Caps Quick Hits: Skid Hits Four, Trotz is Mad, Ovechkin is Still Great

A lot can change in a week and a half in the NHL. Just six games ago the Caps were the only team undefeated in regulation in the conference, looking ready to return to the status of contender. It was all puppy calendars and team-bonding outings over curling tournaments back then. Things since then have been sub-optimal. They’re on a four game losing streak and have dropped five of six, and fallen to thirteenth in the conference.

Sunday night’s 6-5 loss at home to the mediocre-at-best Arizona Coyotes was the worst of the season and prompted a secretive players-only meeting after the game. Fortunately it’s still early and several other competitors in the Metro division have also been inconsistent, so it’s not panic time yet. But the Caps need to turn things around this week or it’s going to begin getting desperate in D.C.

Onto the quick hits from the past week.

Questionable Goaltending

We can make excuses for Braden Holtby all we want. To be fair, most of the eight goals he surrendered last week (four each in two starts) would have been tough saves. He was victimized by deflections and grade-A chances against. The well-documented turnovers in their own zone are killing the team, as are untimely penalties. Still, he needed to be better. He’s now been called out by Barry Trotz multiple times this season for not coming up with timely saves. Some of the goals he’s surrendering, like the power play goal to Pavel Datsyuk for the fourth Red Wings tally, have been absolute backbreakers.

Want to talk save percentage? Holtby’s is .899 for the year, good for 43rd in the league. I don’t care if that includes power play or not, that is not even close to acceptable. Justin Peters, filling in Sunday on the second end of a back-to-back night, did not even look like he belonged in the NHL, surrendering six goals most of which should have been stopped.

Teams with decent possession numbers but poor goaltending don’t go very far. Ask the New Jersey Devils or New York Islanders how that worked out for them last year. So far, for the all the chatter about how Mitch Korn was supposed to work wonders for this duo, the goaltending has been a let down this season, and a major culprit for what is now a full-blown losing streak.

Granted, Holtby has shown the ability to be a good goalie in this league. I don’t think he’s 2013-2014 Evgeni Nabokov or 2013-2014 Martin Brodeur, so I think he’ll be fine, but he certainly hasn’t been a Vezina candidate so far by any means.

Ovechkin Watch

Alex Ovechkin is back, and perhaps he never even left. Despite enduring a career-long five game pointless streak through the Detroit loss this week, Ovechkin was aces in all three losses, so let’s not place the blame at his feet. He recorded seven shots on goal against Detroit, six against Tampa Bay and seven against Arizona, recording five points and snapping his goal-scoring drought with a power play goal in Sunday’s loss.

He’s playing great two way hockey (although he had a miserable turnover leading to an Arizona goal Sunday), with a 66.97% Fenwick rating last week against tough competition.

Also, how about his awesome backcheck and diving save to break up a two-on-one in Tampa?

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Bad Luck, Again

Luck is never a popular explanation in sports. It’s seen as making an excuse because nobody can control it, which is an unacceptable concept to a competitive athlete. But, even aside from getting outplayed at the goaltender position, luck has not been on the Caps’ side. Even last week the Caps’ 54.97% Fenwick-close was 7th-best in the league. And there were a myriad of self-inflicted wounds that led to the loss against the Coyotes, but Arizona’s 6-3 power play advantage in the game no doubt played a role in the outcome. Several of those were borderline calls too, and that’s being extremely generous to the zebras.

Their PDO for the week was seventh worst in the league at 94.75. The worst? The L.A. Kings, losers of three straight with a PDO of 88.63. They’re not panicking, and neither should the Caps or their fans. It’s a long season, and the best predictors of future success that we have, IE puck possession and PDO, suggest that the Caps are due.

Barry Trotz Quote of the Week

Trotz was incensed after Sunday’s 6-5 loss at home to the Arizona Coyotes.

"“That behavior has to change, or we have to change people. It’s plain and simple,” Trotz said. “Ice time, look at different people in different situations. To me it’s absolutely unacceptable. They have to fix their behavior. It’s my job to fix the behavior. I don’t like the behavior. If they’re not going to fix it internally, individually, then I’ll make sure I fix it.”"

What is that supposed to mean, exactly? Is he just going to replace Jay Beagle with Liam O’Brien in the lineup on Tuesday? Is he insinuating a trade of a one of the more important pieces? Trotz has been known for press conference blowups in Nashville too, was he just blowing off steam? I hope he doesn’t overreact and lobby to trade a good player for a Jay Beagle type. Whatever the case may be, hopefully he has his team’s attention.

The Week Ahead

The schedule is as follows:

Caps vs. Flames: Tuesday November 4th @7:00 PM

Caps @ Blackhawks: Friday November 7th @8:30 PM

Caps vs. Hurricanes: Saturday November 8th @7:00 PM

The losing streak has to end this week, right? The Flames come into town Tuesday night in what is actually shaping up to be a very tricky matchup for the Caps. Calgary had a fun weekend in which they beat the resurgent Predators at home and then trounced the current Eastern Conference Standings leader, the Montreal Canadiens, in Montreal 6-2. They’re probably not thrilled with the 3-1 loss the Caps dealt them at home a week and a half ago.

The Chicago Blackhawks on the road will obviously be a tough matchup because it’s the Blackhawks. The next night, the struggling Hurricanes come to town in D.C. If nothing else, that figures to be a win, one would think.

Expectations: On a good week, one might expect three points out of this stretch. Given the current state of the team, we’ll settle for two. Just get a win and stop the bleeding.

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