Penalty kill key for Capitals' red-hot run

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — The vibes around the Washington Capitals are immaculate right now, with the wins finally flowing after a rough start. They're just not coming the way anyone expected.

Alex Ovechkin has scored just five times, the team's once-feared power play is last in the NHL and only the lowly San Jose Sharks have fewer goals. Yet the Capitals have won four in a row and eight of their past 10 games.

"We’re going into each game expecting to win," top center and leading goal-scorer Dylan Strome said. “This group is just finding ways to win, and we’re kind of believing in ourselves more and more.”

That belief and a surprising run to second place in the Metropolitan Division comes from a combination of strong goaltending, timely scoring and young players producing. But the biggest factor in this run has been Washington's penalty kill that's a perfect 23 of 23 over this span.

The Capitals haven't allowed an opponent to score a power-play goal since Oct. 24.

“It’s just repetition,” penalty-killing forward Beck Malenstyn said. “The penalty kill is huge for that: being able to put yourself in similar scenarios over and over again and understanding what works and what doesn’t work. ... The more you see, the more you can make those adjustments and read and react.”

When first-year coach Spencer Carbery watches his PK from the bench, he sees each player reacting the same way every time when the puck moves around the ice.

“That tells you that they’re just so dialed in with being on the same page with their reads and where the next person needs to pressure, where they go, I move here, he moves there — and it’s moving seamlessly,” Carbery said. “It just looks like everybody’s on the same page from a structure standpoint.”

Carbery and goalie Charlie Lindgren credit assistant coach Scott Allen's preparation, in particular pre-scouting opponents and noticing tendencies. Having an idea what opposing power plays are going to do has allowed forwards to be aggressive in passing lanes to break up opportunities.

“A power play, it’s the five best players on the ice for the opposing team, and I think our guys have been doing a really good job at just disrupting them, making it hard for them, not giving them much time and space,” Lindgren said.

Not taxing penalty killers has helped: The Capitals are the third-least penalized team in hockey.

It also doesn't hurt that the goaltending has been dependable and at times outstanding. Lindgren ranks third in the league in goals saved above expected, according to MoneyPuck.com.

Keeping the puck out of their own net has been essential, given the Capitals have scored just 2.47 goals a game. The biggest area of concern offensively has been the power play, which is 3 for 43 this season — a 7% conversion rate and 0 for its past 23.

“We’re just searching right now for something that clicks for us,” winger T.J. Oshie said. “I think work ethic and simplicity is going to be the key factor to us getting out of this little rut that we’re in.”

Oshie, who has just one point in 15 games, said the absence of longtime power-play mainstay Nicklas Backstrom is playing a role. Backstrom stepped away from the team because of a lingering hip injury that hampered him, and Washington is struggling to adjust without his calming presence.

Still, a power play with Ovechkin parked in his trademark spot in the faceoff circle should be responsible for a bigger output. The league's career leader in power-play goals has just one this season among his three with a goalie in net, due in large part to opponents game-planning to shut him down.

“Maybe we have to reset and re-learn how other teams are going to play the big man and where the other opportunities are going to be,” Oshie said.

With some more tweaks, the Capitals power play could easily go from a weakness to a strength, and the underlying analytics are positive. According to Natural Stat Trick, their expected goals on the power play are 13 — a difference of 10 from reality — and point to some bad luck that might be on the verge of turning around.

“If we can get that extra goal support, obviously that would be important,” Strome said. “I feel like power play’s kind of the last piece of the puzzle that really hasn’t got going since the start of the year.”

Putting the full puzzle together would allow Washington to stay in the playoff race into the second half of the season, something that looked unlikely after opening the season with four losses in five games. That feels like a distant memory now, and yet players believe there's still better hockey in front of the Capitals that could allow them to sustain this success.

“It’s nice to be getting these wins,” Oshie said. "There’s still a level or two where we need to get to, but we’ve got a good foundation right now to fall back on.”

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