Top 5 Emerging Storylines for Washington Capitals a Month into the Season
The Washington Capitals are off to a hot start and people all over town are excited for both the hot start and the GR8 Chase
#4 Power play woes
Lost in the awesomeness of the Capitals offense at five on five has been the struggles of the power play. The Caps so far this season are six for 48 on the power play which included a scoreless drought of at least 20 on the man advantage until their win in St. Louis.
The Caps rank 30th in the power play with a success rate of 12.5 percent. That's worst in the Eastern Confence and barely ahead of the Anaheim Ducks and the Blues.
The Boston Bruins and the New York Islanders are just ahead of them as are the Calgary Flames and the Utah Hockey Club. The Winnipeg Jets, Colorado Avlanche and the Vegas Golden Knights are the top 3 in that category. The Caps see Colorado, Vegas and Utah after Toronto on Wednesday.
Here's what the power play units looked like for the Caps:
First unit: Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome, Connor McMichael, Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson
Second unit: Michael Sgarbossa, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Mangiapane, Alex Ovechkin, Jakob Chychrun
Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson each have two power play tallies. John Carlson and Connor McMichael each have one. Dylan Strome leads the Caps in power play assists with five.
#3 The five on five
The Capitals had a negative 37 goal differential when they barely squeaked into the playoffs last season. Now the Caps are fifth in goals with 59 which is good for third in the Eastern Conference as well as the Metropolitan Division entering Tuesday's slate of games.
The teams ahead of them are the Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, Vegas Golden Knights and Winnipeg Jets.
Connor McMichael leads the Caps with nine even strength goals. Alex Ovechkin is right behind him with eight. Aliaksei Protas has five. Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson each have four. Andrew Mangiapane, Jakob Chychrun, Nic Dowd and Brandon Duhaime each have three.
Ramus Sandin, Taylor Raddysh, and Jakub Vrana each have two. John Carlson, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Mike Sgarbossa each have one. McMichael, Ovechkin, Protas, and Mangiapane each have two game winning goals.
Not only are the Caps better offensively but in a better position to win. With a 10-4-0 record for 20 points,, the Caps sit a point ahead of the New York Rangers for third place in the Metro Division. They are only two pionts behind the New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricnaes for the top spot.
#2 The PLD experiment in DC
In the middle of June the Capitals made a splash by trading for Pierre-Luc Dubois and sending goaltender Darcy Kuemper to the Los Angeles Kings in the process. It was a high risk but so far with the play of Logan Thompson it's been a reward.
So far this season Pierre-Luc Dubois has one goal and seven assists for eight points. He had assists in three of the last five games, all wins, between the Columbus Blue Jackets, Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues.
In additon, he's blocked 14 shots and laid out 20 hits while winning 46.5 percent of his face off draws. It'll be extra important for PLD to step up in the absence of not only T.J. Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom, but Sonny Milano as well who just recently entered injured reserve with an upper body injury.
But perhaps the cool part about PLD is the chemistry he's formed with Tom Wilson. He's having himself a year with six goals and six assists for 12 points while adding 43 hits and 17 blocked shots. Which brings us to number one.
#1 The GR8 Chase
The hottest question was if Alex Ovechkin could do it as early as this season or even reach 50 goals.
So far, so good.
Ovechkin has 10 goals and eight assists for 18 pionts as well as a plus/minus of plus nine and two game winning goals to boot. Six have come at even strength while two have come on the power play. In additon he is second to Tom Wilson among all forward with an average ice time of 18:02. And a reminder he's doing all of this at 39.
Prominent NHL alum Eric Lindros said he believes Ovechkin can do it:
I think he might hit it this year, right? Like, if yo look at his pace here, he's ripping them and he's scoring them in bunches.
It took Ovechkin 45 games to reach 10 goals this season. This season he has 10 in 14 games putting him 31 away from tying Wayne Gretzky and needing 32 to pass.
Some insiders still think Ovechkin might not do it but Ovechkin doesn't need the critics. He's proven time and time again he can rise above it whether it's scoring goals or guiding the Caps to crucial wins in a competitive league.
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