The Capitals lead the NHL in too many men penalties with 10 taken this season, including three in the last two games alone.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — Penalties are a natural part of the game, but for the Washington Capitals, there's been an unusual rise of one call in particular of late: too many men on the ice.
Back on Thursday in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators, Washington took back-to-back too many men penalties in the first period. The previous game against the Calgary Flames, the Capitals took yet another penalty for having too many players.
In total, Washington has taken 10 too many men bench minors this season, the most in the NHL, with three of those happening over the last two games.
For coach Spencer Carbery, a lot has gone into the recent influx of calls.
"A lot of people go like, 'Are you not calling the lines out properly? Like the players?' What it is, there's a couple things that can happen in that," Carbery said.
For the Capitals, the majority of the issues have come on defense, with the team's blueliners wanting to stay on the ice as to not give up high-danger opportunities to the opposition.
"I could go over a bunch of stuff, but what happens is a lot of times, it happens a lot with our (defense), and this is where we need to tighten up, is they have the puck in there coming out and our D, the puck has gone down into their end and our D are trying to get off the ice, but they're also realizing, 'Oh jeez, they are coming at us,'" Carbery explained. "So you get put in those spots two or two times a game — some games worse than others, where you get that change right there — where the guys are looking and they're trying to get off the ice, but they also don't want to give up a breakaway.
"It happened to us in Ottawa where we had five guys changing and two guys were like, 'Oh, jeez, if we leave, it's going to be a two-on-0 breakaway.' Those situations come about in the game and we just have to do a better job of watching the guy that will change or go right to the bench or if he stays, then he can't get off."
Carbery also pointed out that it stems from miscommunications by the blueliners, too.
"Where we've gotten caught a couple of times, where we think he's coming, and then we jump. Now you're too many men. Exactly what happened on (Martin Fehervary's penalty) the other night, he thought (Jakob Chychrun) was coming, Chychy did not come. He went on the ice and went 'Oh, I'm out here, and Chychy, we're both lefties. Oops.' And then he tries to jump off."
Then, there's the issue of turnovers in the neutral zone, which also lead to the too many men calls.
"Usually when you're moving up ice, it's like, 'Okay, I can change.' If the puck changes hands quickly, now guys who were changing thinking it was a comfortable situation, the puck is going down towards their end, now it changes hands and now people start to panic and go, 'I can't change now, because they have the puck,' right?" Carbery explained. "(Alex Ovechkin) has that puck for a second and you could argue it's kind of a grenade and he doesn't really have full control, but our D thinks the puck is going to get deep. It doesn't. Now we're in trouble."
While the too many men calls boil down to simple errors, Carbery knows it's not sustainable, and the team is well aware of fixing it.
"There's a couple of examples of what we're putting ourselves in. It's puck management, it's watching out guy, it comes in a lot of different shapes and forms, and we just have to do a better job in those scenarios," Carbery said.
