Washington Capitals: 3 Reasons This Team Can Win The Stanley Cup
By CJ Witt
Very Good Special Teams
On top of the Capitals being good at 5v5, like usual, their power play was very good last season as well. Last season their power play percentage was 24.8%. That was third best on the circuit behind only Edmonton at 27.6% and Carolina at 25.6%.
The Capitals power play is good or great more often than not. Last season was no different and it would be a little foolish to assume it would be any different next season. As we just discussed, the forward group is deep and talented, and oh yes, of course, Alex Ovechkin is still around. Ovechkin is now second all time in power play goals with 269.
To go along with a great power play, Washington also had a very good penalty kill last season. The Caps last season had a 84% penalty kill, that was the fifth best last season.
I am am a big believer in penalty kill is more important than power play, especially if your team is good at 5v5 like Washington is. Look at three of the teams that went deep in last years playoffs, Vegas was number one on PK, Tampa was number four and the Islanders were sixth. Montreal, the outliers, were twenty-third.
If you can score 5v5 you don’t need a great power play. If you have trouble killing penalties, it’s going to be a rough time.
If things stay the way they were last season for the Capitals, special teams will again be huge and make this team hard to beat.