Penalty Kill

Conor Sheary relishing first real chance to kill penalties in NHL career

Washington Capitals winger Conor Sheary leads the team in goals eight games into the season but it’s his recent contributions on the penalty kill that have drawn more interest.

The 30-year-old forward admits never received the chance to play shorthanded until he arrived in DC. It started when he got a few shifts here and there last season. Now, he’s one of the first players to jump over the boards with Tom Wilson, Connor Brown, and Carl Hagelin out long-term due to injury.

(more…)

By Chris Cerullo 7 months ago

3 Comments

Capitals debut ‘noticeably more aggressive’ penalty kill under new assistant coach Scott Allen

In July, the Washington Capitals promoted Scott Allen from head coach of the Hershey Bears to the NHL bench as one of Peter Laviolette’s assistants. One of Allen’s major responsibilities as an assistant is the handling of the team’s penalty kill.

With some of the offseason additions the Capitals made like forward Connor Brown, Allen said he saw an opportunity to mold the penalty-killing unit into a more aggressive difference maker.

Some of that newfound aggressiveness has been on display in the team’s first four preseason games. And it’s been successful without two previous major pillars of the PK unit, Tom Wilson and Carl Hagelin, who are out long term.

(more…)

By Chris Cerullo 8 months ago

2 Comments

Peter Laviolette might utilize Evgeny Kuznetsov as a penalty killer this season: ‘It is something we are looking at’

Evgeny Kuznetsov is gifted offensively, but throughout his career, he’s been a liability defensively. That’s why it was news on Wednesday when Kuznetsov got several minutes on the penalty kill against the New Jersey Devils in the Capitals’ second preseason game of the year.

It turns out Kuzy’s shorthanded deployment wasn’t just preseason weirdness, but an informed Peter Laviolette decision. The Capitals head coach made clear in his postgame presser that it’s something the Capitals want to evaluate.

(more…)

By Chris Cerullo 2 years ago

2 Comments

Bad goaltending and a new system make the Capitals’ penalty kill seem worse than it is

The Capitals’ penalty kill made changes to start the 2018-19 season. The team lost their highest and fourth-highest used penalty killers from last season in Jay Beagle and Alex Chiasson and are currently without their second-highest used penalty killer, Tom Wilson, for ten more games due to suspension.

As a result, other players have been forced to step up with Devante Smith-Pelly and Nic Dowd getting lots of time on the kill. Related to those changes or not, the Caps PK is currently ranked 26th in the league with a 72.5-percent kill rate, allowing the second-highest number of power-play goals in the league with 11.

(more…)

By Alex Hayes 5 years ago

1 Comment

The Caps’ penalty kill is bad, but not this bad

On Friday, Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post (subscribe!) ran a great item about the Washington Capitals’ dragging penalty kill. In that piece, the pull quote from Barry Trotz was that the team “can’t kill anything” when a man down. While that certainly feels true, the resulting numbers for special teams after just ten games might not reflect the actual underlying processes.

(more…)

By Peter Hassett 6 years ago

0 Comment

Sizing up the Penguins: special teams

You may have read this before. In fact, one year ago, tomorrow, we published a very similar story. Some of the personnel has changed, but not much else. The Washington Capitals still use the 1-3-1 on the power play. The Pittsburgh Penguins still use the umbrella.

Not too much has varied on the PK as well. The Caps use a diamond/wedge, and the Pens use a similar diamond that can rotate into a box. Both rely on pressure. This will be the story of who executes and specifically how.

(more…)

By Spenser Smallwood 6 years ago

0 Comment

The Caps penalty kill is probably going to be fine

On Saturday night, the Caps finally lost their first game of the season in regulation. They lost, in part, because their penalty kill allowed a goal for the fourth time in five games and fell to 27th in the NHL in PK percentage.

After the game, Lars Eller said that, while there’s always room for improvement, he felt like the difference so far for the PK unit has been that they haven’t been getting the bounces. Here’s the thing: Eller’s right. So far, the Caps penalty kill hasn’t been allowing shots or scoring chances at an alarming rate, it’s just that pucks have been going in on a more regular basis, something that can happen in five game samples.

(more…)

By Patrick Holden 7 years ago

0 Comment

Brilliant last season, the Capitals penalty kill is struggling through five games

Special teams was key to the Washington Capitals’ success last season. The team has long been known for its vaunted power play, but the Caps captured the Presidents’ Trophy in large part due to their brilliant penalty kill, which stopped their opponents 85.2 percent of the time, second only to the Anaheim Ducks.

This year, however, the Caps PK is faltering. They are the fourth-worst unit in the NHL, allowing goals 28.6 percent of the time that their enemy has the man-advantage. Washington has allowed power play goals in four of the five games they’ve played, including a Jimmy Vesey tally Saturday night against the New York Rangers.

“I think it’s just little things here and there we need to work on and continue to get better on,” center Jay Beagle said. “We’re obviously not happy. That’s not good enough.”

(more…)

By Chris Gordon 7 years ago

0 Comment

How the Capitals’ Penalty Kill is Good, and How They Can Get Even Better

Photo: Geoff Burke

The Caps penalty kill is currently ranked 23rd in the NHL, killing off 77.1% of all shorthanded situations. This may give you a ‘here we go again’ feeling due to how truly awful the Caps penalty kill was last season (They would have been much worse than 16th place if not for very strong goaltending.)

But rest easy, Caps fans. This Caps penalty kill is actually really good and could very well end up among the top in the league once goaltending improves. It could be even better if Barry Trotz starts deploying the penalty killers in a more optimized manner, as it seems he’s been giving the wrong penalty killers the most ice.

(more…)

By Patrick Holden 9 years ago

0 Comment

Eric Fehr Almost Scores, Blocks Shot, Gets Speared Like Crazy on OT PK

Photo credit: Chris Gordon

The Washington Capitals’ 27th-ranked penalty kill was one reason the team could have missed the playoffs. Now it’s the reason they’re up 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

In a tight battle against the New York Rangers in game 2 on Saturday, the PK turned chances for crushing goals into momentum for themselves — especially while killing off Steve Oleksy’s delay of game early in overtime. Four minutes later, Mike Green literally shook Verizon Center.

During the game-saving work a man down, no player contributed more than Eric Fehr.

(more…)

By Chris Gordon 10 years ago

0 Comment

Page 1 of 2