I love the dude in the back here. (Photo: Rob Carr)

You’re like, “No way. No way Peter can find awesome things right now. The Caps have lost like seventy games straight. Except for stupid fancystats, he can’t name anything awesome about this team at all.”

Challenge accepted, holmes. The Capitals are awesome. I think I’ve found one spot where they can increase awesomeness in particular. Plus: did you even see the top line last night? They were awesome!

Not Ranked: A little social experiment. If a group of people getting upset when you use a disparaging word means they’re “too easily offended,” what do we call it when a group of people gets even more upset when you DON’T use a word?

4. One of These Things is Not Like the Others

So, here’s something I noticed. I’m gonna bust out some powderpuff pink from the snapshot.

Situation Possession Rank TOI Tied 55.3% 4 223.3 Trailing 63.1% 3 134.8 Leading 47.8% 16 209.2

The Caps are awesome most of the time.

But when they have the lead, the Caps’ shot-attempt percentage drops to the bottom half of the league. They’re sitting back, taking their foot off the gas, drinking too much sweet tea, letting the grass grow under their feet, and however else you want to put it. I’ve been writing about how bad bounces and flukey goals and PDO and small sample size are hurting the Caps, but this is a factor too. As your boy JP pointed out:

If I'm not mistaken, the #Caps have lead in the second period or later in each game of the five-game losing streak. #hairball — Japers' Rink (@JapersRink) November 5, 2014

There’s always something to work on, even when a team has fundamentals as strong as the Caps. So here’s something for Barry to stick in his pipe and smoke: SCOAR MOAR GOALS, sir.

3. The Rain Off Your Back

I don’t get upset when people nonsensically trash Alex Ovechkin. I certainly do not “crap my pants.” But I do think it’s appropriate and constructive to identify when it happens and point out how they’re wrong (if they actually are). It is of interest to and fun for me, it’s useful to readers, and it’s somewhat corrective to hockey media overall. Those are good criteria for writing an article on RMNB in my book.

So Alex Ovechkin is the Washington Capitals franchise point leader and he’s (probably) the best scorer in the league, and he’s in a cool commercial with Lebron, and his puck possession is where it always should have been. We know he’s great. He is not the problem and he (almost) never has been.

But when 120 Sports discussed Alex Ovechkin, the only point they made is that he is not smart enough to play hockey. That’s bad, unsubstantiated analysis (which I’ve discussed at length before). Michael Kim told me yesterday he didn’t like how articulated it in that video. I totally accept that clarification and I’m happy to move on. It’s just unfortunate timing that this video popped up not five minutes after I took a dig at John Shannon for the provably false “selfish Russian” meme he put forth over the weekend.

This all reminds me why I don’t watch Sportscenter and I don’t make time for much sports talk radio. There’s less accountability on those programs than on the Capitals bench. There’s a ton of ways to talk about and criticize Alex Ovechkin without visiting Slandertown, and I welcome it. The rest of it– meh— it bugs me not at all, and that is awesome.

2. You, Again

Ian and I listed our expected costs for the future, then we struck through all the stuff we didn’t absolutely need in order to survive. We landed at around $5000, so that was the goal for our fundraiser. You guys hit that total in two hours and doubled it in eight.

(I think you just want the t-shirts. I don’t blame you. They’re awesome.)

All the money you donate will be invested into making RMNB better and more accessible. There are a million things we’ve wanted to do that we could not simply because we didn’t have the capital and because Matt Bradley put out a restraining order against me. Thanks to you, one of those obstacles is now gone.

You are awesome, and I actually love you.

I’d also like to add that our friends at Swedish Meatballs are raising money to help a missionary trip to rural Australia. If you can help them out, please do. That’s probably a worthier cause than us throwing parties and buying servers.

1. Top-Line Tommy

Photo: Patrick McDermott

I spent a ton of time last season writing about what a bum deal Tom Wilson was getting. He was fighting too much, skating too little, and getting paired with weak linemates, That is SO over now.

Tom Wilson played on the top line of the Washington Capitals last night. Here’s how it went.

Alex Ovechkin got six shots on goal during 5v5.

Tom Wilson got five shots on goal during 5v5.

Wilson’s and Ovechkin’s output was 41 percent of the Caps’ total 5v5 shots.

Wilson and Ovi had possession north of 60 percent.

The Caps didn’t get scored on while Wilson was on the ice.

Wilson got Calgary’s best player into the penalty box for two minutes.

I’m making a note here: huge success.

If Wilson really is a faster Mike Knuble, and if he can exercise the same discipline we saw last night, and if he can keep on shooting, then he’s the best damn winger we could ask for. Keep up the good work.