Washington Capitals: Match ratings from Week Four

The Washington Capitals won the week for the first time this season in Week Four. What can be learned from their trip to Western Canada?

Week four saw the Washington International House Show take over Capital One Arena, meaning that it was time for the Washington Capitals annual road trip to Western Canada. After three straight .500 weeks, they won two of three for their first weekly winning record this year.

Despite that relative success, the Capitals still do not look very much like the team that shocked the world to win the Stanley Cup last season. They still have issues with inconsistency and, sometimes, just flat-out laziness and disinterest.

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These patterns already being apparent is one of the purposes of this article, part of a weekly series examining the week that was for the Capitals. When the season is over in June, a problem from one of these games may be relevant then as well.

The other goal of this article is to examine these games in the context of the entertainment product it is. The hope is that at the end of the season, a fan interested in coming back to specific games, even if just for entertainment purposes, will be able to.

While I would like to branch out the scope to more teams, I am unfortunately only able to watch Washington Capitals games with any consistency, so these articles will only look at those games. Without further ado, let us look back at Week four for Washington!

Game 8: 10/22/18 @ Vancouver Canucks

The Washington Capitals got off to a strong start on the road trip, taking advantage of a banged-up Vancouver Canucks team in a 5-2 win in their barn.

The Capitals were the better team, a fact that was pretty obvious for most of the match. Despite the late start, they controlled the action from the drop of the puck, outshooting Vancouver 33-24 by the end of the game.

This was a perfect road game, with Washington mucking things up defensively, meaning that it was not a very exciting game to watch. Add to that the 10 pm ET start, as well as the lack of drama in terms of outcome, and the entertainment value of the game was very average.

From a performance standpoint, however, this was one of Washington’s best games of the year so far. They neutralized Vancouver’s speed, did a great job at minimizing dangerous opportunities against, and controlled the neutral zone all the way through.

Overall, this was a performance much more reminiscent of the Stanley Cup-winning team from just a few months ago. It was not perfect, but was an example of how good the team can be when they are on their game.

Performance: 7.5/10

Entertainment: 5/10

Game 9: 10/25/18 @ Edmonton Oilers

After that terrific performance against the Canucks, the Washington Capitals may have been asleep for much of this Thursday-night clash with Connor McDavid‘s Edmonton Oilers, as the seemingly disinterested road team dropped a 4-1 snoozer in the second game of the road trip.

The Oilers were coming off of a barnburner with the Pittsburgh Penguins just a few nights earlier, so expectations for this game were pretty high entertainment-wise. After all, with Ovechkin, McDavid, Evgeny Kuznetsov and more, how could this game be boring?

Well, one way is for one team to simply not show up. Other than Braden Holtby and Andre Burakovsky, the rest of the team in white jerseys could have stayed at home, and this game may have had the same end result.

Based on that, it should be obvious what I think of Washington’s performance in this game. It was terrible. Yes, the officiating was absolutely atrocious, and probably killed any chances the Capitals had of mounting a comeback, but frankly, they did nothing to deserve a win in this one.

This game sucked, plain and simple. Even as somebody who is usually awake until midnight, watching this match nearly put me to sleep on its own. It is not my fault, however; the Capitals looked even less interested than I was.

Performance: 3/10

Entertainment: 3.5/10

Game 10: 10/27/18 @ Calgary Flames

After laying that dud against Edmonton, it would have been nice to see the Washington Capitals come out for this final game of the road trip and dominate their opponent. Unfortunately, the Calgary Flames, coming off of a 9-1 setback to Pittsburgh, had their own plans.

Washington was solid for most of the first period, and had a 2-0 lead at one point. But they proceeded to completely let their guard down, and the game was tied at two after 20 minutes. They again led 3-2 late in the game, but Calgary sent the game into OT with a late tying goal.

After an appropriately boring overtime session, the game went into the shootout, where Pheonix Copley earned his first ever win in the NHL after Nicklas Backstrom‘s game-winner in the bottom of the fourth round. The Capitals had a 2-1-0 record on the week, and are 5-3-2 after October.

From both a performance and an entertainment standpoint, this game pretty much split the difference between the previous two. They played much better than against Edmonton, but were still too lazy for stretches. This game was more fun, but still decidedly average.

In a way, this game almost personifies the Capitals right now. They are currently a middle-of-the-pack team playing somewhat fun and interesting hockey. At least they earned a victory on the road.

Performance: 6/10

Entertainment: 5/10

Overall, the Washington Capitals are in a similar situation to what they were in at this time last season. They look like an average team that should be able to make the playoffs in a wild-card or third-divisional spot. Of course, we know how last year ended for them.

Entertainment-wise, the games seem to be regressing to the mean a bit after an exciting start. As the weather gets colder, these chippy, neutral-zone-action types of games will become more the norm. Of course, that means that the really fun games will mean that much more as a result.

Washington now gets a break until next Thursday, meaning that this will be another light-workload week for the champs. But this column will be back next week with a look back on those games. Enjoy this next week in hockey!