James Mirtle of the Toronto Globe And Mail had a great post last month on where this year’s Caps rank all-time in goals scored per game compared to the NHL average for a given season. Updating the numbers as of March 15: The Caps have 266 goals – or 3.86 goals per game. Vancouver is in second place with 225 goals (3.26 gpg). That’s just a huge margin at this point. Only five NHL teams are averaging above 3 goals per game in 2009-10. The Caps are a hot streak away from hitting 4. Okay, a very, very hot streak. Like 26 goals in their next four games. Whatever. Close enough.

There have been 5,665 goals scored so far this season and 2,048 NHL games played. That gives the league an average of 2.77 goals per game. At 3.86 the Caps are scoring 39.4% above that mark. According to Mirtle’s original numbers, that scoring rate puts Washington at sixth in NHL history. That’s exactly where it was on Feb. 3 when they stood 38.4% above the league average. The Caps still rank just behind the 1973-74 Boston Bruins (39.7%) and 1995-96 Pittsburgh Penguins (40.4%) and could conceivably catch those two teams and jump into fourth all time. The 1983-84 Edmonton Oilers (41.6%), 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens (45.8%) and 1970-71 Bruins (64.1%) rank top three and are out of reach barring a General Sherman-style march through opposing defenses these last 13 games.