The Washington Capitals are off to their best start in nine years
The Washington Capitals are off to a good start, winning five of their first six games at the start of the 2024/25 season. After sneaking into the playoffs last season with the salary cap era’s worst goal difference of -37, the Caps appear to have solved many of their problems and are a whole new beast this year.
Washington (5-1-0) hasn’t started this well since the 2015-16 season, when they won six of their first seven games en route to the franchise’s third Presidents’ Trophy.
Although there are still 76 games left on their schedule and a lot can change, this team’s early results are very encouraging.
Below are a number of facts that show how well the Capitals fared heading into Friday night’s games.
Impressive caps count 6 games in
- Washington has the third-highest point percentage in the NHL and the highest point total in the Eastern Conference. The top five are the Winnipeg Jets (1.000%), Minnesota Wild (0.857%), Washington Capitals (0.833%), New York Rangers (0.786%) and Calgary Flames (0.786%).
A few different names at the top of the league in points 👀
-Winnipeg Jets 1,000%
-Minnesota Wild .857%
-Washington Capitals .833%
-New York Rangers .786%
-Calgary Flames .786% pic.twitter.com/tX9wSCFRvz— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) October 25, 2024
- The Capitals have the fifth-best goal difference in the league Washington has outscored its opponents 23-13 since the winning streak began on Oct. 15. At this point last year they already had a goal difference of minus-10.
- Only two teams in the NHL average more goals per game than the Capitals. Washington is scoring nearly two goals more than the 2.63 average they finished the 2023-24 season with. They are also averaging 28.5 shots per game, two more than last year (26.5).
| rank | team | Goals per game |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York Rangers | 4.57 |
| 2 | Winnipeg Jets | 4.43 |
| 3 | Washington Capitals | 4.33 |
| 4 | Vegas Golden Knights | 4.14 |
| 5 | Tampa Bay Lightning | 4.00 |
- Washington is one of the most effective five-on-five teams this season. From a process standpoint, the Capitals dominated at five-on-five. They are well above 50 percent in five key statistical categories and rank at least eighth in the league in four of five categories.
| Stat | percentage | League rank |
|---|---|---|
| CF% | 52.20 | 12 |
| GF% | 61.88 | 3 |
| xGF% | 56.76 | 4 |
| SCF% | 54.63 | 5 |
| HDCF% | 54.84 | 8 |
- The Capitals have led for the third most times in the league. Despite having played the fewest games in the league so far, the Capitals rank third in time played with a lead.
| rank | team | Time spent on management (games played) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minnesota Wild | 260:54 (7) |
| 2 | New York Rangers | 247:36 (7) |
| 3 | Washington Capitals | 226:14 (6) |
| 4 | Vegas Golden Knights | 211:23 (7) |
| 5 | New Jersey Devils | 207:05 (10) |
- The Capitals have four players averaging a point per game or more. Dylan Strome (3g, 6a), Connor McMichael (3g, 5a), John Carlson (2g, 4a) and Tom Wilson (5g, 1a) are all off to a great start to the year.
- Only one skater who has played more than one game this season has zero points. The Capitals have played 18 skaters in more than one game this season, and all but one, Hendrix Lapierre, got on the scoresheet with a goal or assist. Lapierre is also the only one of the 18 who is a minus player (-4).
- The Capitals defensemen have scored points in all six games. After getting just 73 points from their top five defensemen other than John Carlson last year, all of this year’s non-Carlson defensemen have already combined for 12 points in six games. Maintaining the same pace over the 82 games would result in 164 points from the back end, in addition to what Carlson produces.
- John Carlson has the third-highest average game points in the league. Together with Jakob Chychrun, Carlson dominates and plays one of the best hockey games of his career. When 74 are on the ice at 5-on-5, the Capitals have outscored their opponents 9-2 and have an expected goals percentage of 62.6. The Caps also have positive differences in shot attempts (107-80), scoring chances (56-39) and high threat chances (27-20).
Highest average GameScore until October 25, 2024
(at least 3 GP) pic.twitter.com/WgcqFQW5QF
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) October 25, 2024
- The five-game winning streak is the longest in all of last year. Washington only had a five-game winning streak all of last year. This series from November 10 to 22 was also the only winning streak of four or more games. The 2023-24 Capitals won three straight games, just seven times.
And Washington did this without leaning on Alex Ovechkin (2 goals), playing four of its six games against likely playoff teams: New Jersey (2), Vegas and Dallas.
Washington’s next test will be away against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning are off to a 4-3 start to the season and Nikita Kucherov, the NHL’s leading scorer, is firing on all cylinders.
After playing Tampa Bay, the Capitals return home for a third straight game against the New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens and Columbus Blue Jackets. Washington needs to win three of its next four games to match the Caps’ 2015-16 record of 10 games (8-2).
