The Washington Capitals’ season-long frustration with their toothless power play has boiled over.
After a season-worst 0-for-6 performance in a 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night, when the Capitals also gave up a shorthanded goal for the third time in 22 games, the players and Coach Spencer Carbery had seen enough.
Entering Sunday’s games, the Capitals’ power play ranked 27th in the NHL at 14.7 percent. Only three teams had allowed more shorthanded goals — Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles with four apiece.
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“Just not making plays,” winger Tom Wilson said. “We’re not making simple plays. We’re not moving. A little bit too predictable probably. At the end of the day, it comes down to us, the 10 guys. We’ve just got to make better plays. … It’s costing us games, so it’s not good enough, obviously.”
Added defenseman Jakob Chychrun: “Just not moving the puck quick enough. Not being in sync. I think we’re working hard and trying to do all the right things — just not executing. Not being on the same page at all times. We just got to continue to find ways to be better in that area and work for one another. I think we’re obviously just expecting someone to make a play and not really working for that person, supporting him and being his out.”
On Nov. 11, Carbery said he was prioritizing attempts to build chemistry by keeping the power-play units unchanged and letting them try to work through their issues, but he acknowledged “there’s a fine line to that before you need to make changes.” When asked about that sentiment Saturday night — and whether his patience had run out — Carbery had a brusque three-word response: “We’ll see tomorrow.”
At Sunday’s practice, change arrived. Wilson and forward Connor McMichael were given a maintenance day and missed the workout, so the new units included placeholders for them. But when they return, it will be to power-play groupings that have changed significantly.
Chychrun, center Dylan Strome, winger Ryan Leonard, captain Alex Ovechkin and forward Justin Sourdif formed the top unit Sunday; Sourdif, who worked primarily in the bumper position between the circles, probably was playing the role of Wilson for the day.
On the second unit, defenseman John Carlson teamed with forwards Sonny Milano, Ethen Frank, Anthony Beauvillier and Hendrix Lapierre. Lapierre was playing the low spot along the goal line that McMichael often occupies, so he could be swapped out for McMichael in Monday night’s game against Columbus at Capital One Arena.
“You want to be patient with, whether it’s line combinations, power-play combinations, [defensive] pairs — give it time to see what it can become and what chemistry can be created. The majority of the time, that comes with some growing pains,” Carbery said. “But then it gets to a certain point where, as a coach, I need to make a decision of what makes sense for our hockey team. When it repeatedly isn’t going well, then we need to make adjustments and find ways to improve it. One of the ways you can do that is changing the personnel.”
Splitting Chychrun and Carlson and moving Carlson off the top unit were the biggest moves that Carbery and assistant coach Kirk Muller made. Last season, Chychrun moved onto the top unit with Carlson when Ovechkin was out with an injury, and he retained the role after Ovechkin returned. It’s uncommon for a defenseman to play on the half-wall, but Chychrun’s offensive instincts and left-handed shot allowed him to be a valuable option there.
This season, it hasn’t worked nearly as well.
“Chych’s a defenseman, right? So his entire career, he’s usually played somewhere up top on a power play,” Carbery said. “When he’s finding himself in a lot of scenarios down by the net, down on the goal line, as good of a player as he is, it’s still uncomfortable. It’s not like he’s played there his whole life. …[The focus is] getting both those guys running their own unit, having two balanced units that we can go to.”
Ovechkin still often plays the full two minutes of each power play, staying on when the second unit hits the ice, but that has been less of an automatic decision this year. Carbery said that trend will continue, with consideration for how the power play has looked and where Ovechkin is within the game — Did he just finish a shift? Has there been a stoppage during the power play that allowed him to get a quick rest? — factoring into the decision.
The addition of Leonard to the top unit provides a significant amount of speed, which Washington desperately needs. Entering the offensive zone with possession has been one of the main issues for the power play, and the Capitals’ lack of speed hurts their ability to recover the puck when they dump it in. Frank, who has three goals and two assists in his past two games, was added to the second unit for the same reason.
“Also, it’s about the accountability and riding the hot hand,” Carbery said. “Now you’ve got two units, and we’ll see how it goes. If one looks great, probably start the next one, and then they start the next one, and then they start the next one. If it doesn’t look great, start the other unit, see if there’s some chemistry there or they’ve got some jump that night. It gives you an opportunity to use both units for a balanced attack.”
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