Tomas Vokoun fashioned a shutout against his former squad as the Washington Capitals defeated the Florida Panther 3-0. The Caps are now 5-0-0 for the first time in franchise history.
Washington, on paper, is better than every team they have played. Yet, they have only won by a one-goal margin throughout their first four wins, despite the talent-disparity. Tonight, however was the first night where the Capitals were able to dominate gameplay for a full 60 minutes.
Four minutes into the game on Washington’s first power play, Marcus Johansson netted his third goal of the year and gave the Caps a lead using their only man-advantage opportunity of the night. They are now ranked third power play stats with 29.4% efficiency in 17 opportunities this season. On the flip side of special teams, the Caps killed both penalties, something early on this year they’ve had issues with but seemed to have gotten better at both staying out the box and allowing fewer shots/goals for the opponents’ power play units. The fact that the penalty kill has only allowed one goal in their last 12 times shorthanded has bumped them to a middle-of-the-pack kill rate of 81.2% (via @jackandersonIII).
The Caps’ 5-on-5 gameplay was just as dominant, as most of the game was spent on even strength. The first positive came from Alex Semin, who played a solid (or motivated) game, finishing with a +2 rating, a goal and an assist. In total, Washington had 32 shots to Florida’s 20 shots, maintaining an equal flow of shots for and against throughout all three periods. This was the second game this season where there was not a minus player for the Caps (the first was against Pittsburgh). They also kept the physicality their way, out-hitting Florida 30-20, as one of the top ten hitting teams in the league at this point (140 hits total on the year).
Unfortunately it doesn’t matter if the Caps go 82-0. They are at a point where regular season success means nothing. They ran away with the President’s trophy 2 years ago…first round loss. They won the East last year…laid an egg and got swept by a Tampa team that hadn’t been to the playoffs in 2 years and got waxed at home.
Until there is some post-season success that will always hang over their head.
I appreciate the comment, however you are missing the point.
The point wasn’t to be in awe at the record, but that the team has finally started playing like they should considering their talent level and the teams they have been playing. It bodes well for them in future matchups against the Flyers and Wings this week, and so it’s a sign of better things.
A problem with Washington was that they had issues playing to that talent level they have, and played down to opponents and wouldn’t be able to pick it up against better opponents — a factor in their playoff loses. Therefore, claiming their regular season is entirely irrelevant dismisses a lot of things they need to fix in the playoffs, as their issues have carried over.
The record itself may be useless, but that’s why I go into detail about the game and not how it is a franchise-best.
Cheers