Capitals Midseason Report Card 2020

Caps Midseason Report Card

Throughout the 2010s, no team in the National Hockey League enjoyed as much regular-season success as the Washington Capitals.

That trend has continued into the 2020s as the Capitals sit atop the NHL with 71 points. As has been the case for most of the season, the Caps remain on track for their fourth Presidents’ Trophy in the Alex Ovechkin era, and third in the last five seasons.

However, despite the dominance Washington has played with nearly all season long, there is a nervousness going around its fan base. 

Relatively, that nervousness is justified. The Capitals have not won four consecutive games since the first week of December and they have lost consecutive regulation decisions twice in the last three weeks.

In the grand scheme of things, however, that is a ridiculous thing to be worried about. The NHL season lasts 82 games and every team is going to go through a rough stretch or two during that six-month span. It just happens. 

Overall Grade: A-

Offense

For the last five years, the Capitals have consistently boasted one of the league’s deepest group of forwards. Ovechkin’s generational goal-scoring talent combined with high rates of secondary scoring have been an integral part of Washington’s two Presidents’ Trophies, four Metropolitan Division titles and 2018 Stanley Cup championship.

The 2019-20 season has been much the same. Ovechkin is on pace for his ninth-career 50-goal campaign with 34 markers. Jakub Vrana’s 22 goals are two shy of a career-high, and he has 33 games left to play. Vrana is tied for third in the NHL for even-strength goals at 21, two behind his captain, and four behind Auston Matthews.

The bottom-six forwards have not produced nearly as much on the scoresheet, partially so due to lineup inconsistency. Richard Panik and Carl Hagelin both had stints on the long-term injured reserve, costing them 10 games apiece. Nic Dowd has battled a couple minor injuries and had to earn the 12th forward sweater in competition with Chandler Stephenson and Travis Boyd.

Dowd along with Garnet Hathaway and Brendan Leipsic have been one of the NHL’s most outstanding defensive trios. They have the fourth-fewest expected goals allowed mark per 60 minutes (1.68).

The Capitals’ forwards have settled into a routine four lines and as long as they continue to stay healthy they will be just fine come the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Offense Grade: A-

Defense

The Capitals only have one new defenseman on their roster this year, and their on-ice performance has been sound as a result. General manager Brian MacLellan dealt Matt Niskanen to the Philadelphia Flyers in the offseason to get Radko Gudas, with the Flyers retaining some of Gudas’ salary.

The biggest concern with Gudas was his suspension history. Like Tom Wilson, Gudas has been suspended four times in his career. Also like Wilson, Gudas has played this season free of any trouble from the Department of Player Safety. The big Czech defender is on pace for similar offensive numbers to Niskanen in 2019 and a career-low in penalty minutes in a full season.

Gudas’ defense partner Jonas Siegenthaler has proven himself as worthy of a starting job on the NHL roster. When Michal Kempny was hurt, Siegenthaler was promoted to the top pair alongside Norris Trophy favorite John Carlson.

Kempny and Carlson have been incredible together this season. Both players could set new career-highs in goals, assists and points, with the latter having no problem in each category. Carlson leads all NHL defensemen in assists with 47 and in points with 60.

The second pair of Dmitry Orlov and Nick Jensen has been strong recently thanks to Orlov’s offensive-mindedness and Jensen’s increased stability as a stay-at-home defender.

Jensen has been a huge liability at times this season due to some ugly netfront turnovers. Over the last few weeks or so, however, he must have earned some trust from Orlov who has been all over the offensive zone. This has led to a rise in their expected goal count, bringing it 18.9 and cracking the top-20 defensive pairs in this category.

All season long, Washington has had slow starts to games, giving up the first goal in 25 of its 49 contests. Ideally the break will be exactly what the Caps’ blueliners need.

Defense Grade: B

Goaltending

It has become painfully evident in 2020 that Braden Holtby is in a funk. The former Vezina Trophy winner has failed to allow fewer than three goals in a game since Dec. 21 and his save percentage has fallen below the .900 mark.

Luckily for Holtby, rookie phenom Ilya Samsonov has taken the league by surprise with 15 wins out of 18 decisions. His .927 save percentage is top-five among qualified goaltenders, and his 2.06 goals against average is the best in the NHL.

This is a situation that could turn out much like 2018 when Philipp Grubauer took the reigns for several weeks leading up to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In the Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Vezina-winning Holtby returned to lead Washington to its first-ever Stanley Cup.

The starting goaltender has yet to be announced for the remainder of the season, but after Samsonov picked up a win against the New York Islanders, to whom Holtby yielded five goals, the rookie has done everything to earn the job.

Goaltending Grade: A

Special Teams

A Capitals power play with Alex Ovechkin set up in his office is one of the most difficult units in the NHL to defend. Teams have to decide between leaving his lethal one-timer open and taking it away in favor of a four-on-three with snipers Carlson, T.J. Oshie, Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov.

For whatever reason, this unit has been absolutely abysmal during the 2019-20 campaign. Some nights entering the offensive zone is the problem for Washington, other times it just cannot complete passes.

The latter has been the most pressing issue during the last 12 games, a stretch during which the Caps have surrendered five shorthanded goals. They have given up seven such markers on the season, second to the league-worst Detroit Red Wings.

To make up for their lousy power play (20.3%), the Capitals boast the NHL’s second-best penalty kill (84.2%). It has been nothing short of stable all season, but the problem lies in the sample size.

Washington leads the league in minor penalties with 186 and time shorthanded with just under 293 minutes. On average, the Caps take 3.79 minor penalties per game and spend 5.98 minutes killing those penalties. 

These are numbers that the organization certainly would like to see significantly trimmed during the remainder of the season.

Special Teams Grade: C