Capitals 1- Flyers 0; A Game Otherwise Not Won

Last night's victory was a good one for the Capitals, and though the team fell into some of it's bad habits, they managed to out-shoot the Flyers, win the advanced stats battle, and ultimately withstand a late Philadelphia rush and hold on to win the war.  For a quick recap, check out Japer's Rink for a good one.

I'd like to address what was once a rarity, a unicorn so to speak, for this Capitals squad, and that's the one goal win.  Sure, you don't see too many 1-0 wins in the NHL, and though there are one goal wins aplenty, we simply aren't accustomed to seeing the Washington Capitals come out on top of those.  I took a look at last year's results and counted 45 one goal games, of which 28 were decided in over time or a shoot out (something last year's Caps participated in far too often, having been in 21 shoot outs as compared to only 4 shoot outs to date this season). Of those 45 one goal games, the Capitals were only victorious in 20, and of those 20 games, they were only victorious in OT or in the SO for 13 of them.

"Oates face" courtesy of Russian Machine Never Breaks.

That's a lot of extra hockey and a lot of one goal losses.  It's safe to say that last night was a game last year's version of the Capitals likely would not have won.  You can chalk some of that up to coaching, as Adam Oates was clearly a terrible, terrible coach, but at least a fair bit of it can be chalked up to other things; a much stronger defense with the off-season additions of Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen, more consistency in line combinations fostering better chemistry amongst them, more consistent and consistently strong goal tending from Braden Holtby (who should start getting talked about as a Vezina candidate in the upcoming month or two), and, yes, perhaps even a much needed culture change in Washington.

I used some form of the word "consistent" a few times there, but that's because it's fitting. To see that consistency, you only need to look at the team's record as of late.  Points in their last 9 games, the only two losses in that span coming in OT to the Flyers and Islanders respectively. The team has only not gotten points in two games from December 2nd to now, which is astonishing to say the least.

How much of that is on PDO (in other words, puck luck and really, really, ridiculously good goal tending) and how much of it is "something else" remains a debate, but none the less, wins at this time of the season are huge and one goal wins are even huger. Friday night's game against Nashville remains a major test for this Capitals team, but regardless of the outcome of that game, things are continuing to roll for Braden Holtby and this defensive-minded, offensively-capable, Washington team.