Welcome back to another edition of our Stat Pack, which digs into some of the most intriguing numbers of the week in the NHL.
This time around, we’re taking another look at the unstoppable New Jersey Devils, along with the hobbled Washington Capitals and Bo Horvat’s place in Vancouver Canucks history.
Let’s get to it.
The Good: Devils Win Nine Straight
As the New Jersey Devils celebrate their 40th anniversary in the Garden State this season, their long-suffering fans are being treated to the best hockey they’ve seen in a long time.
The Devils earned a mention in our Stat Pack two weeks ago — and they’re still rolling. Despite seeing their top two goalies go down with in-game injuries in the space of a week, New Jersey won its ninth-straight game on Saturday, beating the Arizona Coyotes 4-2 with Akira Schmid patrolling the crease.
Fans in attendance at the Prudential Center even offered a mea culpa to coach Lindy Ruff, apologizing for calling for his job when the Devils opened the season with a pair of losses.
Just as Vitek Vanecek was able to step in to keep the streak alive at five games when Mackenzie Blackwood was injured in Edmonton on Nov. 3, Schmid did the same for Vanecek against the Ottawa Senators last Thursday.
Vanecek has now been declared healthy, so he’ll be back in the mix for the Devils’ upcoming three-game Canadian road swing, which starts in Montreal on Tuesday. After kicking off the month of November with a sweep of Canada’s Pacific Division teams, New Jersey is 5-0-0 against Canadian opponents so far this season.
Blackwood’s MCL sprain has a three to six-week recovery timeline. He’s expected to be out of action for at least another week.
The Devils’ razor-sharp play at both ends of the ice has enabled them to succeed despite their goaltending challenges. Through Monday’s games, New Jersey sits first in the NHL with just 24.4 shots allowed per game and second in shots taken, at 37.1. They’re also in the top five in the league in goals for and goals against, and they currently rank more than three percentage points above the well-known possession monsters in Carolina in the top spot in expected goals share at 5-on-5, controlling 63.46 percent of the play, per Natural Stat Trick.
Three-time Stanley Cup winners in their 40-year history, the Devils have won nine or more consecutive games four times before — most recently between Nov. 17 and Dec. 7, 2007. Their franchise record is 13 straight wins, set between Feb. 26 and March 23, 2001.
The Bad: Capitals Injury Woes
The Washington Capitals are tied with the Nashville Predators for the second-longest active playoff-appearance streak in the NHL at eight seasons.
As they get set to continue a three-game road trip in Florida on Tuesday, the Caps currently sit outside the Eastern Conference cutline with a 7-8-2 record — just one point out of the second wild-card spot, but with two more games played than the teams they’re chasing.
The Capitals have the second-oldest roster in the NHL this season, with an average age of 29.20, according to Elite Prospects. They;ve been crushed by injuries to important players in the early going.
As of Nov. 14, Washington has more than $32 million in contracts on its injured lists, per Cap Friendly.
On injured reserve:
- T.J. Oshie – age 35 – cap hit $5.75 million – 9 GP this season
- Tom Wilson – age 28 – cap hit $5.167 million – 0 GP this season
- Dmitry Orlov – age 31 – cap hit $5.1 million – 13 GP this season
- Beck Malenstyn – age 24 – cap hit $762, 500 – 5 GP this season
And on long-term injured reserve:
- Nicklas Backstrom – age 34 – cap hit $9.5 million – 0 GP this season
- Connor Brown – age 28 – cap hit $3.6 million – 4 GP this season
- Carl Hagelin – age 34 – cap hit $2.74 million – 0 GP this season
Top defenseman John Carlson (age 32 – cap hit $8 million) has been back in action for the last two games after missing six with a lower-body issue. Even coach Peter Laviolette has been sidelined, missing Washington’s last two games while in COVID protocol.
Of course, Alex Ovechkin continues to score. With eight goals in 17 games, he’s on a 38-goal pace now — and his stick usually heats up as the season progresses. But the Caps haven’t won a playoff series since lifting the Stanley Cup in 2018, and while GM Brian MacLellan overhauled his team’s goaltending and worked to shore up the forward group during the off-season, it feels like this might be the year when that string of playoff appearances could potentially come to an end.
The Intriguing: Horvat’s Place in History
The longer Bo Horvat goes without a contract extension, the louder the conversation gets about whether he’s approaching his final days as a Vancouver Canuck.
At 27, the Canucks captain is in the final season of a six-year contract that carries a cap hit of $5.5 million. And with 13 goals in 16 games this year, he’s currently second in that category — behind only his Go Auto endorsement partner, Connor McDavid.
Though Horvat is red hot, his team is not — they’re off to a 4-9-3 start that already has them five points out of a Western Conference wild-card spot.
Not even a year has passed since Vancouver fired GM Jim Benning and coach Travis Green last December. It’s hard to assess how the new management group will try to turn the season around — or if a teardown for a crack at hometown phenom Connor Bedard might actually come to pass.
Yes, that could mean that Horvat is traded or not re-signed. His eight-seasons-and-counting in Vancouver have been short on post-season success — just two playoff appearances, with the only series wins coming in the 2020 bubble in Edmonton, where Horvat also went off with 10 goals in 17 games.
But in addition to being in his fourth season as the Canucks’ captain, Horvat is also quickly climbing the franchise’s individual record lists.
In 588 games played in a Vancouver uniform, Horvat has 183 goals and 200 assists for 383 regular-season points. He’s just six goals away from passing Todd Bertuzzi to move into the top 10 on the franchise’s all-time goal-scoring list, and he’s two points away from moving past Alex Burrows into the No. 15 spot on the all-time points list.
Horvat’s 61 power-play goals, five of which have come this season, already tie him for ninth place in franchise history with Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler. And his 10 shorthanded goals (two this season) tie him with Kesler for seventh all-time.
If the Canucks do eventually re-up with their captain on a multi-year deal, top-five rankings in some key categories would be well within reach. But if team president Jim Rutherford and GM Patrik Allvin decide they really are going to strip the Canucks down to the studs, Horvat and his hot scoring touch should command a tidy return on the trade market sometime between now and the deadline on March 3.
