"Scoring goals and our forward group, and an ability to create offense and finish, is always going to be our Achilles heel. It's just how we're built. And with a 40-year-old Alex Ovechkin and, you know, go down the list of our forward group, it's just always going to be something that we're going to have to continue to work on."
"You're going to have points in the season where it's going really well, like it was for 10, 12 games there. And then you're going to have points where it dries up a little bit, and guys are not finishing at a high rate because we don't have those really, really high, high-end difference makers in our forward group that can do some of those things. So we've got to do it by committee."
Washington has scored no more than two goals in each of its last four games and was shut out by Minnesota, dropping a third straight contest. The team fell from the Eastern Conference lead to fifth in the conference and out of the Metropolitan Division's top three. Manufacturing offense remains a priority because scoring and finishing are ongoing weaknesses, compounded by an aging Alex Ovechkin and a forward group lacking elite, game-changing scorers, requiring a committee approach. Since Thanksgiving the Capitals average 2.89 goals per game (19th in the NHL); excluding a 7–1 win over San Jose the average is 2.38. Power-play struggles also contribute to the offensive slump.
Read at RMNB
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