Washington ranks 20th in the league
It is a crucial ingredient for any Stanley Cup contender, often the subtle difference between a team that advances deep into the postseason and one that sees its season end too soon.
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In the NHL, special teams are critical. And while the Capitals boast the league’s best power-play unit by a wide margin (26 percent), their penalty kill is still a nettlesome work in progress.
Washington sits 20th in the NHL at 80.1 percent entering Tuesday night’s game at the New York Islanders. And that’s even after a fine stretch where the team has killed off 14 opposition power plays in a row over the last three games. Since allowing four power play goals in an ugly 7-4 loss at Tampa Bay on Jan. 12, the Caps have killed 26 of their last 30 shorthanded situations. That’s good for 86.7 percent, a rate that would place them among the NHL’s top teams if it held up for a longer stretch.
Of course, it hasn’t. And as Washington begins a grueling run of 11 games in 19 days before the Olympic break, it needs to bottle what’s gone right over the last five games.
“It’s huge, especially because our power play already is so great out there,” defenseman Shaone Morrisonn said after Saturday’s 4-2 win over Phoenix, in which the Caps killed all five Coyotes’ power plays. “It’s going to win us some games. Guys are really bearing down and taking some pride in it.”
There are other reasons for that, of course. Forward Boyd Gordon, one of the team’s best penalty killers, has only played 17 games thanks to a lingering back issue and just returned to the lineup for good on Dec. 28. And to be fair, being the No. 20 unit means Washington is a few more solid games from moving into the middle of the pack. Columbus entered play Monday ranked No. 15 at 82 percent. But for now, the recent improvement is a big deal. The Caps are 20-1-3 in games where the opposition doesn’t register a power-play goal.
