Feb. 13 vs. Colorado Avalanche at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Stream: MonSports.net/Stream
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Colorado Avalanche (32-17-4)
Washington Capitals (23-20-8)
The Colorado Avalanche is in town on Tuesday night, supplying the opposition as the Capitals conclude a quick two-game homestand against Western Conference foes. Washington played well enough to win in Sunday afternoon’s homestand opener against Vancouver, but it fell 3-2 in overtime on a J.T. Miller goal.
After playing four games in a span of six nights – and three full games in three different cities in less than 72 hours – the Caps were able to take Monday off before the challenge of taking on the Avalanche. Washington’s busy weekend concluded with its 11th set of back-to-back games – the highest total in the League to this point – and it played extremely well in each game, going up against the top two teams in the NHL with just 22 hours between opening puck drops.
In blanking the Bruins 3-0 in Boston on Saturday and getting a point in Sunday’s loss to the Canucks, the Caps put together their best set of consecutive 60-minute performances since probably before the holiday break. Saturday’s win snapped a six-game slide (0-5-1), a streak peppered with games against recent Stanley Cup finalists. On Saturday in Boston, the Caps put it all together. A day later at home against Vancouver, they also played well enough to win.
“Everyone knew we were on a skid there,” says Caps’ goalie Darcy Kuemper. “And when it’s going like that, it can kind of snowball on you. Whenever you can start building your game – even if it doesn’t result in wins – just building the way you play and turning things around, it’s great to see us doing that. Now, we’ve just got to keep it going.”
Caps’ captain Alex Ovechkin is in the midst of his first sustained hot streak of the season; he has scored in each of the last five games. That’s his longest personal goal-scoring streak in nearly three years; he had a five-game spree from March 11-19, 2021.
Ovechkin’s five-game lamplighting streak is just the fifth in NHL history by a player aged 38 or older. He joins Hall of Famers Johnny Bucyk (1974-75) and Brett Hull (2003-04) as well as ex-Cap Justin Williams (2019-20) and Dallas forward Joe Pavelski (2022-23) on that short list. Hull’s streak was seven games in duration, and Bucyk’s stretched to six.
“It’s nice to see the big man rolling; obviously he’s a hard guy to stop,” says Washington winger T.J. Oshie, the opposite winger on Ovechkin’s line for the last couple of games. “Now you’re lucky when you’re able to line up on the right side across from him, and a lot of history there for me and him.
“I feel like I have a pretty good on where he wants me and where he’s going to be, and we’ve been getting some good chances, especially some odd man rushes with him and [Dylan Strome] going up the ice.”
The line of Ovechkin, Strome and Oshie features three of the hottest sticks on what has been a scoring-challenged Capitals team all season. Ovechkin has 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in his last 15 games. Strome has 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in his last 18 games, and Oshie has 13 points (eight goals, five assists) in his last 15 games.
The Caps will certainly need to muster another strong outing on Tuesday against the Avs. In addition to building its game as Kuemper mentioned, Washington has built some confidence as well, and it will seek to blend the building and the confidence into the consistency and pace that coach Spencer Carbery has been looking from his squad all season.
“Now is the time to make a push,” says Caps’ center Nic Dowd. “There’s plenty of games left for us to get back to where we want to be. I think everybody in the locker room knows the urgency that it’s going to take for us to get where we want to be by the end of the season.
“But I thought [Saturday in Boston] we played a hell of a game in a very tough building against a really good hockey team, and I thought we played really well [Sunday vs. Vancouver]. [Saturday] was our A+ game, all over the ice, and I think for every individual, and as a team. That’s not going to happen every night. Good teams learn how to stay consistent, so when we don’t have our good nights, we can still win hockey games.”
Some three weeks ago in Denver, the Avs drubbed the Caps by a 6-2 count behind a four-goal outburst from Nathan Mackinnon. Colorado then smacked Los Angeles to finish up a quick homestand, but it has found the sledding a bit tougher out on the road. The Avs are lugging a four-game skid (0-3-1) into the District on Tuesday.
Colorado’s current six-game road trip started just over a week ago – right after the All-Star break – with a 2-1 overtime loss to the Rangers in New York. The Avs have followed that up with their first set of three consecutive regulation losses this season, setbacks in New Jersey, Carolina and Florida, respectively.
The Avs have been outscored by a combined total of 16-6 during the trip to date; the journey concludes on Thursday in Tampa. MacKinnon departed Saturday’s 4-0 loss to the Panthers midway through the third period when he was upended and landed on his chin, opening up a wound that required some repair. Scoreless in his last three games, MacKinnon is second in the League’s scoring race with 85 points. He picked up at least a point in 33 of 34 games prior to his current dry spell, his longest of the season to date.
