The Washington Capitals are gearing up for an important second half of the season. Heading into the All-Star break, the Capitals have lost four straight, three of which have come in regulation. Their chances of earning a second Wild Card spot are decreasing, and the schedule does not get any easier for them.
So, here are three keys for the Capitals going into the second half and putting themselves back into the playoff pool.
Score Gritty Goals In Front; Score First
This is the biggest key that the Capitals have to do in order to win games. We all know how bad the offense has been this season for Washington. The Caps have a total of 345 high-danger chances, which is 40 below the league average of 385. The Capitals have converted on just 28 of those chances, which is 12 below the league average of 40.
This could be a trigger warning to some, but Matthew Phillips is one of the best players on the Capitals at going to the front of the net. It’s unfortunate that he’s probably not gonna see any more playing time because he doesn’t have room in the current lineup. On Nov. 27 against the San Jose Sharks, Phillips created four scoring chances, which led the team.
The return of T.J. Oshie however was a huge boost in terms of net front traffic, and he has been rewarded offensively because he’s been crashing the net.
Another key for the Capitals is scoring the game’s first goal. Washington has gotten off to very good starts but has not been able to get out to an early lead. A perfect example of that is the Colorado Avalanche game, where the Caps fell 6-2.
The Capitals played an excellent first period and had a lot of quality scoring chances but could not beat Avalanche goaltender Alexander Georgiev. Then they let up a short-handed goal and the wheels fell off from there.
The Caps are 13-2-3 when drawing first blood. They also have to do a better job of not taking their foot off the gas, but that is a whole other issue in itself.
Clear The Crease
The Capitals have been atrocious at clearing traffic in front of Darcy Kuemper and Charlie Lindgren. Some games they have been pretty good at keeping teams to the perimeter, and other times they just completely fold and leave their goaltenders out to dry.
The Capitals brought in Joel Edmundson in order to solve the issue of clearing the crease. However, he has been far from that big-rig defenseman in front of the net.
Meanwhile, Trevor van Riemsdyk has been equally poor in that area, as shown on Mason Marchment’s power-play goal.
Perfectly placed 🤌 pic.twitter.com/89ZypBLcZD
— Dallas Stars on All-Star Break (@DallasStars) January 27, 2024
Van Riemsdyk is very weak when trying to box out Marchment and he knew right away that he needed to do a better job of clearing the crease and taking away Marchment’s stick and body. But all six blue-liners have to be stronger at boxing out and giving Kuemper and Lindgren better sight lines.
Thomas Harley is heating back up.
You don’t want to let Thomas Harley heat back up. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/DhzDgN0qM0
— Dallas Stars on All-Star Break (@DallasStars) January 27, 2024
Which leads me to my next key.
Play More Physical
The Capitals are on the slower side of skating speed, and they are going to stay that way. Because of the old roster, they have struggled against faster teams in the league, such as Colorado. Nathan MacKinnon is one of the fastest players on the planet and he scored four goals when these two teams met in Denver.
So how do the Caps combat teams that are strong on transition and skate like the wind?
You run them out of the building with brute force.
Washington is at the bottom of the league when it comes to hits. The Caps have dolled out 760 hits, for an average of 15.9 hits per game, which is 28th and 27th in the league respectively. The guys that should be playing physical, are not.
It seems like the big 6-foot-6 Aliaksei Protas is not going to be the polarizing and heavyweight player that the Caps wanted him to be. Protas told NoVaCaps that he has been using his size to protect the puck, rather than just simply hitting. Tom Wilson currently leads the team with 125 hits and has been throwing more body blows as of late, which is good.
Spencer Carbery has utilized his checking line of Beck Malenstyn, Nic Dowd and Nicolas Aube-Kubel a lot and they have been very effective at creating chances with their physicality. From here on out, all four lines need to be aggressive on the forecheck and play with a physical edge to create more high-danger scoring opportunities.
The Capitals will look to focus on these three keys right away when they resume play on Feb. 6 against the Montreal Canadiens.
By Jacob Cheris
