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Washington Capitals: Top 3 observations of the season so far

By Michael Marzzacco

Connor McMichael, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Connor McMichael, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /
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John Carlson, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
John Carlson, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /

We are 12 games into the 2021-22 Washington Capitals season and so far the team is 6-2-4 with 16 points. That’s good for third in the Metropolitan Division. That is also good despite having a banged up lineup that seems to have injuries to big guys week after week.

The latest to go down was Nic Dowd with other injuries happening to Anthony Mantha, T.J. Oshie, and Nicklas Backstrom. On the goaltending front, Vitek Vanecek might be hurt. Still the Caps have kept trucking along and had a solid October before a rocky start to November. Here are the top 3 observations of the season thus far.

John Carlson, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
John Carlson, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /

#3 The power play still needs work

It has at least gotten better. There was a power play goal the other night against the Buffalo Sabres by John Carlson that was assisted by Alex Ovechkin for the 600th apple of his career. The power play is still ranked 18th in the league however with a success rate of 18.6 percent.

Here are what the power play units currently look like via Daily Face-off:

First unit: Tom Wilson, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Conor Sheary, Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson

Second unit: Daniel Sprong, Lars Eller, Alex Ovechkin, Dmitry Orlov, Justin Schultz

Maybe to increase Connor McMichael’s ice time, they should give him power play time. Just a thought.

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