Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.sports From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Things click outside of Patrick Date: Sun, 8 Nov 92 15:50:37 EST Message-ID: \SE C;SPORTS;HOCKEY;NEWS ANALYSIS \HD Things click outside of Patrick \BY David Elfin \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT HARTFORD, Conn. HARTFORD, Conn. - When it comes to playing this side of the Mis-sissippi River but outside of the Patrick Division, you can't beat the Washington Capitals. Last night's 6-2 victory over the Hartford Whalers at the Hartford Civic Center improved the Caps to 5-0-1 when they play out of the division but close to home. Otherwise, the Caps are 1-8, including an 0-5 record in the Patrick, to which they return Wednesday in New York against the Rangers for the first of three straight division games. That disastrous Patrick start is a complete turnaround from last season when the Caps opened with nine division victories and went on to lead the NHL with a 22-12-1 intradivision record against the NHL's toughest division in a decade. And don't think the Caps just picked on the lowly Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders. Washington went 5-2 against the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, regular-season champion Rangers and the New Jersey Devils. Washington's non-division success is fine, but with 37 of their 84 games against Patrick foes, the Caps will be hard-pressed to make the playoffs without breaking even in the division. Remember that each Patrick game is really doubly important because a victory not only gives the Caps two points but deprives a division foe of the same. "We've been playing better since the Vancouver game [3-1-1 since] and we could have won that night," said Caps defenseman Kevin Hatcher. "We're awfully close to getting back in the Patrick race [they've tied the Islanders for fourth]. Jimmy Hrivnak's giving us the big stops in goal and we're limiting the quality chances he has to face. Because we're playing better in our own end, we're able to jump up in the play more often and help the offense." Although Mike Ridley did snap his eight-game goal drought to make it 4-0 late in the second period and Alan May and Kelly Miller scored in the final 1:55, defensemen Hatcher, Sylvain Cote and Calle Johansson have scored eight of Washington's 17 goals in its current 3-1-1 streak. With Dino Ciccarelli and Randy Burridge permanently missing from last season's club-record, 330-goal attack and with fellow high-scoring forwards Dimitri Khristich and Michal Pivonka out with injuries for most of the season so far, the Caps know they can't count on the guys up front to provide as much offense. So the defensemen are taking charge of the offense. Through 15 games this season, the defensemen have scored 13 of Washington's 48 goals (27.1 percent). This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM