A look back at October 2023 for the Capitals

The Washington Capitals had a roller coaster start to the season. They started the month of October slow but got hot towards the end. That heat catching resulted in the Caps ending the month with three straight wins.

First let’s look at the games they’ve played as well as some important stats. The season started with a thud in a 4-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. They rebounded with a 3-2 shootout win over the Calgary Flames.

Then things got bad. A 6-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators, a 3-2 loss in overtime to the Montreal Canadiens that they nearly came back and won, and then a 4-1 thud to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Then the Caps went on that three game winning streak. It began with wild back and fourth affair in a 6-4 win over the New Jersey Devils. When I say back and fourth I mean a good first period, a bad second period, and a great third period for the Capitals.

The month finished with a 3-2 shootout win over the Minnesota Wild and a 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks. The Caps ended the month in fifth place in the Metropolitan Division through eight games with a 4-3-1 record with nine points.

They’re a point behind the New York Islanders with for fourth place and two points behind the Devils for third place entering Halloween night. In the wild card they’re two points behind both the first and second place Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning.

It took a while for the Caps power play to get going. But now they have three PPGs on the season. That puts them at a 12 percent power play percentage which is good for 27th in the NHL. Keep an eye on that because as the Caps start to get hot that power play could get better.

The Caps have a penalty kill percentage of 75 percent. Not too shabby and good for 21st in the league. Now let’s look at player stats.

We’ll start with the goalies. Darcy Kuemper so far is 3-2-1 with a 2.92 goals against average and a .903 save percentage. Hunter Shepard got his first NHL win in his league debut with an .818 save percentage in that wild win over the Devils. Then we got Charlie Lindgren who’s 0-1-0 with an .886 save percentage.

We only saw him on opening night as Lindgren has since dealt with the injury bug. Now apparently Lindgren left yesterday’s practice early so who knows what’s up with Chucks luck? Spencer Carbery said afterwards though that he “should be alright but had to leave.”

It took Alex Ovechkin a while to get a goal but in that loss to the Maple Leafs he had the game’s only goal. Despite this, Ovechkin leads the team with eight points with two goals and six assists. John Carlson is right behind him with seven points with a goal and six assists.

Then you’ve got Dylan Strome who has had the best start to the season among players. He leads the Capitals with six goals.