The Washington Capitals were the first NHL team to punch their ticket to the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs this season. The Caps secured their spot after a 3-2 win over the struggling Philadelphia Flyers on March 20.
However, with the regular season winding down, many of the Capitals’ early spring contests have felt more like preparatory playoff tests. Perhaps none more than the club’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Western Conference-leading Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night.
Head coach Spencer Carberyshared his takeaways from the hotly contested bout between the league’s top two teams after practice on Wednesday. One of his major concerns came with how his team operated on their very few power-play attempts against a high-quality opponent like the Jets.
“Power plays are a great example in that game – what did we get two, right? 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.”
The Capitals went 0-for-2 on their man-advantage Tuesday night, which was a continuation of lingering anemic issues while up a man. They haven’t put the puck in the back of the net on any of their last 16 power-play opportunities — a stretch of nine straight games.
The Caps last scored a power-play goal against the Rangers on March 5. Alex Ovechkin pushed his 885th career goal past goaltender Igor Shesterkin after Andrew Mangiapane filtered a puck toward the front of the Rangers’ net.
Winnipeg is no penalty-killing juggernaut either, ranking 15th in the league (78.8 percent) coming into the game. They had been particularly pourous in 11 March games prior to Tuesday’s, only killing off 75 percent of opposing power plays.
Carbery emphasized that failing to convert on opportunities could spell doom for a team in the postseason, especially because referees are known to swallow their whistles and hand out fewer playoff power plays. The Capitals scored just two power-play goals on their 17 attempts (11.8 percent) against the New York Rangers in last year’s playoffs, ultimately being eliminated in a four-game series sweep.
“That’s how you have to approach those in those types of games, and so we’re a little bit sloppy with some touches,” Carbery said. “We turn it over five or six times on the power play, that might be all you get. That might be all you get for that night.”
Overall this year, the Caps have scored 42 power-play goals in 193 opportunities, operating at a 21.8 percent clip. While ranking just 16th in the league, they have improved from where they left off last year (20.6 percent) by 1.2 percent.
The Capitals have 11 more regular-season games to turn things around before the playoffs begin on April 19. The club’s next game against the Minnesota Wild presents a great opportunity to start in a positive direction, as the Wild have the second-worst penalty kill in the league (71.4 percent).
