As the Washington Capitals (24-13-7, 55 pts) continue their makeover into a defensive minded team, there’s some sense that too much of the Capitals focus is being put towards defense that is taking away from their once push the play high-octane offensive attack.
While the Capitals have entered the top-10 in goals against, ranking 8th in the league at 2.57 goals against per game, they still to find a better common ground that the likes of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have when it comes to offensive and defensive hockey.
The Capitals are 13th in the NHL, averaging 2.82 goals per game.
Last night the Capitals were shutout for the second time in just over a week as Tampa’s Dwayne Roloson made 23 saves for his second shutout this month against Washington and the Lightning beat the Capitals 3-0 Wednesday night in a matchup of Southeast Division leaders.
Roloson, who was acquired in a New Year’s Day trade with the New York Islanders, had a 1-0, overtime win over Washington in his Lightning debut on Jan. 4.
With the win, Tampa Bay (26-13-5, 57 pts) moved into first place in the Southeast division and they are learning to beat the Capitals who have usually wrapped up the division title by late February in recent years.
For the Capitals, they are 6-1-3 in their last 10 games and have rebounded from their long losing streak in December but this team needs to get back to being a dynamic offensive threat and that can be accomplished even with a structure change to being a more defensive team but they’re going too far into one direction and Boudreau needs to open things up a bit.
