Caps emphasize penalty-killing

More than 20 years ago, penalty-killing helped propel the Washington Capitals from the dregs of the NHL into one of the league’s serious contenders.

Under coach Glen Hanlon, the Caps’ traditional emphasis of defense is emerging again.

Washington killed 81.7 percent of its shorthanded situations during its 11-25-4-1 first half, but the percentage zoomed to 95.2 (20 of 21, including three when they were two men short) during the Caps’ just-completed 2-1-1 homestand.

By comparison, New Jersey leads the NHL at an 87.5 percent clip.

“Without a doubt, our penalty-killing has been our saving grace,” said Hanlon, who spent a practice the day after a Jan.7 loss to Phoenix refining the penalty-killing to make it more aggressive up the ice while also focusing on getting the puck out of the defensive zone as quickly as possible.

“Our PK has come a long way the last four or five games,” said defenseman Brendan Witt, Washington’s prime penalty-killer. “Before guys weren’t sure where to go. Glen tweaked our approach a bit and challenged us with a positive attitude to make it work. Now we’re all on the same page. We’ve been structurally pretty solid. We’re keeping their shots limited to the outside. We’re clearing the pucks a lot better. It’s a momentum shift when you get the puck down to the other end and get fresh legs out there on the ice.”

The Caps have been outscored 103-69 at even strength, making opponents’ power-play goals even more costly.

“If you’re killing penalties, you’re keeping yourself in the game,” Caps defenseman Sergei Gonchar said. “We’ve been working on it and now finally that’s paying off.”

The penalty-killing has also been a team effort. Hanlon’s penalty-killing forwards of late have been specialists Jeff Halpern and Mike Grier, the normally offensive-minded Peter Bondra and career minor leaguer Darcy Verot.

Trent Whitfield and Bates Battaglia also have seen shorthanded time as have all the defensemen except newly acquired Todd Rohloff. At 35, Bondra is still Washington’s fastest skater while Verot, playing with the confidence Hanlon has in him, won six of his seven faceoffs in Wednesday’s 3-3 tie with Calgary.

“The clears are so important,” Hanlon said. “Clear the puck and you can rotate your best penalty-killers every 15 seconds or so. But if you get stuck in your own zone for 45 seconds, you almost can’t recover … Our mentality is taking pride in defensive hockey. We might not ever be the New Jersey Devils, but I would like to see us play like the old Washington Capitals. There are so many points available in this day and age than ever before for hard-working teams. That’s the kind of team we want to be.”

Notes — Goalie Olie Kolzig stopped 110 of 116 shots during the homestand to lower his goal-against from 3.13 to 2.95. “We don’t expect him to play any better,” Hanlon said. … Centers Robert Lang and Kip Miller missed practice with the flu. Rather than risk being short at the spot for the weekend games against the Devils and Pittsburgh, the Caps likely will recall a center from Portland of the American Hockey League today.