Back-To-Back – Washington is finishing up its ninth set of back-to-back games tonight in Edmonton against the Oilers, who are reaching the middle of a marathon eight-game homestand. Earlier this week, the Oilers fell to a pair of Metro Division teams – New Jersey and Pittsburgh – who were in the same situation as the Caps will be tonight, finishing a back-to-back after having vanquished the Flames the night before in Calgary.
But it’s doubtful that the Devils or the Penguins arrived at their Edmonton hotel at 3:30 am the morning of the game, as the Caps did after some Friday night travel woes.
“Once we get to the rink and once we start to prepare for the Edmonton Oilers, it’s another game and it’s a back-to-back,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “And so, it’s all the same things that you would emphasize in a back-to-back on the road.
“Does the travel provide an individual hiccup to preparation, some altering of meeting times? No doubt, and that’s what we went through today. But once guys get to the rink and staff gets to the rink, it’s business as usual.”
Professional sports teams are at the mercy of the weather and many other factors as they make their way across the continent during the season, and snafus and delays and hiccups are going to happen.
But as the Caps try to staple together back-to-back wins for the first time since Dec. 2-3, perhaps they can take some solace in the fact that the last time they did so was also in consecutive road games with travel issues the previous night.
When the Caps swarmed the Sharks 7-1 in San Jose on Dec. 3, they did so after arriving at the hotel at 3 am for a 7 pm local start that night.
Playing two games in as many nights is never easy even without travel trouble, but doing so against the high-octane Oilers in their building is certainly not going to be a picnic, especially with them smarting from a pair of losses here in their last two games.
“You probably went through our schedule when was it released in July, and you circled a few of the most difficult games on that 82-game schedule,” says Carbery. “You would circle this game right here. We know all about them and how talented their team is and how successful their team has been. And then you couple with that with just [the knowledge that] on a regular year coming in here and playing them on the road in their building is a significant challenge. And then you add one more rung to that of playing them on a back-to-back, where they’re rested.
“And let’s just put one more cherry on the top. They haven’t done very well of late, and they are extremely unhappy with the way the last couple games have gone. I’m sure Leon [Draisaitl] will probably feel a little bit better tonight than he did with the travel and hearing [Oilers coach] Kris [Knoblauch] talk about that this morning.
“So we understand the difficulties, but at the same time, there’s no reason why we can’t come in here and play well, and give them issues, and be able to hang with the Edmonton Oilers on a back-to-back. So, there will be zero excuses for our group of why we can’t perform at a high level tonight. And we have been in this situation, we’ve gone into Montreal and played well, and in the exact same scenario We’ve played in this building and played well in previous years. So, there’s absolute optimism and positivity from our group of how we’re going to play today, and that’s what the expectation needs to be.”
Pillars – As they try to push their way back into the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference over their final 30 games of the season, the Caps hope to lean on some of the elements that served them so well in Friday night’s 3-1 victory over the Flames in Calgary.
After the Flames doubled up the Caps in first-period shots on net – and held Washington without a shot for more than 10 minutes – the Caps got right in the game’s back 40. Three factors came to the fore to help the Caps grab two points: their forecheck, the power play, and their 5-on-5 defense.
All will be needed repeatedly and consistently over the season’s remaining 30 games.
First, the forecheck. The game-winning goal came on the forecheck in the aftermath of a Calgary icing violation. What made it special was Justin Sourdif lost the ensuing right dot draw, but he and Tom Wilson forechecked voraciously to gain possession, and within a dozen seconds, the duo combined to set up Aliaksei Protas for the game-winning goal.
The play was virtually identical to one Sourdif generated in Montreal on Nov. 20 in an 8-4 Washington win, a game replete with momentum shifts. Sourdif also lost a right dot draw after an icing in that game, but then he hunted down and repossessed the puck and started a lengthy forechecking sequence that led to a Jakob Chychrun goal late in the second period, and a needed momentum shift for Washington.
“The hard thing with forechecking in this league and doing it consistently at a high level is every team talks about being a good forechecking team and putting pucks in and going in and getting them back. It’s the consistency at which you do it, because to just do it time and time and time and time again.
“The reality is, you’re going to fail a bunch on a forecheck. A team is going to break your pressure. Good teams are going to be able to break out against you. So can you have the resiliency to just do it time and time again, even when you’re unsuccessful with it? And knowing that over time, if we do this 50 times in a row, we might only get 35 back, but we’re going to control play, and we’re going to play on their half of the rink.”
Washington’s power play did not score in Friday’s game. But the Caps dominated in the offensive zone, moved the puck crisply and were able to engineer several successful retrievals.
Throughout the early season struggles of the extra-man unit, Carbery continually noted how the unit needs to be a net positive whether it scores or not; it can’t lose momentum for the team and ideally it helps foster 5-on-5 success. That’s how it looked on Friday night.
“I think we were just good early, at breaking pressure and then attacking,” says Carbery. “So, [Ryan] Leonard walks downhill – probably, I’m going to guess, three or four times – where he’s got good looks. It’s hard to score in those scenarios, but usually it leads to maybe a second or a third puck off the rebound, off the spray. So, I thought we did a good job of essentially beating their pressure and then attack right away. The sifter from [Chychrun]; we get it up top. He’s got the lane, he sifts it in there, it goes off the post. Great opportunity right there. So, I thought we broke pressure and then didn’t wait around. We attacked right away.”
Calgary’s lone goal of Friday’s game came on a first-period power play. After the first period, Washington limited the Flames to just eight shots on net at 5-on-5, and none over a span of more than 16 minutes to start the second period.
When the Caps are stingy defensively, they’re typically successful. Fifty-two games into the season, Washington has limited its foes to two or fewer goals against in 23 games this season, posting a splendid 19-1-3 record when it does.
Lately though, the Caps have struggled to do so. They’ve had only five such games (3-0-2) in their last 18, over which they’ve posted a 6-10-2 record overall.
“[We were] getting out of our zone quickly and being very, very predictable and simple sometimes,” says Carbery. “In moving a puck out of our zone, sometimes we want to use the middle, sometimes we want to make a play and move a puck potentially back. But sometimes the best recipe for our success is to move that puck as quickly as we possibly can and don’t overcomplicate it. And that’s what you saw a lot [Friday] night. And then that leads us into being able to establish a forecheck.”
In The Nets – For the eighth time in Washington’s nine sets of back-to-backs to this juncture of the campaign, Charlie Lindgren gets the net for Washington. Lindgren is 2-2-1 in his last five starts and is seeking his eighth win of the season.
Lifetime against the Oilers, is 3-1-0 with a 3.51 GAA and an .882 save pct. in four appearances, four starts.
For the Oilers, Connor Ingram gets the nod in net for the Oilers. Edmonton is currently carrying three goaltenders, and Ingram has been the most consistently effective member of the trio this season, posting a 5-3-1 record with a 2.22 GAA and a .917 pct. in his nine appearances, all starts.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Ingram is 1-1-0 with a 3.68 GAA and an .878 save pct. in three appearances, all starts.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and the Oilers might look on Saturday night in Edmonton:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
24-McMichael, 17-Strome, 9-Leonard
21-Protas, 34-Sourdif, 43-Wilson
8-Ovechkin, 26-Dowd, 53-Frank
22-Duhaime, 29-Lapierre, 72-Beauvillier
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
15-Milano
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
Injured/Out
80-Dubois (abdomen)
EDMONTON
Forwards
93-Nugent-Hopkins, 97-McDavid, 18-Hyman
92-Podkolzin, 29-Draisaitl, 28-Roslovic
53-Howard, 10-Frederic, 22-Savoie
88-Mangiapane, 20-Lazar, 13-Janmark
Defensemen
14-Ekholm, 2-Bouchard
25-Nurse, 49-Emberson
96-Walman, 24-Stastney
Goalies
35-Jarry
30-Pickard
Healthy Extras
75-Regula
Injured/Out
19-Henrique (undisclosed)
42-Kapanen (undisclosed)
