Just a little bit less than halfway through the NHL regular season the Washington Capitals have only six regulation losses.
Six regulation losses in thirty-five games played. That’s pretty impressive. The Washington Capitals lead in the NHL in points and could be well on their way to another Presidents’ Trophy.
Out of their six regulation losses two have come in the last week and a half. Both of those losses came against the same team, the Columbus Blue Jackets. Since the start of last season the Capitals are 1-4-1 against the Jackets. The Blue Jackets, while playing better than most assumed, aren’t a very good team and are likely not playoff bound.
Yet the Capitals have had issues with this side. I don’t think it’s hard to figure out why really. Columbus is a hardworking team that brings pressure the whole game for the most part. That’s a hard thing to deal with no matter what team you are. Teams that don’t have that much skill can play well and teams that do have skill and play that game can do very well. Example being the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 & 2017.
This is a style that has given the Capitals issues in past seasons. They lost to the Penguins in 2016 and 2017 who played this style and they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes last season who brought a ton of speed and pressure.
I don’t know the exact recipe to beating the Capitals, but I do know that speed and pressure are two crucial ingredients to taking down one of the best teams in hockey. We’ve seen it in past seasons and we’ve seen it twice so far this year.
As I said before, most don’t expect the Capitals to have to play the Blue Jackets in the playoffs. Columbus isn’t expected to get that far. You never know though.
If the Capitals don’t have to worry about the speed and pressure from Columbus, who should they be concerned about? Well…