One month ago in this space, we lamented that the Caps’ lousy special teams were literally costing the team points in the standings. Since then, they’ve gone on a torrid 11-2-2 run and, unsurprisingly, their special teams have been better, posting a perfectly respectable middle-of-the-pack 20 percent efficiency on the power play and 82.1 success rate on the penalty kill over their last ten games.
What’s noteworthy about the special teams’ rise from the dead is that it hasn’t simply been fueled by a shooting percentage bender or unsustainably stout goaltending – their percentages there have been pretty mid.