Capitals might have won 1,000th home game but more work remains

The Washington Capitals achieved a milestone of winning 1,000 games on home ice in Saturday night’s win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. That’s an impressive feat.

The Caps are the 15th team in NHL history to reach the milestone and the 10th fastest team to do so. They achieved the feat in their 1,904th home game and have a record of 1,000-655-153-96 which is good for a .591 point percentage.

Breaking it down further that’s 554 wins at Capital One Arena, 444 wins at Capital Centre, and a win at Nationals Park for the 2015 Winter Classic and a win at Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium for the 2018 Stadium Series.

But there’s more work to be done.

The Capitals currently have a 5-4-1 record for 11 points. That’s good for fifth in the Metropolitan Division, two points behind the fourth place New York Islanders and three behind the third place Carolina Hurricanes.

In the wild card they’re one point behind the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens and two points behind the Florida Panthers and Islanders. The Islanders currently occupy that second wild card spot and the top two teams qualify for the playoffs.

That sets up a big game tomorrow night between the Capitals and Panthers. 7:30 on TNT and HBO Max.

While Dylan Strome has been excellent this season the rest of the offense hasn’t quite lived up to the hype. Alex Ovechkin has two goals and none of those came even strength. One was a power play and the other was an empty net.

The Caps have 19 goals so far this season which ranks 31st in the league. To no surprise the San Jose Sharks are worse with just 12. For a team like the Capitals, that’s bad.

But the defense and the penalty kill has improved. The PK in particular has killed off 12 consecutive power plays by their opposition. Keep that in mind because that could be important later on this season.

One of the things they need to do is win for Nicklas Backstrom. Especially in the wake of the news that it is “unlikely” he will play again this season.

While Evgeny Kuznetsov has improved in his play he needs to light up the scoreboard. Ovechkin, like we talked about, needs to step it up. And the youth of Connor McMichael and Matthew Phillips have to continue to capitalize on the opportunities that were given to them.

Overall the season is far from over and if the Caps can get a streak going things should be looking up.