Sports
Caps on historic pace
By: Brian McNally
Examiner Staff Writer
January 8, 2009
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| Alex Ovechkin and the Caps are 27-11-3 at the season’s halfway point, good for second in the Eastern Conference. (Getty Images) |
Midterm gradesThrough 41 games there has never been a Capitals team better than this one.
FORWARD » Hard to complain when a team has 135 goals at the halfway mark and is on pace for 270. Montreal led the NHL with 262 last year. Star F Alex Ovechkin may not reach last year’s heights (65 goals, 47 assists). But another 100-point year is likely.
Grade » A
DEFENSE » Considering four of the top six defensemen have played 28 games or fewer, ranking 19th in fewest goals allowed still seems miraculous. Five different defensemen from AHL Hershey have played at least seven games.
Grade » B
GOALTENDER » Consistency and health are the issues here. No. 1 goalie Jose Theodore struggled early, but has been sharp over his last six starts. Backup Brent Johnson was excellent in November, but slowed by a hip injury and saw his ice time decrease.
Grade » B-
SPECIAL TEAMS » The power play is lethal at 23.2 percent, fourth-best in the NHL. The penalty kill is still ranked 22nd (80.3 percent), but has been much better (57-of-69) over the last six weeks (82.6 percent).
Grade » B+
At the exact halfway point of the NHL season, they have the most wins, most points and highest winning percentage of any team in the franchise’s 34-year history. Forty-one games down, but forty-one more to go. And then the real work begins.
At 27-11-3, the Caps sit second in the Eastern Conference, just five points behind the Boston Bruins, and have the fourth-best record in the entire NHL. They also have a comfortable 10-point lead in the Southeast Division and are slowly returning to full health. It’s a good position to be in as the second half of the season begins at Verizon Center on Friday against Columbus. But, according to Washington coach Bruce Boudreau, it’s also no time for complacency.
“Like they say ‘It’s one thing to get there, but it’s another thing to stay there,’” said Boudreau, whose team has won seven in a row and 16 of its last 20. “And we like it up there. We want to be known as one of the better teams. So it’s not like ‘Okay, we got here, now let’s relax.’ We’re going to push the envelope as far as we can push it. Hopefully it will take us far.”
Exactly one year ago — Jan. 8, 2008 — things were just beginning to click under Boudreau, hired Thanksgiving Day as the interim coach and granted full-time status just after Christmas. The Caps had earned 26 points in 21 games under Boudreau, but remained mired in 14th place in the Eastern Conference at 17-20-5. The dramatic late-season playoff push was still to come.
The second-half schedule seems favorable. The Caps play 21 games at home, where they are 18-1-1. There is a five-game homestand in February and a five-game road trip in March. The furthest trip west is to Nashville and the furthest south is to Miami. Of Washington’s final 15 games, 11 are against teams that rank 10th or worse in their conference.
More encouraging is the health status. Forward Sergei Fedorov (ankle) and Tomas Fleischmann (pneumonia) both said they hope to return for Friday’s game. Defenseman John Erskine (concussion) is just waiting for game clearance from team doctors. That would leave defenseman Tom Poti (groin) as the lone player left on a once-crowded injury list.
