Caps Clash with Jackets
Caps start division-heavy stretch and play front end of set of back-to-backs on Thursday night in Columbus
Following a three-game homestand, the Caps make a quick trip to Ohio to face the Columbus Blue Jackets for the first time this season on Thursday night. That game is the first of three meetings between the two Metropolitan Division denizens this month; the Caps and Jackets will meet again in Washington on Sunday and back in Columbus on Jan. 31 in Washington's final game ahead of the All-Star break and its bye week.
The Caps carry a six-game road winning streak into Thursday's game in Columbus. With a win over the Jackets, the Caps could break a franchise record for consecutive road victories that has stood for nearly 38 years and has been matched just once (in 2011) since.
Washington pulled points in all three games on its recent homestand (1-0-2), but it left a pair of points on the table in overtime losses to Ottawa and Buffalo. In the homestand finale on Tuesday against the Sabres, the Capitals rallied back from a 3-1 deficit late in the third period to forge a 4-3 lead midway through the third. But Buffalo tied the game on a Tyson Jost goal with 8:18 remaining in regulation, and Washington needed to kill off a pair of late penalties just to force overtime and collect the first point.
"Overall, I don't think that's a bad game," says Caps center Evgeny Kuznetsov. "I think the two [penalty] kills in the end, that's huge. That's good for us and that's an unbelievable opportunity for practicing those things, and we did a good job. Unfortunately, they scored the goal [in overtime], but overall that wasn't a bad game for us."
Tage Thompson filled his hat trick to win it for the Sabres in overtime, but Caps' captain Alex Ovechkin scored twice to push his season's total to 28 and his career total to 808. Ovechkin now has amassed 15 goals and 22 points in his last 13 games, with five multi-goal outings sprinkled throughout that stretch.
In Tuesday's game, Ovechkin pumped 15 shot attempts, getting seven of them on net and two of them behind Buffalo's U.P. Luukkonen, the 167th goaltender he has scored upon in his 18 seasons in the NHL. Ovechkin's first goal came two seconds after a Kuznetsov face-off win in the offensive zone, and his second goal came seconds after Kuznetsov lost an offensive draw, but Conor Sheary instantly forced a turnover behind the Buffalo net and fed the captain in front just six seconds after the draw.
For the second time in as many games, Washington got a key performer off injured reserve and back into its lineup. Defenseman Martin Fehervary returned on Saturday against Montreal following a four-week absence and right wing T.J. Oshie came back into the lineup on Tuesday against Buffalo after missing the Caps' previous six games.
"A little bit of an inconsistent game for us," says Oshie of Tuesday's loss. "Not a great first period at all, with [goaltender Darcy Kuemper] kind of keeping us in it there. I thought [we played] a good second, and a pretty decent third, too. We just gave up a couple there.
"But our kill did a great job getting us the one point, and then a play again in OT kind of like the other night [against Ottawa] where it's just a very small, little mistake, and it ended up costing us, which 3-on-3 overtime usually does.
"Inconsistent game for us, and something that I think we've been doing a good job of is playing consistently, consistently hard and good defensively. Tonight, just a little too inconsistent against a team that can make you pay for playing like that."
Once Thursday's game in Columbus is in the books, the Capitals will be halfway through the 2022-23 season. After struggling to forge a 7-10-3 mark in their first 20 games of the campaign, the Capitals put together a sterling 14-3-3 mark over their next 20 contests to insert themselves into the thick of the playoff chase in the Eastern Conference.
Washington has only played seven of its 26 games within the Metro Division, tied with Toronto for the fewest divisional games to this point of the season among all Eastern Conference clubs. Beginning with Thursday's game in Columbus, the Caps will play five of their next six games against Metro foes, and they'll play seven divisional games among their 13 remaining January games.
Columbus has had a tough go of it this season, and its lengthy list of injured and ailing players has rivaled that of Washington to this point. The Jackets are buried in the Metro Division basement, 11 points behind seventh-place Philadelphia, but Columbus has only three players who have been healthy enough to suit up for each of the team's first 36 games.
The Jackets have the NHL's worst road record (2-12-1) but with a 9-11-1 mark at home, they can't be taken lightly. Columbus averages 2.61 goals per game, ranking 29th in the League in that department. The Jackets yield an average of 3.92 goals against per game, which ranks 31st ahead of only Anaheim (4.11).
