Dec. 4 vs. Arizona Coyotes at Mullett Arena
Time: 9:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Stream: MonSports.net/Stream
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (12-7-2)
Arizona Coyotes (12-9-2)
Washington concludes its five-game western road trip on Monday night in Tempe when it takes on the Arizona Coyotes on the last of 11 nights on the road. The Caps come into Monday’s game with the Coyotes with a 2-2-0 record on the journey to date, so the finale will determine whether it’s a winning trip.
Following three straight one-goal games to start the journey, the Caps dropped a 4-1 decision to the Golden Knights in Vegas on Saturday night. Limited to just nine shots on net – only two of them off the sticks of forwards – in the game’s first 40 minutes, the Caps entered the third period down just 2-0, a position they’ve found themselves in a number of times in the season’s first quarter. But Mark Stone’s goal in the first minute of the third made the mountain even bigger against the defending Cup champs.
“Obviously the first two periods were not good enough at all,” says Caps’ center Dylan Strome of Saturday’s setback. “It’s not good enough. We’re not making plays, not holding onto the puck. I thought everyone played a lot better once we got down 3-0, but obviously at that point, it’s too late. We left [goaltender Darcy Kuemper] out to dry, and it’s not good enough, nine shots through two periods.
“Obviously, we’ve got to reassess and play better coming up on Monday.”
Washington was able to avoid the ignominy of a shutout setback when Tom Wilson scored a 6-on-5 goal with 3:14 remaining in the third, the Capitals’ third such goal of the season, tied for second-most in the League.
Going into Monday’s game against the Coyotes, the Caps are again seeking to stimulate more offense. Washington has been limited to two or fewer tallies in four of its last five games (2-3-0), and the Caps rank 31st in the circuit with an average of just 2.38 goals per game.
The Caps’ fourth line of Beck Malenstyn, Nic Dowd and Nicolas Aube-Kubel has been a consistent trio, as has the more recently cobbled unit of Aliaksei Protas, Connor McMichael and Anthony Mantha. But among the remainder of the forward group, the Caps haven’t been able to find combinations that have played consistently well together.
“We’re still looking for some combinations,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “I know I’ve said this for 21 games, but we’re still looking for some line combinations. We feel like we might have found something with Mikey’s line and Dowder’s line, and then we’re looking for those other six, and figuring what that looks like, whether it’s a mix of [Alex Ovechkin], Strome, [Evgeny] Kuznetsov, [Sonny] Milano.
“Where does it all fit? Can we find a combination that can give us some consistently positive minutes? And that’s what we haven’t found. So, when we go to Strome, [Ovechkin] and [Wilson], have they been good at times? Yep. Did I feel like they were effective [Saturday] night [in Vegas]? No. So, can we get on a run where we find a line, whether it’s Stromer and [Ovechkin] or whoever it is in that six that I’m talking about, that can control play and potentially contribute offensively – point production wise – for two, three, four or five games in a row? That’s what we haven’t found thus far this season.”
The Caps will keep searching for those combinations on Monday against the Coyotes. Washington won its only previous visit to Mullett Arena, taking a 4-0 victory here last January on the strength of excellent performances from a pair of ex-Coyotes, Kuemper and Strome. Kuemper stopped all 26 shots he faced and Strome struck for a pair of goals, bookending tallies from Milano and Wilson.
Arizona enters Monday’s game with a four-game winning streak. The last time the Coyotes had a winning streak longer than four games was a six-game spree from Feb. 19-March 2, 2019, a streak in which Kuemper manned the crease in each of those half dozen contests.
Most recently, the Yotes downed the St. Louis Blues here on Saturday night by a 4-1 count.
The Coyotes are in the middle of the NHL pack in both goals for and goals against, but the Arizona power play is clicking at 25.6% this season to rank sixth in the League. The Coyotes have scored at least one power-play goal in 15 of their 23 games this season, and they’ve had four games in which they’ve delivered multiple power-play goals.
