The Capitals knew special teams would be an issue when they entered the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring. But never in their wildest dreams did they think their own power play — the NHL’s best — would crush their title hopes.
That’s exactly what happened, though. A stunning 1-for-33 performance in that seven-game first-round series against the Montreal Canadiens was the biggest reason Washington went home early. But what is there to fix on that unit? With the same elite personnel back, the Caps just hope the group that dominated in the regular season shows up this time in April and May.
But one special-teams issue the club has to solve is its penalty kill. Washington finished 25th in the NHL last season with a 78.8 percent success rate when a man down. That just isn’t good enough. It was the second-worst percentage of any team that made the playoffs. Only Nashville was worse at 77.1 percent.
The Caps employed a passive penalty kill last season, conceding possession to the opposition and instead taking away shooting lanes and space in front of the goal. This preseason they have shown a more aggressive attack and in six preseason games held opponents to three power-play goals in 28 attempts (89.3 percent).
