Washington Capitals: Top 3 bold predictions for Stanley Cup Playoffs

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Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /

#3 The power play will improve

Our first prediction is that the power play will improve. It is vital that they do. What started out as one of the best in the league plummeted in the second half of the regular season. With weapons like Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and John Carlson, they should be able to light the lamp night after night.

They did in the early part as they were ranked fifth in the league in games played through Nov. 30 with a success rate of 25.3 percent (22 for 87). After that they dropped to 30th at 15.5 percent (20 for 129). Todd Reirden tried numerous things to fix the power play including shifting Ovechkin from the left side to the right side.

In Washington’s final 10 games before the pause the team went 2-for-23, an 8.7 percent success rate on the power play. The addition of Ilya Kovalchuk at the trade deadline is expected to help. The first unit will likely include Oshie, Backstrom, Kovalchuk, Ovechkin and Carlson. The second unit will likely feature Tom Wilson, Kuznetsov, Lars Eller, Ovechkin, and Dmitry Orlov.

Overall the Caps rank 17th in the NHL on the power play with a success rate of 19.4 percent.

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