Then and Now I
Accounting for the shortened regular season (69 games instead of 82), this year’s version of the Caps look a lot like last year’s version, with two notable exceptions. First, the penalty kill was much better overall for the Caps, an improvement of almost four percentage points and 18 places in the rankings. This comes with a caveat, though. In 49 games leading up to the All-Star Game/bye break the Caps ranked second in the league with an 84.2 percent penalty kill. In 20 games after the break, the Caps ranked 21st with a 78.