The Washington Capitals have some work to do after going 1-2 in the first week of the NHL regular season. Let’s take a look at some of the strengths and weaknesses thus far:
Strengths:
Courtesy: Alex Brandon/Associated Press
The Power Play.
The Caps had the most productive power play last year in like 20 years or something and it has definitely carried over in this season. The Caps are 5-9 so far – 55.6% conversion rate. Ovechkin, Backstrom, Green, Grabovski and Johansson have all flourished with the extra man and teams will have to learn to stay out of the box if they want to beat the Caps.
Ovechkin.
The NHL’s first player of the week award went to Ovechkin, and he has been stellar for the Caps. He’s more comfortable than he has been since he scored 65 goals and after firing 11 shots on goal and scoring twice against Calgary, it’s clear that he is poised for another MVP year.
Connor Carrick.
The 19 year old rook had an amazing preseason as he tied Ovechkin for the most preseason points. He wasn’t supposed to make the team this year but Adam Oates and Calle Johansson were impressed. He is a little green out there, but that will change, and he scored his first NHL goal on a nifty breakaway.
The System.
Offensively speaking of course, the Caps have found a nice groove in their opponents end. It is working so far and will only get better as the season progresses.
Michal Neuvirth
Sure we only saw him for one game, but he stopped 28 of 29 shots and let the Caps come back from being down 3-0. I think we’re going to see a little more of Neuvy this month. It could finally be his time to take over #1 for good.
Grabo.
Grabovski has already proved that he’s a much better player than Mike Ribeiro. He’s second behind Oveckin in scoring and notched a hat trick on his first night. However, it’s his ability to transition and make the other players around him better that makes him so good. He’s only been on the ice for 1 goal against. Yeah. He reminds me of a Fedorov/Semin hybrid. He backchecks well and is a very smart player with the puck, but he does need to shoot more. He’s 3/7 this year with a 42.9% shooting percentage – yeah Grabo, you need to shoot more.
MoJo.
Johansson has been a quietly nice surprise so far collecting 4 assists through 3 games. He’s doing the little things right and playing very well with Ovechkin and Backstrom. He can also sneak around very easily as most teams are busy with his two linemates. The thing against Johansson is that he has to stop letting Ovechkin and Backstrom do all the work. He’s great at reading off what they are doing and contributing, but it’s time for MoJo to create his own plays. This could be his breakout year.
Weakness.
The System.
Defensively speaking of course. The Caps are terrible again in their own end. Green is brutal when he doesn’t have the puck in the defensive zone. Carlson has been brutal. The forwards have been brutal – Johansson has the best +/- with +1. Thy just don’t seem comfortable in their zone. The Caps can’t break out if they don’t control the puck – and they’re not. There’s too much panic in the backend and too much coughing up the puck and givaways, etc.., but there might be a reason why…
Braden Holtby.
It’s really hard to control the puck and not panic when your goalie isn’t stopping the puck. Holtby has shown signs of brilliance so far, but he’s also shown too much net as well. I don’t know if he’s nervous about his newborn or trying to make Team Canada, or if he’s overconfident. All I know, and what Caps fans are seeing, is that he’s making too many mistakes in net and not seeing the puck well. A lot of that has to do with poor defensive coverage too, and the Caps can’t expect Holtby to save them every time, however, when Neuvirth was in net the Caps didn’t seem to have a problem.
Defense, Defense, Defense.
They’re terrible. Too many guys getting beat wide and too many guys getting beat to the loose pucks. Our best D-man so far
The underuse of Martin Erat.
Erat was brought on last year to provide some scoring and the Caps gave up a good, young player in Filip Forsberg to get him. So why is he playing on the 4th line? Erat can score and create plays and it’s really hard for him to do so when he’s playing with Jay Beagle and Tom Wilson. Erat needs to be with Grabovski or at the very least Brooks Laich. He has 2 shots on goal through 3 games – that’s not gonna do much for him or the Caps.
Chimera-Ward-Fehr
WOW they suck so far. Fehr has been the better of the three offensively and Ward has made a few good plays, but they also weren’t playing together when they did do well. Break them up and give Erat and Wilson some more time on the ice. Ward (-5), Chimera (-4) and Fehr (-6) have about as much chemistry together as Rizzoli and Isles. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good players and I’ve always liked them , but if GMGM has to make a move in the next couple weeks, I think Ward and Chimera are the first to go.
Even Strength.
The Caps are painfully bad right now at even strength. When they play the system and know what to do, they play very well, but a lot of the time they look lost out there. It’s almost as if they are waiting for a power play so they can actually score. There needs to be more consistency and that starts with the first pass out of the zone, but they can’t seem to get that down right now. They’re giving up more than they’re taking and that’s not going to win games in the NHL.
3 games down, 79 more to go. The Caps have played all Western Conference teams so far and that is something they’re not used to, I’m sure. If they continue this trend GMGM will have to do something to tweak the lineup. I really wonder if they’d be 1-2 if they had kept Matt Hendricks.
More to come…
