How Much Has The Washington Capitals Penalty Kill Improved This Season?

The penalty kill was one area this season that the Washington Capitals needed to get a lot better at.

We talked about this before the season started. We talked about how the Washington Capitals 24th ranked penalty kill wouldn’t be good enough and they needed to bring that percentage up this season

We’re nearly two weeks into the season and I think with the early results we can say that the Caps PK is a lot better than last season. We don’t even have to look at numbers to see this. I can’t speak for everybody, but just by feeling, when the Capitals take a penalty I don’t expect the team to give up that much and definitely don’t expect a goal against.

The aggression Washington has on the penalty kill right now is fantastic. Opposing teams power plays right now have trouble getting in the Caps zone and when they do get in they don’t get set up very easily.

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It’s honestly one of my favorite things to watch in hockey when a PK gives up nothing and frustrates power plays. Right now this penalty kill from Washington is fun to watch, even if Caps fans don’t want to see it that much.

The numbers for the kill this season are a bit up and down so far but there are explanations for that and we will go into that right now.

Currently the Capitals penalty kill percentage is 85.7%. That ranks all the way up at 9th overall in the NHL. Both of those are a big jump up from last season. The Capitals PK last season ranked all the way down at 24th with a kill percentage of 78.9%.

Other advanced numbers are actually a little up from last season which is not a great thing but they are pretty easily understandable. So far this season Washington is allowing 4.5 chances a game while shorthanded. Last season that number was 4.13. The better PK is allowing more chances a game.

The explanation for this is the Caps are going into the box more, especially in the last week. In the last three games the Capitals have had to kill fourteen penalties. They’ve been shorthanded twenty-one times all season so the majority of their time in the box has come this past week.

That results in more chances. Washington allowed six chances against a game this past week while the first week of the season they allowed just three per game. Stay out of the box and the numbers should go back down.

Last season one of the best penalty kills (Columbus) allowed 2.73 chances per game while shorthanded. They also allowed 1.07 high danger chances against. If the Caps can cut back on their trips to the box then they are right in that neighborhood.

Particularly in the high danger chances against. This season Washington is allowing 1.16 high danger chances against which is way down from the 1.85 they allowed last season. Again, that number could be even lower if the team takes less penalties. The first week of the season they averaged just one  against per game, this week they allowed 1.33.

Basically the Caps allowed 3 high danger attempts against in the first week and they allowed 4 this past week.

One number you really want to see go up is save percentage, at least for one of the Capitals goaltenders. Ilya Samsonov has really been outstanding to start his NHL career and that doesn’t stop on the penalty kill. Samsonov has not allowed a shorthanded goal saving all seven shots he’s faced. That includes going two for two  in high danger shots against.

Braden Holtby on the other hand hasn’t had as much success. Holtby’s save percentage right now is .813% saving 13 of the 16 shots he’s faced and he’s saved just one of his three high danger shots against.

This was a big category for me going into the season, save percentage while shorthanded. Holtby last year was last in the NHL among goalies who played 200 or more PK minutes. His save percentage then was 82.51%. Holtby needed to improve on that this year and so far he’s worse.

It’s still early, we have a long ways to go this season so there’s no need to overreact. That number from Holtby really has to go up though in my opinion.

While not all the stats show it the Capitals penalty kill has been very good to start this season. With the offense not being as deep as it has been in recent years the Caps are going to need to play good defense. What better time is there to play good defense than the penalty kill?

It’s a good start, but we’re just a fraction of the way through the season. We’ll see if they can keep up their good penalty killing all season.