If the Capitals play focused and disciplined and hard during their three home games this week against three beleagured opponents they will have a terrific opportunity to make up some serious ground on first-in-the-East Boston.
Montreal, Colorado, and Pittsburgh — all once-proud teams that have been seriously struggling as of late — visit Verizon Center this week. All of these teams had reasonably high hopes quite recently; the Penguins were picked by many to return to the Stanley Cup Finals and to be a serious contender and even to win it all, while Montreal was thought by many to be Pittsburgh’s toughest competition in the East. Colorado was not too long ago a rough and tough and Cup-contending franchise, and they certainly hoped to make the playoffs this season. Now all three will be lucky to finish above .500 this season. On top of their losing ways all of these teams have some of the ugliest season stats in the league.
The Penguins rank 22nd in the league in goals against, allowing on average 3-plus goals a game. That high number not only puts them 10 spots behind Washington but also below some of the league’s worst teams, including St. Louis.
Not to far away form Pittsburgh in that same stat is Montreal, who is averaging just fewer than three goals agame against. They have also only won three of their last thirteen games. The team looked like it couldn’t be stopped earlier in the season, but now is in a full-on collapse. Just yesterday Habs’ GM Bobn Gainey announced that the team’s star performer of a season ago, Alexei Kovalev, wouldn’t accompany the team on the road this week. The right wing scored 35 goals and 84 points last season but has just 13 goals in this campaign.
Then we come to the Avalanche. There really isn’t much to say that’s positive about this team. They rank in the bottom ten of the league in goals for, goals against, power play, and penalty kill, and they are on track to have the first losing record in Colorado franchise history. (Maybe they should have kept our hotshot goalie?)
The Caps are third-best in the NHL at winning games when they score first — they win 78 percent of those games. Montreal wins 69 percent of such games; Colorado wins 65 percent of them, and the Penguins win just 53 percent of games in which they score first. That’s dismal.
While none of these games will be cakewalks, or at least the Caps shouldn’t take them like they are, they provide the Caps a strong opportunity to make up ground on the flu-ridden, first- place Bruins. It would take a major collapse on all levels for the Caps to not have one of the top seeds in the East in the playoffs. It would be an enormous accomplishment though if they earned the East’s top seed.
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