Could the most powerful city in the world really have the best NHL team right now?
Don’t look now but the Washington Capitals are playing some of the best hockey in the league.
The problem for people in the District is that they have heard this story before. Teams that blaze through the regular season but only hit the wall in the playoffs. So why is this year different.
Holtbeast
Braden Holtby has a legitimate chance to be a Vezina Trophy winner this year if Carey Price of the Montreal Canadians stays hurt.
Night after night he goes out and keeps the team in games.
On the most recent trip to the Great White North, Holtby helped the Caps to a 3-2 win over the then Eastern Conference leading Canadiens. On a night when the Capitals didn’t play well enough to win, he stood on his head and kept the team in the game. He has faltered only once along the way, getting pulled once after giving up 3 goals on a bad night, but Coach Barry Trotz went right back to him the next night.
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He did it again last night against the Buffalo Sabers he stopped all 31 shots sent his was. Holtby currently leads the league in Wins (22), Goals Against (1.92), and Save Percentage (.935%).
The Capitals certainly appreciate this and if they look to stay atop the very deep Metropolitan Division they are gonna need a strong showing from number 70.
Help From Everywhere
The Capitals are deep.
There is no other way to look at it. They have gotten great efforts from their 3rd and 4th lines as well as their younger 3rd line defensemen. Dimitri Orlov has made the loss of Mike Green in free agency last offseason seamless, while Nate Schmidt has moved to the number one pairing in place of the injured Brooks Orpik. Evgeny Kuznetsov has come into his own as a solid scorer and anchored the second line beautifully, but good teams need more then just two solid lines these days. The Caps have plenty of scoring to go around.
Jason Chimera has 5 points in his last 6 games. His added offense gives the Caps 8 players with 20 points or more. This firepower is tough for opposing defenses to deal with. With the load spread between so many, it makes it hard to stop everyone on any given night. Justin Williams, an offseason addition to the second line, adds a tough veteran who isn’t afraid to do the dirty work in front of the net. And when your first line still goes Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin, and TJ Oshie, you are in a pretty good place.
Defense
In the past, when the Capitals have been in the hunt, its been Ovechkin and Nickolas Backstrom leading the way with tons of goals.
Don’t get me wrong. This Caps team can score all over, but its their stingy defense that should have the rest of the NHL on notice.
Currently the Caps have given up only 72 goals all season, best in the NHL. Barry Trotz has given this team that nasty edge they have been missing. The Caps teams of the last few years would be happy with a 7-5 shootout. This years team though can do it the old way or win a grinding 1-0 game. They lead the NHL in points against with just 2.1 goals per game allowed. They hit hard, scrap for pucks, and fore check you till you are blue in the face. And when you turn the puck over, they still have that skill to put it between the pipes before you know what hit you. John Carlson is an big man with a cannon in the offensive zone but has grown into quite the star stopper in his own blue line. Carl Alzner and Matt Niskanen make a dangerous 2nd paring that puts the other team on notice. The list just keeps going as the Capitals pipline is deep.
Whatever happens the rest of the way, this Washington Capitals team looks poised to make a run in the spring of 2016.
Featured Image courtesy of Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images
