Washington Capitals Have A Lot To Work On To Improve Their Penalty Kill

Power play or penalty kill? If you could only have one of those to be great which one would you choose for a deep run in the playoffs?

It’s a topic I think most probably have an opinion on and are somewhat convinced they’re right. I’ve always been of the opinion that a great penalty kill is more important that a great power play. If you can score 5v5 then a great power play is a bonus. Whether you can score 5v5 or not, if you have a poor penalty kill it can bury your team.

We’ve seen teams in the not so distant past win a Stanley Cup with a bad power play. Until recently we haven’t really seen a team win with a bad penalty kill, at least in the last ten years. The Los Angeles Kings won the Cup in 2012 with a power play percentage of 12.8%. Their penalty kill was 92.1%. The Boston Bruins won the Cup in 2011 with an even worse power play percentage at 11.4%. Their PK however was a respectable 84.4%.

The last two Cup winners St. Louis and Washington have been bucking this trend as of late. Both teams won with penalty kills hovering in the mid seventy percent. The Blues power play was nothing to write home about either at only 16.3% while the Caps was all the way up over 29%.

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Until we have a much longer streak of iffy penalty kills winning my opinion will stay the same, I’ll take a great PK over a great power play any day.

A great penalty kill is something the Washington Capitals did not have last season. Last season the Caps finished the year ranked 24th with a 78.9% killing percentage. It rebounded terrifically in the playoffs jumping all the way up to 88%. The Caps however had plenty of other issues that series vs Carolina and we all know how that ended up.

The playoff PK percentage is a good sign, but lets look at some numbers and figure out where the Capitals need to improve to raise their penalty kill percentage for next season.

The Caps had a lot of advanced stats that ranked towards the bottom of the league in the PK department. Their shot attempts against was 23rd, their scoring chances against ranked 21st, their high danger attempts against ranked 26th and ultimately they gave up the sixth most goals while on the penalty kill.

Now, just like every situation with advanced stats, they can tell us some things and be useless with others. Those stats just tell us what the Capitals give up, not really why they were a bad PK team last season.

Look at Tampa Bay for example. They gave up the third most shot attempts (728 to the Capitals 661) the sixth most scoring chances against (357 to the Caps 339) and just sixteen less high danger attempts (Caps had 152 the Bolts gave up 136). Tampa Bay on the other hand had a 85% PK while Washington was down at 76%.

Looking at the other top PK teams in the league they tended to hover around the middle and top half of the league on most of these rankings. The exception being Columbus who was first in every category. They finished the season tied for the best PK with Tampa and Arizona at 85%.

These stats will tell you what your team needs to work on, not why your team is bad. The Caps clearly need to work on a lot of things.

One thing Washington needs to improve without question is goaltending. What? The Capitals have one of the best goalies in the league how is that possible?

The Lightning and Capitals both finished towards the bottom in some advanced stats. Tampa’s save percentage on the PK was 90.10%. The Capitals save percentage? 83.63%, that ranked 29th in the NHL.

Look at the top penalty kills in the NHL and they all had good save percentages, or at least a lot better than the Capitals. Tampa had the best save percentage, the Blue Jackets were 16th (imagine if they were better they would have had a much better PK%) Arizona’s was 2nd, New Jersey’s was 11th and Dallas’ was 3rd.

Here’s their official numbers:

Tampa Bay – 90.10%

Columbus – 86.52%

Arizona – 89.07%

New Jersey – 87.06%

Dallas – 88.39%

Lets look at the number one goalie for all these teams. Last season there were twenty-five goalies who played 200+ minutes of penalty kill time. Braden Holtby finished last in save percentage at 82.51%. Here are the top teams goaltenders.

Vasilevskiy – 91.01% ranked 1st

Bishop – 90.62% ranked 2nd

Kuemper – 90.1% ranked 3rd

Bobrovsky – 87.18 ranked 15th

Kinkaid – 83.97 ranked 22nd

How about high danger save percentage? When the team needs you the most. They’ve broken down in front of you now it’s up to you and you alone. Holtby wasn’t so good here either compared to the other twenty-five goalies. He ranked 24th in high danger save percentage above only Pittsburgh’s Matt Murray. Holtby’s HDSV% was 73.08, Murray’s was 66.1%.

How did the top penalty killing teams goalies perform here?

Vasilevskiy – 85.33% ranked 4th

Kuemper – 88.24% ranked 1st

Bobrovsky – 84.38% ranked 7th

Kinkaid – 75.56% ranked 22nd

Bishop – 85.11% ranked 5th

That old cliché saying of you need your goaltender to be your best penalty killer is true. It’s cliché because it’s right. If you have a great penalty kill but your goaltender isn’t making saves your PK percentage isn’t going to be very good. If your PK is bad and your goaltending isn’t good you’ll have a bad PK percentage.

That’s pretty much where the Capitals were last season. To get the penalty kill back on track next season they will have a lot to work on. They have to raise their ranking in scoring chances against which was 21st overall and high danger attempts against which was 26th overall.

More. Brian Pinho's impressive performance at the Prospect Showcase. light

After they raise those they will have to get saves from Holtby. Bring the two things we just mentioned down and Holtby should have a much easier time and therefore raise his save percentage. If all that happens then the Caps will have a much better penalty kill.

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