Capitals checking all the boxes, except penalties

Defending champs lead the league in minor infractions

Entering the NHL’s annual holiday break, the Washington Capitals sit atop the league with 57 points through 38 games, three points ahead of St. Louis Blues and four ahead of the Boston Bruins. The Capitals are getting contributions from throughout the lineup, but with an eye on refining their performance in anticipation of making another run at the Stanley Cup, one issue remains glaring: too many minor penalties.

That was evident in Monday’s 7-3 loss to the Bruins at TD Garden, which was lopsided from the get-go after Boston scored four first-period goals.

“Far too many penalties obviously and if I had to point to one negative from 38 games into (the season), that would be it,” Capitals coach Todd Reirden said.

The Capitals took eight minor penalties Monday and leads the NHL in minor penalties taken with 151. They ranked fourth in penalty minutes (402). For comparison, the Vegas Golden Knights are second in minor penalties taken with 143 and rank seventh in penalty minutes (358).

Somewhat mitigating the problem, the Capitals’ penalty kill is ranked at second in the league at 84.9 percent. They faced seven shorthanded situations in Saturday’s 3-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning but killed them all off, including a five-onthree and a six-on-four. Goaltender Braden Holtby was stellar during five-onthree, nearly killing off the two-man advantage on his own. But the Bruins proved to be a more formidable test.

“You know, we did very well the other night, but you can’t expect us to kill seven every night,” Lars Eller said.

When it comes to shoring up the stick infractions, Eller said most of the time, it’s just about “taking another step, skate.”

Forward Garnet Hathaway, who scored his sixth goal of the season Monday, said a big part in cleaning up minor penalties comes with puck management. He felt Boston had a good neutral zone presence, so the Capitals got stuck in the middle and they “forced plays or mishandled plays” which led to the team having to “fight the fight and chase guys.”

“When you are a stick length away, we tend to use our stick and we get ourselves in trouble, but (Monday) I think some of them we were forced to take because we made mistakes because we weren’t executing passes and all of a sudden we create a one-on-two for ourselves or something like that,” Eller said.

Reirden said from a coach’s perspective, minor penalties can be divvied up into a few categories: unnecessary; borderline calls; and strategic, to stop an obvious threat. Against Boston, the Capitals displayed all three.

Moving forward, Reirden said he will seek to remedy the situation by adjusting ice times, trying different combinations and continuing to teach technique in terms of feet movement.