The Washington Capitals’ 25-day-long power-play goal drought is finally over.
Pierre-Luc Dubois deflected an Alex Ovechkin shot past Buffalo Sabres goalie James Reimer late in the third period of the team’s eventual 8-5 loss on Sunday. The goal was the Caps’ first conversion since March 5, a ten-game stretch that saw them go 0-for-18 on the man-advantage.
Coming into the game, the Sabres represented a great opponent for the Capitals to try and snap out of their funk. The Eastern Conference cellar dwellers ranked 22nd in the NHL on the penalty kill (76.1 percent) and led the league in penalty minutes (774).
Head coach Spencer Carbery has consistently harped on his team’s inability to take advantage of five-on-four situations, describing pregame Sunday what his team needed to do to be successful.
“At the end of the day, good power plays attack the interior,” he said. “It’s low attack, attack the net, get the puck back, and do it again. Do it again three or four times and then usually you break a penalty kill down and something glorious opens up off those attacks and that’s where we’ve gone a little bit dry.”
Dubois’s re-direct from in front of Buffalo’s net came with just under half of the two-minute minor penalty remaining, with the Capitals’ top unit seemingly following Carbery’s instructions to a tee. The Caps had attacked Reimer’s net several times before the puck filtered back out to Ovechkin, and he pumped a shot off of Dubois’s blade and in.
However, the Capitals only scored on one of their two power-play opportunities against the Sabres, and their first attempt looked just as poor as many of their chances during their 10-game drought. The Caps managed just one shot on their first-period opportunity and did not create a high-danger chance.
Carbery told reporters on Wednesday that he fears the team could get burned in the Stanley Cup playoffs if things on the man-advantage unit don’t improve soon. He stressed that the officials sparingly hand out penalties after the regular season, preferring to let teams get away with more in the games that mean more.
“Come playoff time, you might get one or two, and every puck touch on that power play is going to be important,” Carbery said. “It’s going to be significant. It could be the difference in a game, it could be the difference in a series.”
Sunday’s marker takes the Capitals’ power-play total up to 43 goals in 197 opportunities, operating at a 21.8 percent clip his season. Despite recent woes, they have still improved 1.2 percent from last year (20.6 percent).
“The last couple games have looked a little bit better, generating some chances,” Tom Wilson said postgame. “And that’s a big part of it at this time of year as well. You need the power play clicking and nice play all around to get on the board, and hopefully, we can build some momentum.”
“We just have to find our way,” Ovechkin added. “Sometimes it’s not going to be easy — you just have to do the right things.”
In the 2024 playoffs, the team scored just two power-play goals on 17 attempts (11.8 percent) against the New York Rangers, ultimately contributing to their elimination in a four-game series sweep.
With nine games remaining in the regular season, the Capitals will need to make getting into a groove on their power-play one of their top priorities before the playoffs start on April 19. Tuesday’s tilt with the Boston Bruins will be a good opportunity to do so, considering Boston has only killed off 76.6 percent of opposing power plays this season (21st in the NHL).
