"We are trying to do things a little but differently," says Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen of his team's penalty killing woes, "but I don't think that's what it is. That's actually helping us. We have taken a little bit more aggressive approach. We've disrupted a lot of plays up ice, on entries. We're doing a good job there. We're not spending a ton of time in zone. It's the broken plays that are turning into a really good chance and they're burying it on us.
"When it's kind of a 50/50 puck - a battle in the corner - you're down a man, so somebody is open. But we've just got to bear down and be harder on it. If you can't get it all the way down the ice, then maybe we've just got to eat a few more, or create a battle and wait for help, or whatever it is. But it seems like the broken plays are getting us right now, not the tic-tac-toe and we're stuck in our zone and we can't get it back. We'll keep at it."
It took an excellent keep at the point from Columbus center Pierre-Luc Dubois and a superb feed from Nick Foligno to set up Oliver Bjorkstrand's power-play goal against Washington on Friday, the first goal of that game. It took a great shot from Anthony Duclair to score the second one, and it the Jackets were aided on that one when Niskanen lost his stick just before the goal.
The Caps played without top two penalty killing defensemen Brooks Orpik and John Carlson on Friday; both were absent because of upper body injuries. Orpik has been sidelined for the last two weeks and is on long-term injured reserve, while Carlson is day-to-day and may be able to return to the lineup as early as Sunday. He practiced with his teammates on Sunday morning at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.
"That was really a positive sign for him to skate [Saturday]," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "We'll see how he responds the rest of the day and [Sunday] morning and we hope to have him back [Sunday] night.
"We don't want to put him into a situation where he can make anything worse. So he's got to be real close to 100 percent if he is going to be back in for us. It was a positive today that he was skating."
When the Caps started the homestand, they were scoring goals in bunches, but they were also giving them up in bunches. They'll come into Sunday's game having yielded just five goals in their last three games, and with only one of those goals against coming at five-on-five. But Washington has also scored just one five-on-five goal in its last two games, and is now in need of a spark offensively.
"It's a little bit of some moving parts and moving pieces in terms of trying to find the right combination that allows us to defend as a five-man unit really well but still can add some things offensively," says Reirden. "We'll see what happens with our lineup [Sunday], how we put it together. But I think it's a situation hwere it's going to take a little bit to still settle out, as it is with most teams."
Arizona comes to town to play the third game of a four-game road journey for the Coyotes. The trip started on Thursday night in Philadelphia where the Coyotes dropped a 5-4 overtime contest to the Flyers. Arizona fell down 2-0 early in the first period of that game, but took a 4-2 lead into the third period before ultimately settling for a single point.
The Coyotes moved on to Pittsburgh to face the Penguins on Saturday night, absorbing a 4-0 beating there, as the Pens halted a five-game skid. After they take on the Capitals on Sunday, the Coyotes will make the final stop of the trip on Tuesday in Detroit. Arizona will then return to the desert for a five-game homestand of its own.
