Washington Capitals: Analyzing The December Schedule

It’s been a great start to the season for the Washington Capitals.

Nearly thirty games into the season and the Washington Capitals are fighting for the top spot in the entire NHL. As I write this they two points ahead of the Boston Bruins in the top spot in the league with 43 points with a 19-4-5 record. Getting 41 points out of a possible 54 is a heck of an accomplishment.

Yet we are just done with a fraction of the season and they’re is still a lot of hockey to be played. The Capitals have played great for two months and now it’s time to start thinking about the third month, the month of December.

As the team does, so shall we. Lets go ahead and take a look at the twelfth month of the calendar and see what kind of games and opponents to Caps will face-off against.

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They’ll start off on the road in December by going on the once dreaded “death valley” trip and play the California teams. They start in San Jose on the 3rd and play the Sharks then head down south to play the Kings the very next night and end the quick three game trip by playing Anaheim on the 6th.

It’ll be the first time the Caps and Sharks meet this year. Last year Washington went 1-0-1 against San Jose scoring 11 goals and allowing 8. The Caps won in Silicon Valley last year with San Jose winning a wild game in D.C.

The game against LA will also be the first meeting of the season between the two teams. Last season the Caps took both games against the Kings where they scored nine goals with six against.

The Ducks are a different story, they’ve met already this year and it turned into a bit of a nasty game with Garnet Hathaway ended up getting suspended for a spitting incident. The Capitals ended up winning that game 5-2. They lost in Anaheim last season however and will try to fix that on the 6th.

The California trip is not as tough as it used to be. Both the Kings and Ducks have taken steps back, neither are really expected to compete out west. The Sharks could be the biggest test. They got off to a rough start losing 11 of their first 15 games but have since won 10 of the last 12 they’ve played.

Four of six points should be won on this trip and the first week of December.

The Caps then go home for a two game home stand. First they’ll play the division rival  Blue Jackets. The Blue Jackets lost plenty of good players last off-season so they’re not as good as previous seasons. This should be a win. Last season the Capitals went 1-2-1 against Columbus.

Next game is against the Boston Bruins. A match-up of the eastern conference elites and Boston’s first trip to the nation’s capital. The Capitals in my opinion stole the first game in Boston, the B’s playing better in my eyes and the Caps scoring late in the game and winning in a shootout. Boston will want to beat the Caps in their own barn like the Caps did to them.

The week gets finished in Tampa Bay against the Lightning. The Bolts and Capitals just played the other day with the Capitals taking that game in overtime. It was a game where the Lightning had a 3-1 lead going into the third. Hard to tell what the Lightning are going to do this season. It’s still a great team that’ll likely want revenge, but you don’t know how they’ll play.

Another six points up for grabs and I think another four points should be expected this week.

A week after their first meeting the Caps will then head to Columbus to face off against the Blue Jackets. Last year in Columbus the Caps got shut out 3-0 in their first game and returned the favor and shut out the Jackets 4-0 in the second game in Columbus. It was a low scoring season series last season. In four games the Caps scored six goals against CBJ but allowed just seven.

Next game will be after a three day break in New Jersey against the struggling Devils. The Devils had a heck of an off-season drafting Jack Hughes first overall in the draft then adding PK Subban on defense. It hasn’t given the team results just yet though. They’re nine points out of a playoff spot as we speak and rumors now have it that GM Ray Shero is listening to offers on former MVP Taylor Hall.

Last season the Capitals went 3-1-0 against New Jersey.

The next night it’ll be another match-up vs the Lightning. The third meeting in less than a month. That could lead to some scrappy games especially if Tampa continues to struggle.

Yet another week where six points can be won and I once again think four should be expected. Columbus and New Jersey should be beatable, Tampa on a back to back could be tricky.

The Capitals will then go “shipin up to Boston” (woah-oh oh). It’ll be the third meeting between the two teams this year. The Caps won in Boston already this year and they won their only game in Boston last year 4-2. Saying the Capitals have the Bruins number may be a bit of an understatement.

Another three days off comes next before a home game against the Blue Jackets, the third game against them in the month of December. The Jackets took both games in D.C. last season both by 2-1 finals, one in OT.

It’ll be another weekend back to back when the Capitals face the Hurricanes in Raleigh on the 28th. It’s the Caps first trip back to Carolina since the playoffs last year. Washington won both regular season games in Carolina last season before struggling there in the playoffs.

This week is tougher. With six points up for grabs four points I don’t think should be expected. Getting three would be good but it wouldn’t be surprising if they got just two.

They’ll finish December with a home game against the New York Islanders on New Years Eve. Barry Trotz once again has his team playing terrific hockey setting a franchise record point streak and having his boys in a playoff spot without having very many recognizable faces.

At home you give the Capitals the advantage. They have every opportunity to take this game and win against the Isles for the second time this season.

Twenty-six points are at stake in December, the final month of the decade. Sixteen points would be a good month in my eyes. Anything more than that would be great, anything less might be a bit of a disappointment.

You never know how a week will go let alone a month so we’ll see. In  a month with some repeated opponents and conference and division rivals it should be a fun entertaining December.