Don’t look now. The Washington Capitals have started to play better and in turn their power play has gotten better lately. We kid you not. They are actually improving.
The last time we ranted about the power play or even their coach Blaine Forsythe, the power play was at the bottom of the league ranking 28th or 29th out of all 32 teams. Now the Caps have jumped to 24th in the league with a 17.9 percent success rate.
On Thursday against the Carolina Hurricanes, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin each struck on the power play in a 4-0 win. In Saturday’s 5-2 win over the Seattle Kraken, the Caps cashed in on both of their power play opportunities. Those goals came from Conor Sheary and Ovechkin again.
Ovechkin told the media after the game:
"“I think we have pretty good chances previous games, but sometimes it just didn’t go in. Previous game we score big one, and today we scored two big goals.”"
The Caps have scored 13 PPGs in 13 games with a success rate of 30.2 percent. Suddenly the Caps power play has gone from ice cold to red hot. What exactly has been the difference lately? It’s been the reinforcements.
Sheary added:
"“I think we obviously got a few bodies back in there. We got [Anthony Mantha] back, we go [T.J. Oshie] back after long-term, [Nicklas Backstrom’s] now finding his stride so I think we feel like we have two really good units that can work hard and use our skill to create opportunities.”"
Ovechkin leads the Caps with 10 power play goals. Kuznetsov, John Carlson and Tom Wilson each have four. Sheary, Dmitry Orlov, and T.J. Oshie have two. Nicklas Backstrom, Justin Schultz and Joe Snively have one.
Peter Laviolette said:
"“There has been a lot of turnover on the units. So it is nice to get people back and situated and in place and get them working and rhythm but it’s definitely had an impact.”"
Overall the power play has gotten better and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The Caps will look to win three in a row tomorrow night against the Calgary Flames.