Penalty-kill woes plaguing Capitals

Before Friday night, no team in the NHL had allowed more power-play goals than the Washington Capitals.

The Caps yielded seven extra-man goals in their first four games, including the last four the team has given up. Their penalty-killing proficiency of 70.8 percent ranks 25th in the league.

“I think we’ve got to buckle down more,” center Boyd Gordon said. “If we need to get the puck out, get it out, and if we need to win a draw, win a draw. As a unit everyone has to be better. Especially with all the penalties now - half the game is power play or penalty kill. We know we have to be better.”

Still, Caps coach Bruce Boudreau doesn’t see a major cause for concern with his penalty killers just yet. Defenseman Shaone Morrisonn said the Caps were victims of a couple of bad bounces during their 4-3 victory at Mellon Arena on Thursday night.

Pittsburgh’s first goal hit the right post before bouncing off goaltender Jose Theodore’s skates and in - “fluky” by Boudreau’s standards - and the third goal came at the end of a long three-on-five and hit Morrisonn on the way in.

“The second goal was the only one where I thought we might have faulted with [Alexander] Semin coming down low instead of staying high with [Evgeni] Malkin,” Boudreau said. “I don’t think the penalty killing has been anywhere near as bad it can be portrayed numbers-wise this early in the season.”

The Caps will try to improve their penalty-killing prowess Saturday night against New Jersey at Verizon Center, but they will likely have to do it without defenseman Tom Poti, who is not expected to play because of a groin injury.

Poti is one of the team’s top penalty killers and logs lots of minutes in those situations.

“He’s got a great stick, so someone is just going to have to step in on ‘D’ that’s not used to being on the penalty kill,” center David Steckel said.

Gordon and Steckel are expected to be two of the team’s top faceoff players, along with Sergei Fedorov, and that’s one area the Caps’ penalty-killing units need to improve. Faceoffs increase in importance when killing penalties because losing them often leads to the opposing team setting up in the offensive zone.

The Caps ranked in the top third in the league at winning faceoffs last season at 51.2 percent, but that number has dipped to 46.8 percent this year. When short-handed, the Caps have won only 21 of 46 draws, including 12 of 33 taken by Steckel or Fedorov.

Another issue is the Caps have taken too many penalties. Washington is short-handed an average of six times a game, which trails only Tampa Bay, Philadelphia and Anaheim. Those three teams had played a combined 12 games before Friday night and lost all 12 of them.

“We’ve got to stop taking penalties,” Morrisonn said. “Aggressive penalties are one thing, but lazy penalties - I took a couple [Thursday] night that weren’t very good. We’ve got to clean that up, and that will help keep the guys on the PK fresh.”

Note - The Capitals called up Chris Bourque from American Hockey League affiliate Hershey on Friday. Bourque has two goals and three assists in three games with the Bears this season.