October Report Cards, Part 2

Note: Records are prior to games on November 1st.

Nashville Predators (6-5-2)
Grade: C
Would it really be Nashville Predators hockey if we weren't talking about a sputtering offense and a pretty good defense? Seems like every year the Predators insist on trying to win every game 2-1 and all anyone ever talks about is how tough they are to play against. They need to work on maintaining leads in the next few games, as they blew a 3-0 first period lead in Phoenix the other night, losing 5-4 in a shootout.

New Jersey Devils (3-5-4)
Grade: D
Hard to make an argument for a group that's lost nine of 12 games so far and is towards the bottom of the NHL in scoring while also in the bottom half in defense. Given the dearth of offensive talent on this team, the power play has been pretty good, coupled with an average penalty kill. The signing of Ryane Clowe has not worked out for this team, as I expected.

New York Islanders (4-5-3)
Grade: C-
I still believe that the Islanders are a better team than their record indicates and what they've shown so far this season. They're putting the puck in the net and have been good on special teams so far, but last night's 57-shot effort in Ottawa aside they're not winning that battle and they haven't been able to keep the puck out of their net.

New York Rangers (5-7-0)
Grade: C-
They get a bit of a pass due to all the injuries they've sustained thus far, but they still haven't been playing good hockey. The offense hasn't hit its stride yet, though that's to be expected when it has yet to be at full strength. The special teams have been pretty good so far but the Rangers are the NHL's worst team at 5 on 5 this season.

Ottawa Senators (4-6-2)
Grade: D+
Yikes, there are a number of defensive issues with this team. They were already 28th in the NHL in shot differential before last night's -26 against the Islanders. Goal scoring hasn't been a problem for the Senators and they've also been pretty good 5 on 5 and on the penalty kill, so I expect them to turn it around soon. They just have to avoid the defensive breakdowns and sustain the forecheck better.

Philadelphia Flyers (3-8-0)
Grade: F-
Yes, the Flyers get an F-, the worst possible grade on this scale. Their grade is even worse than the Sabres, Panthers, and Oilers because Philadelphia was expected to have a bounce back year. They've been beaten soundly all over the ice and some of their best players haven't shown up yet this season. Not that it factors into their grade, but last night's 7-0 loss at home to Washington is a microcosm of the laughable failure this team has suffered.

Phoenix Coyotes (9-3-2)
Grade: B+
Phoenix is looking like a serious contender out west, and the shocking thing to me is that they're tied for third in the NHL in scoring. The defense hasn't been as sharp as we're used to seeing under head coach Dave Tippett, but aside from that they are firing on all cylinders. They have the most points by defensemen in the NHL, and the trio of Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Derek Morris, and Keith Yandle has combined for eight goals and 23 assists through the team's first 14 games.

Pittsburgh Penguins (9-4-0)
Grade: A-
Props to the Penguins for being the class of a bad division so far, because even with Evgeni Malkin's recent scoring drought they're still winning games. Jussi Jokinen has been on fire with six goals in October. Marc-Andre Fleury has been good, and it's really helped this team get settled in through the first month. The penalty kill has been a bit weak so far, but there's plenty of season left for that to improve.

San Jose Sharks (10-1-2)
Grade: A+
The Sharks are the NHL's best team through October, though fans in Colorado and St. Louis could easily make cases for their teams. Rookie Tomas Hertl has cooled off after his ridiculous start to the season, but now Joe Pavelski has the hot stick and it goes to show that their depth is their biggest weapon. Antti Niemi has been a brick wall in net, but I wonder if he's getting overused early on.

St. Louis Blues (7-1-2)
Grade: A
A light schedule in October has seen the Blues play just ten games (not including last night's win over Florida), but that hasn't stopped them from making quite an impression in the early going. If you haven't seen this team play yet, you need to fix that problem. Over the years I've never thought of the Blues as a particularly fun team to watch, but this season they are making me tune in regularly with their inspired play at both ends of the ice.

Tampa Bay Lightning (8-4-0)
Grade: B+
They've been impressive so far, but this is once again a stereotypical Lightning start to a season. They're always the team that comes out of the gate hot, but then as time goes on their defensive issues catch up to them and they fall back into the pack. All of their metrics look good except for the shot differential, where they've been outshot by 1.4 per game through the end of October. They need to get that number positive.

Toronto Maple Leafs (10-4-0)
Grade: A-
I had a feeling that the Leafs would be a solid team this season, but I didn't expect a 10-4 run through the first month of the season. There's a huge red flag with this team, though, and it's possession. The Leafs have been terrible in the faceoff circle and are 29th in the league in shot differential. However, they have won every game in which they outshot their opponent, and they are 4-2 in games that they have trailed after either the first or second period.

Vancouver Canucks (9-5-1)
Grade: B
This grade would be higher if John Tortorella hadn't already made their power play as horrible as he did the Rangers' during his tenure in New York. They're getting scoring from many sources, but not all at once and it has left them in the middle of the NHL in scoring. The penalty kill has been very stingy so far and Roberto Luongo is off to a nice start. They're headed in the right direction.

Washington Capitals (5-7-0)
Grade: C-
They don't deserve a higher grade than this for their play in October, but they get an A++ for their 7-0 win in Philadelphia last night (and it was without Ovechkin too). The problem for the Caps is even strength play; they're a minus in that department and it's led to their sub-.500 record even though their power play and penalty kill rank third and second, respectively.

Winnipeg Jets (5-7-2)
Grade: D
I think it's time to end things with Ondrej Pavelec. He's a bad goalie, and Al Montoya has played wonderfully in his limited playing time so far. Stands to reason that they should give Montoya more starts, right? The offense has not produced so far, the new acquisitions have not fit into the lineup well and the power play has been punchless. Their 44.1% on faceoffs is the second-worst in the league, only ahead of Calgary.

30 Teams, 30 Days - Washington Capitals

Before you read this article, I want you to think back to the beginning of last season. Try to remember the way the Capitals started the season. It may not be easy to recall the fact that Washington was a comedy of errors in their 2-8-1 start that left them in last place in the Southeast Division. They were dead in the water at that point, and lesser squads would have given up. However, the Caps stormed back after that, going 15-2-2 in their final 19 regular season games and went on to win the weak Southeast Division. They lost a hard-fought series to the Rangers that went the full seven games, but for this team, it's a building block towards potential future success. Their offseason was looking pretty dicey after losing Mike Ribeiro to Phoenix in free agency, but then they went out and signed Mikhail Grabovski in the hopes that he is a worthy replacement.

Projected Forward Lines:

Marcus Johansson - Nicklas Backstrom - Alex Ovechkin
Martin Erat - Mikhail Grabovski - Troy Brouwer
Jason Chimera - Brooks Laich - Eric Fehr
Tom Wilson - Jay Beagle - Joel Ward
Aaron Volpatti - Mathieu Perreault

That top six becomes quite a bit more dangerous when Johansson is moved from center to the left side, a position of weakness for the Caps. The addition of Grabovski means that the Capitals are very strong down the middle, and what was looking like a potential hole in the absence of Ribeiro is now filled by Grabovski. The biggest question I have regarding the Grabovski signing is whether or not he can fill Ribeiro's shoes on the power play. Man advantage situations are where Ribeiro truly excels, and it'll be interesting to see if Washington can perform well again without him. The Capitals have no shortness of tough guys in the lineup, with the third line acting as a traditional checking line and the fourth containing defensive forwards.

Projected Defensive Pairings:

Karl Alzner - Mike Green
Dmitri Orlov - John Carlson
John Erskine - Steve Oleksy
Jack Hillen

Carlson is probably the Caps' best defenseman overall, but Alzner and Green have been playing together long enough that coach Adam Oates isn't going to split them. The loss of Schultz this offseason means more playing time for somebody, and I think it'll be Orlov. Washington still believes that he can be a factor on their roster after he missed most of last season with an upper-body injury. The bottom pair will be a committee of the three men listed and Thomas Kundratek, but I believe that Oleksy and Erskine will get the lion's share of the minutes between them, due to their size.

Goaltending:

Braden Holtby
Michael Neuvirth

Is Washington finally ready to give Holtby the keys to the car after questions surrounded him heading into last year? Judging by his 23-12-1 record and .920 save percentage, I would say that answer is a resounding "yes." His 2.58 GAA was probably a bit higher than the team would like, but keep in mind that the goaltending situation was completely awful for Washington in the first quarter of last year. Neuvirth remains a capable goalie and I believe that he'll find another starting job somewhere once his contract runs out after the 2014-15 season, if not sooner via trade or something.

Special Teams:

If you wanted to watch power play excellence, all you had to do was flip the Caps games on last year. They posted an absolutely obscene 26.8% conversion rate with the man advantage, which was the best in the NHL. They didn't quite reach that number in their series with the Rangers, logging an 18.8% clip there. They had little trouble getting that unit on the ice last year, averaging a little less than 3.5 chances per game. They finished +1 on the special teams differential. However, it's the penalty kill that has to make marked improvements this year, as they finished with a 77.9% success rate, good for 27th in the NHL. Their discipline needs to be better on the road, as they were the fourth-most shorthanded team in road tilts last year. Fix that, and I believe they'll right the ship.

X-Factor:

Can Grabovski replace Ribeiro? It was really the only major development for Washington this offseason, and fans are eager to see what Grabovski can do now that he's gotten a change of scenery. I think he's capable of topping Ribeiro's goal total from last year (which projected to 22 over a full 82-game schedule), but I don't think he gets as many assists (Ribeiro was on pace for 61 last year) and I definitely don't think he matches Ribeiro's skills on the power play. It's probably an upgrade in the long run due to the ages of the players, but I'm not so sure that the move makes them better this season.

The Capitals will make the playoffs if...

... they avoid another bad start, the goalies play the way they should, and enough depth scoring is found to take pressure off of Ovechkin's line. I'll be honest, I thought the Caps had little to no chance of making the playoffs this year when Ribeiro left. Now that they signed Grabovski, they're back in the discussion. They still have to go through the rigorous Metropolitan Division; gone are the days of fattening up on the Southeast's patsies en route to bloated point totals and playoff seeds that were better than the talent on the roster. Every night will be a battle for this team and I think they're up to the task.

The Capitals will miss the playoffs if...

... we see the exact same start as last year, Grabovski doesn't pan out, and the younger defensemen show some cracks in their game. The Metropolitan Division is tough to handicap this year, because a few teams got better, a few teams got worse, and it adds up to a logjam in the standings after Pittsburgh. It's going to be a tight race all year long, and so the Caps absolutely cannot afford to come out of the gate flat again, like last year. Columbus proved a year go how an awful start can bury you, and the Caps should be counting their blessings that they had a bunch of scrubs to beat up (aside from the Jets) in their division last year. They don't have that luxury anymore.

Winter Classic 2015

It has been announced by the NHL that the 2015 Bridgestone Winter Classic will be held in Washington D.C. The team the Capitals will be facing is still unknown at this point but rumors and speculation points to the Penguins. This makes a lot sense since the “face” of the NHL plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins and having Sidney Crosby go against Alexander Ovechkin on a National broadcast will be huge for the NHL. The Penguins have participated in two Winter Classics, the 1^st one in Buffalo and hosting one against the Capitals a few years later. Whoever the Capitals play, the Winter Classics have been great events for the NHL and it will be fun to watch. 

Rumor Mill: Top FA Signed, Jagr To Retire After Season?

According to TSN, free agent center Mikhail Grabovski has signed a one-year deal with the Washington Capitals. The move comes as little surprise, as Washington needs centers and Grabovski will be able to fill a top-six role for them. A television outlet in Grabovski's native Belarus, ONT, said that the contract is worth $3 million. I believe this is a good signing for Washington, and they were able to get him at a very reasonable price too. He'll be able to produce right away and in a spot where he'll be comfortable.

Another interesting news story revolves around Jaromir Jagr. He recently hinted on his Facebook page that this season will be his last, and because of that he declared that he "can't be too risky."I'm not exactly sure what that means, but that can't sound very good to Devils fans, who are hoping that their team can overcome major offseason losses from a mediocre squad and return to the playoffs.