Caps Clash with Canes Under Lights
Caps take it outside for fourth time in franchise history, facing Carolina in Saturday's Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series game
The Caps are in Raleigh for a Saturday night date with the Carolina Hurricanes, but this is no ordinary Metro Division matchup. Washington and Carolina are the combatants in the Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series game at Carter-Finley Stadium, just a stone's throw from the Hurricanes' home rink, PNC Arena.
Saturday's game in Raleigh - the first outdoor NHL game in the state of North Carolina - is Washington's fourth outdoor game in just over a dozen years, and the Caps will be seeking to maintain their perfect 3-0-0 record in the open air.
All the usual splendor of hockey outdoors should be at the forefront for Saturday's game, but the Capitals come into the contest carrying a three-game point drought, their first losing streak of that length all season. There is no good time to lose three straight games in regulation, but matters are a bit more urgent for Washington right now because of the lengthy list of players missing from their lineup, as well as the number of teams creeping up behind them in the chase for the two Eastern Conference wild card playoff berths.
Following an uplifting 2-1 win over the Bruins in Boston last Saturday, the Caps returned to D.C. for a three-game homestand. But home cooking hasn't agreed with the Capitals of late; they dropped all three games - never holding a lead at any point in any of the three - and they've now won only three of their last 11 games (3-6-2) at Capital One Arena.
The Caps come into Saturday's game on the heels of a 6-3 loss to Florida on Thursday night in the homestand finale. Washington was down 3-0 by the midpoint of that contest, but it staged a late rally with a pair of power-play goals in the third, closing the gap to 4-3 before the Panthers potted a pair of empty-net goals in the waning minutes.
Florida's victory pulled it into a tie with Washington for the second and final wild card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.
"We were pushing," says Caps winger Garnet Hathaway. "We wanted to come out and win that [third] period. We wanted to get back into it and [we made it] a one-goal game in our building. We know it's not over, there's plenty of time left. I think we pushed, but we opened up a little bit, and that tends to happen.
"It wasn't a lack of effort. It was us trying to make plays and it just happened to come back [into our end], and [the Panthers] executed. I don't think they had a lot of them, it just happened to kind of snowball pretty quick, and the hole got too deep."
Playing without Alex Ovechkin (personal), John Carlson (upper body) and Tom Wilson (lower body, the Caps were sparked by T.J. Oshie's physicality late in the second period, but it wasn't quite enough to get them over the hump. With the two goals on the power play in the third, the Caps did manage to avoid the ignominy of an eighth straight home game with two or fewer goals scored, though they have been limited to two or fewer goals scored in seven of their last nine games overall, regardless of venue.
"Obviously when you're missing guys like that, they're irreplaceable, a guy like Carly and obviously [Ovechkin]," says Caps center Dylan Strome. "We've managed okay without Carly, and we're kind of stumbling a bit now without [Ovechkin]. We've got to find a way to get these points and find a way to create some more traffic in front of the net. I feel like teams are doing it to us, and we've got to start doing it back to teams."
Washington hopes its lengthy list of ailing and missing players doesn't grow longer in the wake of Thursday's loss. Without Ovechkin in the lineup, Marcus Johansson (13) is Washington's leading goal scorer right now, but Johansson left the game and went down the tunnel with about seven minutes left in the third and did not return.
The second of the three losses on the homestand was a 3-2 setback to Carolina on Tuesday, a game in which Washington played well enough to win. The Caps are 9-3-2 against the Hurricanes since 2018-19, including a pair of one-goal losses this season, one of them in a shootout.
Can playing a big game on a big stage against a rival help spark the Capitals?
"Yeah, probably," says Caps defenseman Dmitry Orlov. "Your whole family is coming to see it, so you should bring your 'A' game. And I think we should have confidence and believe in ourselves. If you're going to be scared to play, nothing good happens. We are not a young team, and we've got experience. We just need to wake up and start playing."
Caps players are excited to play outdoors in front of a big crowd and a national television audience, but they realize that the spectacle is secondary to the need for points right now. This is a weekend business trip.
"Listen," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "At the end of the day, it's a big game. It's an outdoor game. We've got two points that have got to come our way, they've got to come to our column. And that's it. There's things that we can do better, and we have to do them better."
"We've got to come together as a team and figure out a way to get these points," says Strome. Obviously, coming down the stretch - I'm not sure how many games we have left, 25 or 26 - and we're going to need to win at least 15, 16, 17 of those to have a chance. Points are huge right now."
While the Caps were falling to the Panthers at home on Thursday, Carolina was handing the Canadiens a 6-2 drubbing at PNC Arena. With that victory, the Hurricanes improved to 26-4-3 in their last 33 games, dating back to Nov. 26. The Canes have had winning streaks of 11 and seven games during that run.
Carolina has suffered only 10 regulation losses in its 54 games this season; only Boston (eight) has fewer.
