Ten Spot

We're 10 games into the 2018-19 Capitals season, and we're through the October portion of the schedule. Ten games is obviously not much of a sample size, but right now it's the only sample size we've got. And with a few days between games and the November portion of the slate, we thought we'd take a look at the Caps' overall performance in the season's first month.

The Caps won half of their first 10 games, and they picked up points in seven of them. They struggled on the second of back-to-back games, giving up a total of 13 goals in the two games in which they played under those circumstances. The penalty killing outfit has been south of par in the early going - it ranks 26th in the circuit at the moment - but it has been without stalwart winger Tom Wilson, who has served half of a 20-game league suspension and is also missing Jay Beagle, who signed with Vancouver as a free agent over the summer.
"[We have] a lot of games coming up here in November, and we're definitely a work in progress," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "As much as you want to talk about building momentum from last year - and we have the majority of our players back - it's tough to replicate the intensity that goes on, and just the detail in our game could improve."
On the plus side of the ledger, the Caps still boast the best power play in the league and haven't had a lot of trouble scoring goals.

"The first 10 games is a feeling out process, like it is every year," says Caps winger Brett Connolly. "Like every season, you try to find your game early. You have some good games and some not-so-good games, just in trying to get into the groove of things again, especially with the year we had last year. It takes a little time.
"I thought we had a fairly good road trip, a tough road trip, so I think it's been a good start overall. We're getting better every day, and we're working on some things. We've got a good belief in here, and I think it's been a good start."
Standings aren't really worth looking at this early in the season, except to see where a team is in relation to the top spot in its respective conference. You can't make the playoffs in October, but you can miss them. The idea is to keep a steady diet of standings points coming in, which the Caps have done. As they head into November, they're within easy striking distance of the top of their conference and their division, which is where you're looking to be at this stage.

"It's important to play good, even now I think," says Caps center Nicklas Backstrom, "and make sure you get as many points as possible because that's our goal, going to the playoffs. We know how many good teams are out there, so it would be nice if we could get a couple wins in a row here, especially this next two weeks where we have a lot of home games. We've got to take advantage of that."
The Caps' top players did most of the heavy lifting in October. Evgeny Kuznetsov (15 points), John Carlson (14), Alex Ovechkin (14), Backstrom (13) and T.J. Oshie (10) all produced a point per game or better. That group can't be counted upon to continue such a scorching pace over 82 games, so some of the complementary cast will need to come to the fore a bit more frequently in the weeks and months ahead.
"We are still working through the process of getting good habits back," says Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen, "getting away from bad habits you develop during the summer, and getting back to real hockey. So we're still finding our way. Every year, a team is going to have to find out what area of focus is going to be important for it. Even though we have a lot of guys back, there might be a couple of different focus points this year. So we'll keep working and pay attention to how things are going on the ice and adjust as we go, and try to get better."

Washington was blown out in only one game, a 6-0 "schedule loss" to then Devils in New Jersey on Oct. 11. The Caps were playing for the second time in as many nights while the Devils were playing their home opener with several days worth of rest. In each of Washington's other two regulation losses - to Toronto and at Edmonton, respectively - the Caps were either tied or only down a goal heading into the third period. And in each of the two games in which they managed to earn a point, the Capitals did so by rebounding from a multi-goal deficit to do so.
The Caps started the season with a daunting bit of scheduling; it faced five straight playoff teams from last season, including three that advanced to the second round and two (Pittsburgh and Vegas) that the Caps eliminated en route to their first Stanley Cup championship. It also played its first four games as part of two sets of back-to-back games, doing so for the first time in franchise history. The Caps came out of that stretch with a respectable 2-2-1 mark, and with two of the three losses (0-1-1) coming in the back half of those back-to-back games.
Consistency is still lacking; the Caps can look like the Cup champs they are and can also look like they're still early in the preseason, sometimes showing both of those looks within the same period of a given game. But they've smoothed out more of the wrinkles as they've moved forward, and they're still getting accustomed to seeing the best every opponent has on a nightly basis. Every team wants to beat the champs.
"It's a lot harder, I think," says Backstrom. "Maybe the first game [a 7-0 win over Boston] came a little too easy for us. It's a long season and it's a process. I feel like we are taking steps in the right direction and we're playing better and better. We've played all right, but I think we can still play a lot better, too."

"Yeah, we're not sneaking up on teams this year," notes Connolly. "I think they know who they're up against. We proved last year that we still have a very, very good team, obviously, by winning it all. We are getting everyone's best, but our record is a little bit better this year than it was last year."
The Caps got out of October with a 5-6-1 mark last season, the first time they weren't able to earn half the points available to them in any month of the regular season since January of 2014. The penalty killing outfit and lack of overall consistency were also early-season issues in 2017-18, but those obviously weren't problems anymore by season's end.
"We are definitely a work in progress for our detail and overall structure," says Reirden, "to give ourselves a chance to have success on a nightly basis, but that's how it should be. It shouldn't come easy, and it helps you emphasize the things that are important at the end of the day, which is always going to come back to the habits and the details you have ingrained in your game. And that's something we've learned some lessons on in our first 10 games and hopefully we can put together a better 10 [games] moving forward here."