As the saying goes, the best offense is a good defense...or something like that. That bodes true for the Capitals.
As of today, the Washington Capitals sit at 23 points, good for second-most in the Eastern Conference. There have been several storylines coming out of this season so far, and it's easy to point to the early-season success of Alex Ovechkin, Dylan Strome or Connor McMichael as some of the reasons for their impressive 11-4-1 record.
One storyline that seems to be under-appreciated thus far is the scoring depth the Capitals are receiving from players not named Ovechkin or Strome. This becomes even more intriguing when you factor in how much the defensive core of the Capitals is contributing to the point totals so far this season.
Last season, John Carlson led the defense in scoring with 53 points. The next highest defenseman was Rasmus Sandin with 23 points, then Trevor van Riemsdyk, who had just 14 points. This year, it's a completely different story.
While most clubs will see the brunt of their scoring coming from the offense (obviously), the teams that are looking to make a deep playoff run will find ways to activate the defense. And while last year's Capitals team was certainly not the best example of scoring depth, this year's team is finding their scoring from all over the roster. Including the defense.
Once again, Carlson is leading the defense with 12 points, but he is not far ahead of Van Riemsdyk, Rasmus Sandin or Jakob Chychrun.
Breaking it down even further from a team perspective, the Capitals have gotten 43 points from their defense this season, the third-highest contribution from a blue line in the league (only the Colorado Avalanche and Buffalo Sabres d-corps have more points).
Those 43 points from the backend amount to nearly a quarter of Washington's total scoring this season — compare that to the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, who have received about 17% of their scoring from their defense.
Also consider that the Capitals sit at 46 total goals against this season, of which only five other teams have allowed fewer. Compare that to the Avalanche, who have a superhuman defender named Cale Makar scoring lots of points, but who have also allowed the third-most goals so far this season.
Last night's game against Colorado is a perfect example of this. Two of Washington's five goals came from the defense (Chychrun and Sandin), and Carlson and van Riemsdyk added a pair of apples. All while limiting Colorado to two goals and 19 shots, while also being the first team to hold Nathan MacKinnon without a single shot this season.
Put simply, things in Washington are going exactly how they should be going for a good team bolstering good depth. The Capitals are finding ways to involve the defense in their scoring, while also managing to keep pucks out of their own net.
Combine that with the goalie tandem of Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren (who have a .906 and .897 save percentage, respectively), and you have a recipe for success.
The only question mark lingering is that of sustainability. While Chychrun was expected to add points, and Carlson scoring is not out of the ordinary, the rest of the defense will be need to continue their current level of contribution.
Sandin's on a four-game point streak and is on pace for a career-high 46 points, which would double his amount from last year. Meanwhile, van Riemsdyk is well on his way to a career-high 41 points (the most he's put up was 23 in 75 games played, two seasons ago).
But these are all good signs for Washington, who is looking to prove doubters wrong and make a deep run through the season. While other teams spent the summer loading up on star power and offense, the Capitals added key depth players to their supporting cast and worked on getting scoring from all over the lineup.
So far, Washington's showing they are set up to bring sustained offense from every part of the roster. That said, this is a team looking to make noise all season — and beyond.
