Welcome to the second installment of our Washington Capitals weekly trends report. The new regular feature provides a brief snapshot of the most relevant statistical trends for Capitals over the past seven days.
The following table lists the Capitals team stats and league rankings from last week (Left side – after 7 games) and the current stats and rankings for today (after 11 games). The colors indicate improving (green) and worsening (red) trends over the past week. [Click to enlarge]
NEGATIVES
Power Play – The power play continues to fluctuate during the first 11 games of the season. After starting out 0 for 9, the power play unit got hot, improving to 11th in the league last week. However, the unit saw an overall drop from 25.0% to 20.6% over the past week.
Penalties Taken – The Capitals saw an increase in penalties over the past week, falling from 4th-best rate in the league to 13th in the league.
POSITIVES
Penalty Kill – The penalty kill has been surging over the past week, improving 8% and moving up from 25th in the league to 8th in the league, and killed 5 of 6 penalties Monday night against the Hurricanes. After a poor start to the season, new penalty kill coach Scott Allen has the unit playing well.
Goals Against – The ‘Goals Against’ stat also rebounded nicely this week, mostly due to the excellent play by both Darcy Kuemper. The Capitals move up from 25th in the league to 10th in the league. The Capitals now have the 3rd and 4th best save percentages in the Metropolitan Division. Combined, they have the best tandem in the division.
#ALLCAPS goaltenders currently have the 3rd and 4th best save percentages in the Metro. pic.twitter.com/eGOm5xTVgh
— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) November 1, 2022
Turnovers – The Capitals reduced their turnovers per game average, improving from 24th in the league to 18th in the league.
Possession – The Capitals possession metrics continue to gradually improve. Although still in the bottom third of the league, the numbers have improved from last week, and will take time to counter the extremely poor start by the team with regards to the advanced stats.
The Capitals, overall, had a good week and currently sit with 11 standings points, just 2 points behind first place Carolina.
The Capitals get right back to work tonight when they host the Vegas Knights at Capital One Arena. Puck drop is set for 7PM.
By Jon Sorensen
8 up, 2 the same, 12 down. If this were for a student, I would be calling the parent for a discussion.
I heard Alan May pooh-pooh faceoffs as an issue but Lightning studio analyst Bobby the Chief Taylor really raked the Bolts over for their poor faceoff performance arguing how closing the faceoff in the offensive zone gave away the zone advantage and how losing it anywhere to a fast team put an older, slower team behind the players and often caused more penalties. Sounded more convincing than Alan to me. So I find that number very alarming. It’s an issue that we just don’t seem to be addressing.
There have been a lot of studies on the overall value of faceoffs. Many of the studies say there is no direct correlation between winning faceoffs and winning games or scoring goals. Some reports counter that notion.
Too many to list, but if you are interested, Google “How important is winning faceoffs?”
Winning faceoffs is a common sense thing. Is it better for your team to possess the puck? Of course it is.
Especially on the PP!!
https://canucksarmy.com/news/do-faceoffs-really-make-a-difference
The faceoffs thing is interesting. I’ll get back to this. I have a theory!
I love theories, Lance. Digest, and don’t leave me hanging.
https://thehockeynews.com/news/why-faceoffs-arent-as-important-as-theyre-made-out-to-be
Chicken vs egg. Who’s to say Stoll didn’t get buried in possession because he took mostly defensive zone draws against top lines? Or maybe his linemates and dmen bear some blame (like Jeff Schultz)? There’s no real statistical analysis.
It’s clear that faceoffs matter at least somewhat- if you win only one faceoff all game, but it leads to the game winning goal, can anyone say it’s an irrelevant statistic?
It’s clear you didn’t read, why winning faceoffs doesn’t correlate to scoring goals. I could add a half dozen other reports and research papers, but you wouldn’t read those, either.
Side note: The Avalanche were 28th in faceoffs last season.
Agree that winning faceoffs does not equal scoring goals. Lots of other issues can make faceoff winning meaningless. But then why do them? Why not just hand the puck to alternating players?
Anyway, Go Beags!