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Earlier in the season we discussed the power of the Washington Capitals as they advanced to first place in the the National Hockey League with 44 points on December 8th. Although the Caps are currently 3rd overall in the NHL with 72 points, behind San Jose (78) and Chicago (74), they have extended their lead in the Eastern Conference to 3 points over New Jersey, and 5 over Buffalo (who dropped a game to the Sharks over the weekend). DC will look to build on this lead when facing the Islanders tomorrow, but in the meantime let’s take a look where the Caps stand atop the rankings.


The Team:
- 1st Place in the Eastern Conference, with a 3 point lead over the New Jersey Devils
- 1st Place in the Southeast Division, with a 19 point lead over the Florida Panthers
- Fewest number of losses in regulation to Eastern Conference opponents (8, a 26-8-5 record)
- Fewest number of division losses in regulation (2, a 10-2-0 record)
- Fewest home losses in regulation (3, a 18-3-3 record)
- Only team with three 6-game win streaks during the season
- Only team with three 20 goal scorers (Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin, Nicklas Backstrom)
- Most double digit scorers on their roster (Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom, Tomas Fleishmann, Brooks Laich, Eric Fehr, Mike Green, Brendan Morrison)
- Highest goals/game average (3.74)
- Best Power Play conversion rate (26%)
- Highest number of Power Play goals (51)
- Most goals scored for a team (191)
- Most goals scored on the road (96)
- Most even strength goals (127)
- Most 5-on-4 goals (47)
- Most 1st period goals (61)
- Most 3rd period goals (66)
- Highest win % when the opposition scores first (.579%)
- Fewest number of regulation losses when the opposition scores first (6)
- Highest win percent in a 2 goal game (1.000%)
- Highest team +/- rating (+39)

Individuals:
- Ovechkin is the NHL leader in +/- with a +30
- Ovie is atop the NHL in goals scored against other divisions (28)
- AO is atop the NHL in points against other divisions (56)
- Dave Steckel is number one in the NHL in home Face Off percent (65.2%)
- Stecks is number one in the NHL in short handed Face Off’s won (128)
- Fleishmann is number one in the NHL in shooting percent (22.1% – 17 goals on 77 shots)
- Green is tied for first in the NHL for total Power Play points (24, on 6G and 18A)
- MG52 is first among all NHL defensemen for points (50)
- MG52 is first among all NHL defensemen for assists (38)

Can you hook us with the link where Steady Teddy posts? Great, great owner.

Guys just do that sometimes. I see it from time to time on football sidelines.

"The Washington Capitals have recalled goaltender Braden Holtby from the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League (AHL) and assigned defenseman Karl Alzner to Hershey, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today. Goaltender Jose Theodore, who played the first two periods of last night’s win at the New York Islanders, is day-to-day with an injury."

DC a pretty hot sports town these days!

It's fair the say the Capitals are on a bit of a roll.

Eleven wins in their past 11 games. A 14-2-0 record so far in 2010. And, by a big, big margin, the most goals scored in the league this season, an average of 3.82 per game that is right out of the high-flying '80s.

What's even more incredible is just how many more goals Washington is scoring than the teams around them. In an era where we generally see league scoring hover between 5.50 and 5.70 goals per game, games involving the Capitals average nearly 6.50 – with most of that the result of how many goals Ovechkin and Co. are scoring every night.

By comparison, the top scoring team last season (Detroit) had only 3.52 goals per game. No team has finished a season scoring above 3.80 goals per game in the past decade.

If we compare the top scoring teams from the Original Six era on, using the league average goal per game figure from those seasons as a guide, this year's Capitals team is the sixth most prolific scoring team. Washington scores at a rate 38.4 per cent above the league average:


The highest scoring NHL team of all-time is actually those '83-84 Oilers up in third there with 5.58 goals per game, but that was done in an era when there were nearly eight goals per game, every game. Some of Bobby Orr's Bruins teams also had pretty incredible distance from the rest of the league in this department, too, with the '70-71 team sporting 10 different 20-goal scorers.

Given this, lower scoring era, the Capitals are headed to be in close to the same ballpark. Four Caps currently have a point a game, Ovechkin's on pace for another 50-goal season and Rocket Richard Trophy and 11 players have a plus-minus of plus-13 or better. The goaltending hasn't been half bad either.

It's going to be interesting to see if they can keep it up.

Q: A couple of weeks ago at a frat party, I began to get with a pretty cute girl. As the night wore on, and the drinks started flowing, she took me back to her apartment. When I entered her room, the first thing I saw was a giant Sidney Crosby poster. Without saying another word to her, I left. My buddies have never stopped making fun of me since, but I still insist that it was the proudest moment of my life as a die-hard Flyers fan. Can you please give me some consolidation, or should I have just swallowed my pride? In my defense, I would not qualify her as "hot."
--Dave Z., Philly

SG: Yup, these are my readers.

(I should preface my rant by first saying I hope everyone is doing OK under snomageddon and that this is the worst situation any of us finds themselves in.)

I'm Pissed that this game is still happening. I'm cut off because there's no above ground metro service. The power-line to my house is hovering about a foot above the snow after a bunch of branches and a medium size tree took it down. I don't really want to walk near it so I can't even leave my house. I can't believe I'm going to miss this game...

Weber, it's a tribute to the job you're doing in this thread that when I heard this morning that Brian Pothier got traded that I had heard of him, knew he is a defenseman and actually had a feeling about the trade (I was a little sad).

Also, I spelled his name right in this post and didn't even have to check.

I'm going to the Rangers game this weekend!