The Puck Stops Here
Washington’s Winning Streak
by PuckStopsHere on 02/10/10 at 10:23 AM ET
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The Washington Capitals have won their last 14 straight games. This is getting close to the record longest winning streak of 17 games that was set by the 1992/93 Pittsburgh Penguins. Like the Mario Lemieux Penguins, the Capitals are a high-powered offensive team led by the best player in the league (in Washington’s case Alexander Ovechkin). Washington has several other players with significant scoring ability. Eight Capitals have more than 30 points so far this year (Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin, Mike Green, Tomas Fleischmann, Brooks Laich, Mike Knuble and Brendan Morrison) and Eric Fehr is one point back of that mark with 29 points.
Washington has the highest scoring best puck moving defenceman in the game in Mike Green. He is a significant part of their offensive machine and a significant omission from the Canadian Olympic Team.
Washington’s perceived weakness is goaltending. Jose Theodore is the number one goalie and has been solid but unspectacular. His Hart Trophy days are long gone, but a .908 saves percentage and a 2.87 GAA are more than adequate.
Their backup goaltending includes two strong rookies. Semyon Varlamov was a sensation when he took over the goaltending job in the 2009 playoffs. Injury has kept him out since early December. While he has been out Michal Neuvirth was called up and played nearly as well. It will be interesting to see what Washington does with their three goalies once Varlamov returns.
If Washington’s NHL dominance has not been good enough, they have done the same at the AHL level. Their AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears leads the AHL with 39 wins in 50 games. They are on a significant winning streak as well. Hershey has won their last ten straight.
Everything is going well for the Washington Capitals organization right now. They have to be considered a top contender for the Stanley Cup. If they keep playing this well in the spring, they should win it. The question is have they peaked too soon?
UPDATE: The streak ended at 14 games with a 6-5 overtime loss to Montreal tonight. In the 1979/80 season the Philadelphia Flyers had a 35 game undefeated streak (including ties in the streak). Since there was no overtime in regular season games in those days this loss would have been a tie in those days. This is one example of an NHL record that is potentially lost due to the way game result recording has been changed over the years. Usually the NHL has managed to “water down” previous records by giving players credit for records that would not have existed in earlier times (for example some of Martin Brodeur’s career record win total would have been ties in the days before overtime and shootouts), but this time a potential record is lost assuming they do not interpret the words undefeated as meaning games where teams earned points. In that case, it would mean that “undefeated” now includes defeats in overtime.
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Tags: Hershey+Bears, Washington+Capitals,
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