March 16 vs. Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena
Time: 10:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Stream: MonSports.net/Stream
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (31-25-9)
Vancouver Canucks (42-17-8)
Following an uplifting and crucial victory over the Kraken in Seattle on Thursday, and an off day in Vancouver on Friday, the Caps are back in action on Saturday night when they take on the Canucks at Rogers Arena.
Saturday’s game is the fourth contest in a five-game road trip for the Caps, who will finally head home after Monday’s trip finale against the Flames in Calgary. Thursday’s 2-1 triumph in Seattle halted a two-game slide at the outset of the journey, and the Caps desperately needed to stop that tailspin on Thursday in the Emerald City, a night after a 7-2 smacking at the hands of the Oilers in Edmonton.
Connor McMichael’s breakaway goal in the back half of the third period snapped a 1-1 tie in a tight-checking game, giving Washington its 14th one-goal triumph of the season, but its first victory by the smallest of margins since Feb. 17 in Montreal.
After dropping the first two games of the trip, the Caps had to have Thursday’s game in Seattle, and they eked out a crucial victory.
“I’m really proud of the entire group,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “As difficult of circumstances as you’ll find in this league from a back-to-back standpoint of getting in at two in the morning, travel, the border, all that stuff, and playing a later game [Wednesday] night in Edmonton that starts at 8:30 or whatever it was.
“For us to play the game that we did in Seattle’s building, against a good hockey team that was rested, just full commitment. Every single guy doing the exact things that we talked about from a detail standpoint and from a competitive standpoint. It was impressive to watch.”
T.J. Oshie’s power play goal late in the second period gave the Caps their first lead of the road trip at 1-0, but Seattle answered back with a power-play goal of its own early in the third. That set the stage for McMichael’s game-winner, with 8:24 remaining in regulation.
“You give up that 1-1 goal, and now all of a sudden the building comes alive,” says Carbery. “You’re hanging on, and now you’re like, ‘Is this thing going to overtime at 1-1? Can we hang on? They’ve got all the momentum.’ And like I said before, that’s a huge goal by Mikey. Those aren’t easy. But against [Seattle goalie] Joey Daccord in that situation, I felt like he a little bit of a pre-scout from the Calder Cup Final last year, playing against him and knowing his tendencies.”
McMichael scored against Daccord in both Game 6 and 7 of the Calder Cup Final in Coachella Valley last June, as the AHL Hershey Bears claimed their 12th Calder Cup title. It was Daccord’s puck-handling gaffe that led to Oshie’s gift of a power-play goal in the second period, a massive turning point that finally gave Washington its first scoreboard lead of the road trip.
“Very, very important,” asserts Oshie. “Obviously, the last two games have been not great for us. So to get the lead, and then quickly switch that mindset of playing from behind for a couple of games, and finding a way to eliminate their chances and keep the momentum on our side is very important.
“In this League, you want to try to get that first goal. That first goal is very important. Once you get it, you’ve got to know how to play with a lead and how to shut other teams down, and how to limit their chances, limit your turnovers. And I thought we did a good job of that tonight.”
Seattle aside, Washington has faced a murderers’ row of opposition on this trip, and Vancouver continues the trend. The Canucks are 21-6-4 on home ice this season, and the Caps succumbed to a pair of teams with impressive home ice marks to open the trip, falling in Winnipeg (22-9-2) and Edmonton (21-8-2).
Despite their strong home record this season, the Canucks have won just one of their last four (1-1-2) at Rogers Arena, and they suffered a stinging setback in their most recent game on Wednesday night here. Vancouver owned a 3-0 lead over Colorado, but the Avalanche stormed back for four unanswered goals to take a 4-3 overtime victory.
In the previous meeting between the Caps and the Canucks in D.C. on Super Bowl Sunday – Feb. 11 – the Caps held their own against Vancouver. Washington jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a Nic Dowd goal just 68 seconds after opening puck drop, and the Caps took a one-goal lead again in the second period on an Alex Ovechkin goal. But the Canucks eventually prevailed by a 3-2 count, getting the overtime game-winner from J.T. Miller in the waning seconds of the extra session.
