That's mostly good. You want to get bang for your buck for sure. But one reason the Caps have tumbled from second in the league in scoring last season to 12th in '16-17 is that they have a handful of forwards who are underachieving in terms of what's generally expected of them.
Jay Beagle is fifth on the team in goals with four, and if anything, he is overachieving to this point in the season. Beagle's single-season career high is 10 goals, in 2014-15.
Evgeny Kuznetsov and Daniel Winnik each have three goals. Kuznetsov netted 20 last season in his second full campaign in the league. Winnik's career high is 11, a figure he has reached twice (in 2007-08 and in 2010-11), so he can also be seen as overachieving to this point.
Williams, Andre Burakovsky, Lars Eller and Brett Connolly have two goals each to this point. Tom Wilson has one goal, and the Caps' defensive corps has combined for just three goals in 21 games, though the blueliners have had a regular and consistent presence in the team's scoring output with 39 points in 21 games.
Connolly hasn't played in every game and hasn't gotten top nine ice time in the games in which he has played. More is expected from all of the others, aside from Beagle and Winnik.
"I know that we have some guys - with myself at the top of the list - who are not finding the back of the net," states Williams. "And sometimes when you don't do that for an extended period of time, the most important thing is keeping the rest of your game sharp.
"You might want to try and start to cheat offensively and not play great in the [defensive] zone when the fact of the matter is maybe when you were scoring, you were playing great in the [defensive] zone and that's how you were getting your chances, off of turnovers. One of the most important things is not to cheat, because then you just find a lot more holes."
Washington's primary offseason aim was to improve its secondary scoring by building a group of top nine forwards that could produce consistently. The idea being if the team had nine forwards capable of reaching double-digit goal totals, the team would be a bit more slump proof offensively. That hasn't worked out so far, but the Caps have 61 games with which to improve that part of their game.
"It's a team game," says Wilson. "The power play has been so good to us for so many years and so many games, and right now we just need to win the games with five-on-five scoring. It hasn't been good enough. There are a lot of guys that will be the first guys to tell you they need to chip in, myself included. It's one of those times in hockey where there's a little adversity and you've got to bear down; maybe you're gripping the stick a little tight. But at the end of the day, it's a pretty good life and it's a good league. We've got to find a way to come to the rink every day, do our job and get the puck in the back of the net."
