HockeyCaps could be up to their old tricks vs. Leafs

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(Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

Read up on the latest tidbits and trends as Hockey Night in Canada's play-by-play voice Jim Hughson takes you behind the scenes and into Saturday's featured game.

This Week's Work: Washington Capitals at Toronto Maple Leafs (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m. ET)

The Script

The Washington Capitals aren't really having a lousy season, it just feels like it.

They're in a battle for top spot in the Southeast Division, and are still contenders for the Eastern Conference championship. In, fact they're only six points off last season's torrid pace.

But this year, they're different.

During an eight-game losing streak in December, the Capitals decided to change the way they play. They've worked at being a better defensive team. They're less risky, more patient in the neutral zone, and some of their forwards are actually coming all the way back into their own end!

The rollicking Caps have red-lined the fun meter for three years, but they've taken a more conservative approach because they want to win more. And while it seems like they're slumping because they don't score as often, they're still winning games.

Is it good luck, good management, or have they really traded the Maserati for a family sedan? 

Alex Ovechkin isn't the top-30 in goal-scoring. Linemates Nicklas Backstrom  and Alex Semin have been either slumping or hurt, and the three seldom play together. And Mike Green isn't in many conversations about the Norris Trophy.

Still, the Capitals are 6-2-3 in their last 11 games without scoring more than three goals in any of them.

If coach Bruce Boudreau can make this work through a few rounds of the playoffs, it will be a Scotty Bowman-like turnaround. But if the Capitals are trying to be something they aren't, and flame out because they can't score, he'll truly be like Bowman.

A consultant.

In the spotlight

Ovechkin now suffers in comparison to Sidney Crosby, because his scoring is way down and he hasn't won a title. But is he having a bad season, or sacrificing some scoring for the betterment of the team?

Maybe some of both.

The Great Eight still leads the league in shots, but is 14 goals off of his scoring pace of last season.

He plays as much and takes long shifts but the production hasn't been there, especially on the power play.

Remarkably, Ovechkin has just two power-play goals, and both came in the same game -- Oct. 30 in Calgary.  

Since then, 37 games and over 100 power plays have come and gone without another goal from a player who's on the ice for most of each man advantage.

Really, the penalty killing around the league can't be that good.

Another difference in Ovechkin's game is that he's not quite as reckless. Perhaps the suspensions, fines and lectures have hit home, because it's been a long while since we've seen him in a highlight squashing someone like a bug.

Ovie's season parallels his team's. It seems like it's not very good, but the results aren't bad. 

Oh, and he whacks Toronto like a piñata (19 goals), so it's entirely possible we'll see the Capitals and the Ovechkin we're accustomed to at the Air Canada Centre.

On the hot stove

Like Ovechkin, Toronto captain Dion Phaneuf can't seem to get shots through from the point, and his scoring slump is much, much worse.

After scoring 75 goals in his first four seasons with Calgary, Phaneuf has just three goals  in a calendar year with the Leafs, and hasn't scored a goal in his new home rink.

Opposing teams key on Phaneuf when he plays the power play, and they've forced him  further away from the net to the outside. When he does get a shot off, it's very often up around the ears of any forward daring enough to go in front of the net.

A comparison has been made between Phaneuf and Vancouver's Christian Ehrhoff, who Leaf bench boss Ron Wilson coached in San Jose. Forwards used to dive for safety when Ehrhoff shot the puck, but he's changed his approach, brought the shot down and taken enough off it to get it through to the net with positive results.

Phaneuf might be too stubborn to change -- that is, until his power play time disappears.

Outtakes

Looks like Wilson is finding his most trustworthy defencemen are his youngest. It's not unusual for Luke Schenn and Carl Gunnarsson to kill penalties together, but now they're starting to play as a pair late in games with the Leafs holding the lead.  

Schenn has been the Leafs' most consistent D-man since the season began, while Gunnarsson had a slow start but his patience, seen in most Swedish defenders, has him playing more important minutes.

When the Capitals practiced Wednesday in Philadelphia, they were without both of their 22-year-old goaltenders, Semyon Varlomov and Michal Neuvirth. The two have shared the net and had their share of injuries, from hips to knees and groins.  

Against the Islanders on Thursday, Braden Holtby played his ninth game of the season, with neither of the contenders for the No. 1 job able to start.

From the stat pack

When healthy and playing together we've seen some spectacular play from Washington's three first round picks in Ovechkin, Backstrom and Semin, but you might be surprised to know that Toronto's line of later picks and castoffs centred by Mikhail Grabovski has been better the last couple of months.

Good for the Toronto group, but it might, in part, explain why the Capitals' top line is seldom together these days.

Since December 1

Ovechkin line: 8 goals, 28 assists, 36 points

Grabovski line: 30 goals, 31 assists, 61 points

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