A year after struggling, Washington leads the NHL on the man-advantage After Saturday’s 7-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings, Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau joked that he would take a 2-for-4 performance on the power play every night this season.
His team would probably win 70 games if that happened. But 1-for-4? That’s 25 percent — basically what the Caps finished on the power play in both 2008-09 and 2009-10 (25.2 percent) before a precipitous drop to 17.5 percent in 2010-11.
After performing effectively the first two months of last year, Washington’s power play tanked. And a huge part of the its playoff struggles the past two springs was a power-play unit that managed just six goals in 68 attempts in 16 playoff games (8.8 percent). This year’s offseason goal? Fix it.
| Up next | ||||
| Capitals at Oilers | ||||
| When » | Thursday, 9:30 p.m. | |||
| Where » | Rexall Place, | Edmonton, Alberta | ||
| TV » | CSN | |||
So far, so good. It’s only through seven games, but the unbeaten Caps (7-0-0, 14 points) lead the NHL at 29.6 percent with the man-advantage. They have converted on eight of their 27 power-play chances.
“It looks good because the pucks are going in the net,” said Washington defenseman Mike Green, who had two power-play goals Saturday.
“I think what we have done is we move the puck quick, and we get them moving around, and then it creates openings and it creates chances. I think in the past we have stood around with the puck waiting for guys to get open, and that doesn’t work.”
Last year’s unit was often brutal to watch. The Caps were 21-for-88 (23.9 percent) in October and November. But they quickly slipped into the bad habits of the previous spring’s Stanley Cup playoff series loss to Montreal (1-for-33). In the final four months of 2010-11, Washington was an abysmal 25-for-175 (14.3 percent).
The Caps spent all of Friday’s practice working on that quick puck movement Green lauded. During his first power-play goal Saturday, it took just 10 seconds to complete the five passes that led to Green’s back-door goal on a feed from teammate Nicklas Backstrom.
During that sequence, forward Troy Brouwer had driven to the front of the net and created a distraction in front of Red Wings goalie Ty Conklin. Brouwer did the same thing on Green’s second power-play goal — a wrister from the top of the right circle.
“We had a couple practices on the [power play] the last few days, and [coach Bruce Boudreau] has told me that I need to do that if I want to stay with that unit,” Brouwer said. “And I like to do that. That’s what I did in Chicago. That’s what I did in junior. And for the longest time I just feel comfortable there. I like battling in front. I’m a big body. Hopefully I can screen the goalie as much as possible.”
Having a healthy Dennis Wideman up top with Green is proving a lethal combination, too. Wideman scored the power-play game-winner against Pittsburgh in overtime. He also assisted on Green’s winning goal against Carolina while a man up. Green leads Washington with 26 minutes, 57 seconds of power-play ice time. Wideman is fourth at 21:28.
