now we’ve got a 1A 1B — Pacioretty goes out on the second part of that power (play), seamless. And they score a huge goal and that’s the second unit so I feel like having both units have that confidence has helped as well.
The Capitals will have an opportunity to put their hot power play to good use when they face the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night. Detroit’s penalty kill ranks 27th in the NHL since March 1 (73.5%), offering a weak spot that the Caps could sink their teeth into.
With both teams clawing for the same second wild-card spot in the East, Washington’s power play, seen as one of the team’s biggest weaknesses for much of the beginning of the season, could prove to be the difference.
