The Capitals are in a good spot to open the season, and for good reason.
Though it's been a difficult past week for the Washington Capitals, who lost captain Alex Ovechkin and saw their three-game winning come to an end Thursday, the team is still in a very good spot — and for good reason that goes beyond the goal scoring.
There has been plenty of talk about the Capitals' offensive strengths and prowess thus far, and it has been easy to forget about their play at the other end of the ice.
As the Capitals sit one point behind Florida for first in the Metropolitan division, their goal-scoring depth has carried them a long way. Washington currently sits at 79 goals for this season, one behind Winnipeg for the most in the league, and sit second in goals per game at 4.19.
Still, all the goals in the world won't make a difference if you can't keep the other team from scoring, too; just ask Colorado.
That said, how does D.C. stack up defensively?
Well, they're not bad, and nearly as impressive so far. Through 19 games, the team has allowed just 52 goals and surrenders an average of 2.74 goals per game, the ninth-least in the league.
The most goals the Capitals have allowed in a game this year is five, and that's happened on just two occasions: once in the season-opening loss to New Jersey, and a week later in a 6-5 win over the Devils where they outscored their problems.
Even more impressive is their play while short-handed. Despite a struggling power-play unit, which had seen some signs of improvement recently thanks to its now-injured captain, Washington has the third-best PK in the league at 86.7 percent.
oing into Thursday's loss, the team had been perfect on the kill for eight of the last nine games, and the power-play goal Colorado managed was a faux-pas, as Mikko Rantanen's pass went awkwardly off Matt Roy's skate and paste logan Thompson.
"We're forcing teamas to put the puck on the wall a little bit more, we're not allowing clean break-ins," Nic Dowd said, adding, "We've done a good job of limiting time and space. I know that'sa cliché, but I think we're definitely more aggressive."
Breaking Washington's defensive play down by period shows further shows the Capitals' ability to grab hold of games early and shut teams down in the end, something the team wasn't capable of last season.
Washington leads the league in first-period goals scored with 31, and is second in the league with the fewest goals allowed in the third (13). The team's weakest period is the second, where it has been outscored 23-20.
From an individual player perspective, the Capitals roster boasts strong defensive depth; only five skaters are sitting at a plus/minus of zero or lower, and none of those players are defensemen. Rasmus Sandin leads the team with a plus-15 rating in what's been a standout season so far.
Everyone's doing their fair share to keep the puck out of the net, too, as the team has the sixth-most blocked shots in the league at 985.
"That's what's been our success, is just every guy in here playing for the guy to each other," Tom Wilson said.
Then, there's the goaltending; Logan Thompson has been dominant with a 9-1-1 record and a .914 save percentage, which ranks 12th best in the league. Charlie Lindgren's play has recently turned a corner, too, and though he's at a .900 save percentage for the season, he's registered a .917 SV% at all strengths since Nov. 1.
In the net, the Capitals are a bit more of a mixed bag. Logan Thompson suffered only his first regulation loss of the season last night against Colorado, allowing two goals on 27 shots. He currently sits at 12th in the league with a .914 save percentage in 10 games. Charlie Lindgren on the other hand sits at 5-4 with a .900 save percentage.
"Our goaltending has obviously been great," Dowd added. "I think we're going to have breakdowns, Tommer and Chuck have been really, really good and big."
This all paints a picture of a team with a solid, respectable defensive corps, but there is also plenty of room for improvement.
Washington, which had surrendered the least shots per game in the league earlier in the season, now has the 10th-least shots against in the NHL with 28.3 allowed per night on average. In the high-danger area scoring metric, D.C. has surrendered 170, which puts the team in the middle of the pack.
Advanced statistics show possession time is another area that needs attention. The team has a Corsi-for percentage of 47.9, which ranks the eighth-worst in the league; head coach Spencer Carbery was also critical of the team's play with the puck on Thursday, saying the team had too many turnovers and wasn't driving enough offense or doing much with the puck.
Then, there are the zone time percentages, which show that the Capitals spends approximately 39 percent of their time in the offensive zone, below the league average of 42.2 percent.
Ultimately, digging more into the weeds shows a team that's getting the job done but could still use some fine-tuning, especially with Ovechkin out for the next 4-6 weeks.
There are differences between good teams and *great* teams in the NHL; a good team would continue with the status quo, and a *great* team looks to improve in all areas they can in order to achieve long-term success.
And looking at this year's Washington team, it's clear it will head in the direction of the latter.