The Caps spent much of a Friday morning practice on their struggling power play. That group is missing defenseman Mike Green, but still shouldn’t be 4-for-30 through seven games. Not sure this will happen during tomorrow’s game against Atlanta, but forward Matt Hendricks was practicing on the power play Friday to add a little grit. Washington coach Bruce Boudreau said he wants more shots, less risk and a group willing to fight harder. The penalty kill, after all, need only retrieve the puck and fling it down ice. The team on the power play has to actually make something happen while avoiding a stupid giveaway. The Caps have allowed opponents’ shorthanded breaks a few times over the last five games, too.
Both Green (upper-body injury) and forward Matt Bradley (lower-body injury) made it through a full practice and Boudreau said “every day” they are getting better. That doesn’t mean either is a lock to play tomorrow night against Atlanta, but there’s a chance at least. Bradley jokingly wanted to know why it took an injury for reporters to surround him at his locker and admitted that he “hates watching our team play” before laughing at himself and finding a better way to say that being injured stinks. Green looks like he’s about done with watching, too. Forward Boyd Gordon (undisclosed) remains out.
“If this was game 74 and we needed it they’d probably both play,” Boudreau said. “But the last thing you want is something that’s not 100 percent be re-injured. If it’s tomorrow…and they can go full out then they’ll play. If not hopefully it’ll be in Carolina [on Wednesday].”
Believe it or not, that power play is actually still ranked 17th out of 30 NHL teams (13.3%). But the Caps need to be better there – and at even strength, for that matter. Washington has eight regulation goals in its last five games. Last night too many players had quality chances only to shoot low on Boston goalie Tim Thomas. He stopped 38 of 39 shots on Thursday two days after saving 35 of 36 against them. You can’t beat most average NHL goalies consistently shooting low. And Thomas – now healthy after hip issues last season – isn’t average. Having said that, he is playing as well as any goalie in the league and we are seven games into the season, not 20 or 30. Offense is a concern. But nobody is panicking, either.
“You do have to peel back the layer a little bit because 4-1 looks like a lopsided game,” said Caps forward Mike Knuble. “But if they were to break down the game tape you’d see we had a ton of chances. Tim worked a lot harder than [Washington goalie Semyon Varlamov] for a lot of the game.”
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