Dec. 31 vs. Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena
Time: 12:30 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7
Boston Bruins (20-14-4)
Washington Capitals (24-10-2)
Following a three-game road stretch that was sandwiched around the NHL’s three-day holiday break, the Capitals return home for a three-game homestand, the team’s longest in two months. Washington kicks off its home stay with a New Year’s Eve matinee match against the Boston Bruins, who will be making their lone visit to the District this season.
The NHL season is a six-month marathon, an unforgiving grind littered with tricky and treacherous patches of varying lengths. When the Capitals headed home from Sunday’s 4-2 loss to the Red Wings in Detroit, they concluded one of those lengthy stretches of the schedule.
Beginning with a three-game road trip in mid-November, the Capitals played 14 of their last 21 games on the road, and all of their home stays during that stretch were brief ones of just one or two games. And to make matters worse, the Caps lost captain Alex Ovechkin to a fractured fibula in the final game of that mid-November trip, a 6-2 victory in Utah on Nov. 18. Ovechkin returned for the last two games of the stretch this weekend.
Despite being without their captain for 16 of the games, the Caps emerged with a 14-6-1 record in those 21 contests – which included a remarkable total of six sets back-to-backs – posting the third-best points percentage in the NHL across that span of 45 days, representing a quarter of the season. The Caps went 10-4-0 in the 14 road games within that stretch, winning the first nine of them consecutively.
During those 21 games, Washington scored an average of 3.33 goals per game, fifth in the League. The Caps yielded just 2.43 goals per game over that span, fourth in the NHL.
That’s a stretch of hockey the Caps can and should be proud of, but more than half of the season remains and there are no laurels to rest upon in the world’s best hockey league. And Washington is finishing up another – thankfully much shorter – patch of the schedule on Tuesday against the Bruins.
Last Tuesday, the Caps had just returned from a quick trip to Boston to finish up a set of back-to-backs and to settle into a three-day holiday hiatus from Dec. 24-26. Now, they’re in the midst of paying the price for those three days off, revving up for their third game in less than 72 hours.
Washington came out of the break with a Saturday night game in Toronto at 7 p.m. On Sunday in Detroit, start time was 5 p.m.; the 22-hour turnaround is the shortest allowed by the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the NHLPA. Tuesday’s game against the Bruins starts at 12:30 p.m., and it will conclude well before 7 p.m., which would mark the beginning of that 72-hour stretch of hockey and travel, with a border crossing included.
On the good news side of the scheduling front, Washington will play 32 of its final 46 games with exactly one day between games, and over the 20-year course of Alex Ovechkin’s career, that schedule situation has proven to be right in their collective wheelhouse. The Caps are 472-244-88 (.642) when playing with exactly one day between games since Ovechkin’s debut on Oct. 5, 2005. Among teams that have been in the League over the entirety of those two decades, only Boston (.644) carries a better record with one day between games.
Speaking of Ovechkin, it was six weeks ago that he was felled with a fractured fibula, and he returned to the Washington lineup on Saturday in Toronto. Ovechkin scored an empty-net goal Saturday against the Maple Leafs to put that game away. On Sunday in Detroit, he scored what was a big goal at the time of the game – midway through the first period – his seventh goal in the last four games he has played.
Despite missing 16 of Washington’s 36 games this season, Ovechkin has a share of the team lead in goals with Connor McMichael; both have 16 goals, tied for 19th in the circuit. With 870 career goals, the The Great Eight is now just 25 goals shy of overtaking The Great One (894) for the top spot on the NHL’s career goals ledger.
During calendar 2024, Ovechkin scored 41 goals in 65 games to rank 11th in the NHL over that span. Each of the 10 skaters ahead of him on the list has played at last seven more games than Ovechkin in 2024.
Since handing the Caps a 4-1 setback on Dec. 23 in Boston in the last game before the holiday break for both teams, the Bruins split a home-and-home set of games with Columbus. Boston fell to the Blue Jackets by a 6-2 count in Ohio on Friday, but the B’s rallied with a 4-0 shutout victory a night later in Beantown.
In defeating the Caps last week, the Bruins limited Washington to just 11 shots on net. It’s the lowest total the Capitals have managed since a March 22, 2007 game when they had 10 shots on net in a 4-3 loss to the then-defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh.
Despite getting just six shots on net in the first 40 minutes of that game nearly 18 years ago, the Caps carried a 3-2 lead into the third period. Ovechkin scored two of the goals – his 42nd and 43rd of that season, with Jiri Novotny assisting on both – and the Caps chased starting goaltender John Grahame with three goals on six shots. Alas, Carolina struck twice in the first two minutes of the third, chalking up a victory for reigning Conn Smythe Trophy Cam Ward, who made four saves in the third period in 20 minutes of relief work.
