NHL Bi-Weekly Recap: Oct 16-29

The Capitals take an early lead in the league standings; the Lightning struggle out of the gate after historic 2018 regular season; the Coyotes offense may have finally arrived, and should not be ignored

The Winners:

After a first-round exit in the playoffs, there were many questions surrounding the Washington Capitals this offseason mostly dealing with personnel and salary cap issues. The Caps ultimately parted ways with some of their most beloved players that helped to bring the first Stanley Cup to Washington, D.C. in 2018. Andre Burakovsky, a talented-but-streaky sniper with excellent puck control skills was traded to the Avalanche for a second, and a third-round pick. Matt Niskanen, a defensive defenseman with a history of great decision-making with the puck, was traded to the Flyers for D Radko Gudas. Free agents Jay Beagle and Brett Connolly were offered contracts the Caps simply couldn’t match, with several of their stars due for a re-up within the next year.

Capitals GM Brian Maclellan had to make some tough decisions, as the team was desperately trying to stay under the cap while keeping the players that would be most essential to making another run at the Cup. With a bit of trade-sorcery, Maclellan executed another masterclass, as he got close to max value in the Burakovsky trade. Further, the Niskanen-for-Gudas move allowed the Caps to shed the 33-year-old defenseman’s heavy salary, while also acquiring a younger, more adequate replacement at a cheaper price. While they would have preferred to keep most of those players, they were going to be too expensive in the long-run if the Caps were going to have room to resign players like Nicklas Backstrom next year. Maclellan instead signed a trio of forwards at a much lower price – Garnet Hathaway, Richard Panik, and Brendan Leipsic. They would be used in various roles to improve areas where the team struggled, particularly the penalty kill.

It’s not that the additions have been amazing – they haven’t. In fact, Panik has struggled through his first eight games, failing to record a point, and currently on the shelf due to injury. The Caps actually had a bit of a shaky start to the season, giving up multiple-goal leads and playing soft defense. However, they’ve gone 5-0-1 since the return of D Michal Kempny from a season-ending injury last year. Slowly but steadily the other additions have settled into their roles, particularly Gudas and Hathaway who’ve added an extra layer of physicality to Caps’ lineup. The stars have been rolling along, and in the case of D John Carlson, playing at a celestial level. Through 14 games in October, Carlson has 23 points – the second-most total for a defenseman in the history of the NHL, behind only Al MacInnis’s 25 points in October of 1990. Overall, the moves seem to be working out so far, as Washington sits atop the NHL standings with 21 points.

The Losers:

At 5-4-1 the Tampa Bay Lightning already have a quarter of their total regulation losses from all of last season. For the most part, they’ve looked far away from the dominant form that saw them rip through the regular season like few teams in history have before. There were some fatal flaws that began to show up in their 4-0 playoff sweep by the Blue Jackets last season, particularly the effectiveness of their special teams. What’s concerning is that those flaws have begun to rear their heads very early this season. This suggests the Blue Jackets provided a blueprint for the rest of the league on how to slay this talent-ladened juggernaut of a team.

The Penalty Kill has a been morale killer for the Lightning, sitting at 29th in the league (70%). The vaunted Power Play has been fairly average, currently 14th in the league (22.6%). Special teams have been a huge factor in the Lightning’s success going back even before last season. In the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals, the Lightning were largely outplayed in 5-on-5 play by the eventual champions, the Capitals, who won the series in Game 7. However, when Tampa Bay’s special teams was clicking, particularly the Power Play, they were virtually unbeatable, winning games 3, 4, and 5. When the special teams isn’t capitalizing, the Lightning become surprisingly ineffective in 5-on-5 hockey.

The Surprises:

After scoring just seven goals in their first four games of the season, the Coyotes have scored four or more in six of their last eight contests. The defense has been spectacular to start the year, surrendering just 2.12 goals per game (2nd), while Darcy Kuemper is ranked 4th and 5th in GAA (1.87) and save percentage (.933) respectively. With Oliver “OEL” Ekman-Larsson and Alex Goligoski, the Coyotes have two of the best puck-moving defenseman, as well as two of the better stick-checkers in the league. While neither is going to be laying huge hits around the rink, their skill level is comparable and in many cases surpasses that of most forwards. Plus, OEL’s game is just oh-so silky, to go along with an off-the-charts hockey I.Q.

The problem early on and for most of last season was the offense being dryer than a piece of sandpaper lying in the Arizona desert. Last season, the Coyotes finished 6th in goals against, but tied for 29th in scoring at just 2.55 goals per game. This season, they’re scoring exactly three goals per game and started with record of 7-3-1. They’ve been getting contributions from up and down the lineup – Conor Garland (6), Nick Smaltz (4), and Christian Dvorak (4) lead the team in goals, while veterans Phil Kessel and Carl Soderberg have provided another layer of attack to the offense. Of course, there will be spells where the offense dries up again, even top teams experience those. However, if the Coyotes can sustain this level of offense – right around three goals per game – while continuing to stifle teams on the back end, no one will want to face this team late in the season.