The Washington Capitals are still in a period of sheer disarray. They can’t get healthy, they have no consistent line combinations, and no one is scoring goals. All of that was on display in Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the Florida Panthers.
We are beginning to enter the territory of pretty concretely talking about this team missing the playoffs. Unless, of course, they turn this recent run of play around, but where are the signs of that happening?
- Folks, this was a Panthers team playing the second half of a back-to-back with travel. They lost 9-1 against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night. They still outworked the Capitals for most of the game, ending on top in five-on-five shot attempts (57-46), scoring chances (31-22), high-danger chances (11-10), and expected goals (3.43-2.96). That team, fully fresh, lost 9-1 to the team the Capitals lost to in the second round of the playoffs last year. Yes, the Caps are injured, but even when they were healthy, what about them tells you that a playoff series against Carolina would go any differently this year? That’s the major question, I think, that the front office needs to reckon with. One trade for one “higher-end” winger isn’t going to change that unless you replace “higher” with just “high” and “trade” with “trades.” Otherwise, what’s the point in letting go of assets right now?
- I may get accused of being overly pessimistic with that final sentence, but I feel like it has to be a discussion at this point. Florida and Carolina are the two teams that the Capitals and every other team in the East are chasing to top this season. The Capitals were swept by the Panthers 0-3 in this year’s season series – mind you, that’s a Panthers team playing without Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk. Then, there is the Hurricanes, who just beat that same Panthers team 9-1. Who in their right mind would think the current Capitals have enough to beat both for a spot in the Eastern Conference Final?
- With the loss, the Capitals now have just the 12th-best points percentage in the East (.551), with only the Ottawa Senators (.532), Columbus Blue Jackets (.531), New Jersey Devils (.521), and New York Rangers (.490) below them. Yes, that’s right, if you were one of the people laughing at the Toronto Maple Leafs (.583) earlier this year, they, along with teams like the Philadelphia Flyers (.553), Pittsburgh Penguins (.585), Boston Bruins (.592), New York Islanders (.594), Buffalo Sabres (.606), and Montreal Canadiens (.622), are all above the Caps.
- Jakob Chychrun was one of the few positives in the loss, scoring both of the team’s goals. Chychrun now has 17 goals this season, which is second most among all NHL defenders, behind just Zach Werenski (18). The multi-goal game was the third of this season and the 14th in his career.
- Ivan Miroshnichenko had some nice jump in his first NHL game since before Christmas, but I’m not sure what he’s really going to be able to do playing with Nic Dowd as his center. They have to find a way to put him in a better offensive situation, or they’re just better off recalling Bogdan Trineyev to play this role. Miro skated 11:49 of ice time and recorded one shot, one shot block, and three hits.
- We know the power play is god-awful, but the penalty kill isn’t much better. The shorthanded unit allowed the game-winning goal and sank to 77.4 percent effectiveness this season, ranking 23rd in the league. So, the Capitals have the 10th-worst penalty kill, the fifth-worst power play, and have played like a bottom-half five-on-five team for over two months now. I’ll redirect you to the first and second bullets in this post.
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