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Which Hardworking Teams Should The Capitals Worry About

By CJ Witt

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 05: Jaccob Slavin #74 of the Carolina Hurricanes celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal in the third period against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on October 5, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 05: Jaccob Slavin #74 of the Carolina Hurricanes celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal in the third period against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on October 5, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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UNIONDALE, NY – OCTOBER 04: New York Islanders Defenseman Devon Toews (25) and Washington Capitals Left Wing Alex Ovechkin (8) battle for the puck during the third period of the game between the Washington Capitals and the New York Islanders on October 4, 2019, at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. (Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
UNIONDALE, NY – OCTOBER 04: New York Islanders Defenseman Devon Toews (25) and Washington Capitals Left Wing Alex Ovechkin (8) battle for the puck during the third period of the game between the Washington Capitals and the New York Islanders on October 4, 2019, at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. (Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The New York Islanders

The Islanders are like a better version of the Blue Jackets. I don’t know how he does it but Barry Trotz is somehow working his voodoo Trotz magic and has a team that has nearly no names near the top of the Metropolitan division.

This is the same team that took out the Penguins in last years playoffs in four games.

It will be interesting to see the Capitals and the Isles play again this season. They’ve only played once so far this year and that was the second game of the season. Ilya Samsonov’s NHL debut where he nearly recorded a shutout if not for a fluke bounce.

Again, the stats don’t tell you to fear very much. New York is one of the worst teams in Corsi% and their scoring chance% is well below 50% as well. They don’t give up that much though. They’ve allowed 51 5v5 goals so far this season. That’s the best in the league.

In contrast they’ve allowed 747 scoring chances, which is 21st in the league and they’ve given up 306 high danger attempts, that’s 23rd in the NHL. So far they have given up 817 shots and they have the third best save percentage while 5v5 at .937%.

There is nothing that sounds that threatening about this team. They don’t have big name players, their stats don’t look that great and they don’t have a winning recent past that scares you. They do have a hardworking reputation though and of course they have a head coach who knows how to get the most out of every team he’s had. A coach that knows a ton about the Capitals too.

I want to see the Capitals play this team more before I flat out say WATCH OUT! But this is a scary team come playoff time and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them do what they did to Pittsburgh in the first round again.

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