Washington Capitals: How Does This Trap Stack Up to the Devils and Red Wings?

While the phrase, "And down the stretch they come,” conjures up thoughts of another great spring time rite of passage, I'm speaking of the final two weeks of the NHL's regular season. After a season of adversity, the Washington Capitals have once again positioned themselves as a Stanley Cup contender.

As one of the Capitals featured columnists, over the next two weeks and leading up to the playoffs, I will dive into the team and deep inside the numbers to see whether this team can win a Stanley Cup.

The first article will discuss the trapping defense the Caps have committed to running this season and how the Caps stack up against some of the best trapping teams to win a championship.

Head coach Bruce Boudreau has stayed the course with his team. He could have easily thrown in the towel on many occasions and abandoned the new commitment to the trapping style of defense the Caps now play.

Boudreau had plenty of opportunities to go back to the run-and-gun offense that produced 313 goals last season. Offense has been sacrificed as have individual players' stats, and one need not look any further than Alex Ovechkin’s numbers this season.

Boudreau stuck with the plan through an eight-game losing streak in December, the longest of his coaching tenure in Washington. He stuck with it even after the Caps fell out of first place for the first time in a long time.

Boudreau got all of them to buy into what he was selling. Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom, Laich and Knuble have all come aboard the USS Boudreau this season. One has to think, only a deep playoff run will keep them from bailing on the captain. Another first-round exit and Boudreau is likely to be looking for another vessel to steer next season. 

Boudreau has convinced his players that good pitching beats good hitting, a good defense beat a good offense and a well-executed trap can win a championship. The Capitals execute the trap with a great deal of success but how do they stack up with the two teams that won multiple Stanley Cups running the trap?

How good will the Caps have to be to win a Stanley Cup with a total commitment to the trap defense? Really good, especially when you compare what the '95, '00 and '03 New Jersey Devils, led by Scott Stevens did, along with the '97, '98 and '02 Red Wings accomplished.

The New Jersey Devils won three Stanley Cups and played 67 games during those runs. They averaged 2.85 GPG but only surrendered 1.83 in the process. The Red Wings, during their three cup wins, played 65 games, scoring 3.15 GPG while allowing just 2.06 GA. 

Over the six regular seasons in which both teams won these cups their defenses were better than Washington’s and both managed to improve in the playoffs. The Devils' three-year average was 2.33 while the Wings were very slightly higher with a 2.35 GA over those championship runs.

Be sure to get your blood pressure checked before the playoffs with this style of defense. Forty percent of the contests were one goal (54/132) affairs while both teams combined to pitch 20 shutouts. 

The Caps must continue to improve over the next two weeks and games like Tuesday’s in Philly are a setback. Washington must also improve during the playoffs, making adjustments just as New Jersey and Detroit did.

The offensive side of this equation concerns me more than a little bit, as the Red Wings averaged over three goals per game while the Devils averaged 2.84 GF over the six combined regular seasons. Offensively during those regular seasons, the Wings ranked second twice and sixth once in the NHL, while the Devils ranked 13th, 14th and finished second in 2000.

The Caps sit at 2.69 GPG and rank 20th in the NHL. Offensive numbers trend downwards once the postseason begins as all teams clamp down defensively, so expect even less scoring from Washington.

With the trap defense, the transition game must be quicker through the neutral zone and along the boards. Ironically, during Nicklas Backstrom’s five-game absence and with the quicker Marcus Johansson centering the top line, the Caps seemed to do that a little better.

I am not saying that Johansson needs to take over for Backstrom, I am merely pointing out the difference in transition with more speed. Backstrom is so much more effective in other areas on the ice but let us not discount the speed Johansson brings.

While the Caps will finish ranked higher defensively then they have since the 1999-00 season, will it be enough? It took 74 games to get to this point and the Caps have overcome a lot of adversity along the way.

Will their psyches be able to handle a playoff game in which they allow five or six goals or will they say here we go again? I think that is one of the positive the trap brings, discipline is part of the game plan, and the Caps have it this season.

The Devils and Red Wings made more than a one-year commitment to this system and neither won a cup the first year they committed to playing this way. The Caps may not either and that is why if they can get far enough this post season to bring Boudreau back next season, they may be unstoppable next year. Offensively and defensively.

One of those trapping teams, the 1998 Detroit Red Wings won a Stanley Cup in Washington, sweeping Olaf Kolzig and the Caps in four straight games. Many Caps fans will remember the Caps were trapped into oblivion in games one, three and four as Washington scored just one goal in each game.

Three years ago, Washington snuck into the playoffs by winning the division on the last day of the regular season only to lose in seven games to the Flyers in the opening round of the playoffs. Back then, fans and experts said just watch what happens in five years; just give the Capitals five more years.

This is just the fourth year of that five-year plan.

My next article in this series will dive into the play of the Caps special teams, what went wrong with the power play, and how the Caps will have it fixed by the playoffs.