Caps Come Home to Host Kings
Caps face L.A. on Saturday night in final October home game
In the midst of a stretch in which they're playing five of six games on the road, the Caps stop home to host the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night, Washington's final home game of October. The Caps hit the road for four straight games starting on Monday in New Jersey.
Washington will be aiming to rebound from a 5-2 road loss to the Senators on Thursday, a game in which the Caps weren't able to sustain a strong start. Darcy Kuemper was excellent in the Caps' nets, stopping 39 of 42 shots he faced to keep his team within a goal until the Sens potted a pair of empty-netters in the game's final minute.
Missing both Connor Brown (lower body) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (one-game NHL suspension) on Thursday night against the Sens, the Caps were forced into lineup adjustments for the first time in the young season. Connor McMichael and Joe Snively both stepped into the lineup for the first time this season against Ottawa, and the early returns were good. The Caps took a 2-0 lead to the first intermission, scoring on both ends of a 5-on-3 power play midway through the opening period, with T.J. Oshie and Anthony Mantha, respectively, supplying the goals.
Washington then dominated the back half of the first period, out-attempting the Sens by a 13-4 margin over a stretch of more than nine minutes. The line of Snively, Dylan Strome and Oshie was particularly effective at 5-on-5 in the first, consistently driving play in the offensive zone.
But everything changed when the Caps went shorthanded four times in the middle period, with three of them clustered together in the front half of the frame. Ottawa's Drake Batherson scored on each of the first two Sens power plays of the night to tie the game, and the Caps spent the rest of the night chasing the momentum that remained out of their reach. The Sens outshot the Caps 37-12 in the final two periods.
Only Kuemper's netminding heroics kept the Caps close. He made 32 of his 39 saves in the game's final 40 minutes, including 27 of 28 at even strength. Ottawa's Shane Pinto scored the game-winner at 5:53 of the third, the only 5-on-5 goal of the game despite the Sens' 27-6 advantage in shots at evens in the final 40, and Ottawa's 7-2 dominance in high danger scoring chances over that span.
"We've got to play down in the other end," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "If you turn it over, you're going to come back and play defense pretty quick. He made a lot of big saves. There were some things defensively; there were just simple breakdowns that shouldn't happen."
Washington also won only one-third of the game's 36 face-offs in the final two periods, another factor causing the Caps to chase what was a 2-2 or 3-2 game for 31 of the game's last 32 minutes.
"I think if you look at the zone time, it was incredibly different than in the first period," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "And it's tough to generate a lot for them if we're playing down there. And it's just not going to be perfect all the time; we've got to defend hard as well, and we could have done a better job of that, too. But [Kuemper] gave us a chance, and we just didn't pull up and push back and get enough of a push to make something out of the game."
McMichael skated 8:33 in his first action of the season, incurring his first NHL fighting major late in the second when he took on Ottawa's Parker Kelly soon after a Kelly hit on Carlson. Snively logged 15:16 in his '22-23 debut, including 1:08 of power play time.
The Capitals took Friday as a scheduled off day and will reconvene for a morning skate on Saturday ahead of the game against the Kings.
Los Angeles is at the tail end of a five-game road trip as it reaches D.C. on Saturday. The Kings opened the season at home with consecutive losses to Vegas and Seattle, they started their current journey auspiciously, winning three games in four nights at Minnesota, Detroit and Nashville, respectively. Each win came by the margin of a single goal, and each of the last two required more than 60 minutes of hockey.
The Kings' run of road prosperity came to a halt on Thursday in Pittsburgh with a 6-1 beating at the hands of the Penguins. Los Angeles yielded each of the game's first six goals, falling behind 3-0 in the first frame. The Kings averted the shutout on Carl Grundstrom's power-play goal with 2:28 left in the third.
