Caps Come Home to Host Kraken
Caps seek third straight win on Friday night against Seattle
The Caps make a quick stop at home to do a couple weeks' worth of laundry and to host the Seattle Kraken on Friday night in their first home game in two weeks. Then they'll hit the road again on Saturday, leaving the Eastern time zone for a two-game foray to Winnipeg and Chicago, respectively.
After losing the first game of a six-game, 13-day road trip in New Jersey on Nov. 26, Washington was in the midst of its longest road losing streak in more than 15 years. But the Caps got themselves right on the back end of the trip, picking up points in four of the last five games (3-1-1) of the journey, and heading home with their third set of consecutive wins this season.
On Friday against the Kraken, the Caps will try for their first three-game winning streak of the season, and they'll also be aiming to get on the right side of "NHL .500" for the first time in over a month, since they woke up on the morning of Nov. 3 with a 5-4-2 mark.
"We know what position we're in," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "We've got to keep stringing these [wins] along and start putting together a good chunk of games, not just one or two."
For much of a difficult month of November, the Caps found themselves trailing and chasing games, and that was particularly true in its six road games last month, when Washington trailed for a total of 219:39 of the 365 minutes of hockey it played outside of the District. Only three teams in the League - Arizona, St. Louis and Nashville - spent more time trailing on the road last month, and the Coyotes (10) and Blues (8) both played more road games than the Caps.
In their four December games to this point, the Caps have spent nearly half of all the hockey they've played even on the scoreboard (111:38 of 240:07), and they entered the third period deadlocked in each of the last two games on the trip.
The Capitals fared much better when tied than trailing. On Monday in Edmonton, the Caps won a 3-2 decision when Nic Dowd scored midway through the third period. Two nights later in Philadelphia, Dylan Strome's deflection of a Carlson point shot broke a 1-1 deadlock midway through the final frame, helping Washington to a 4-1 win.
In the process of claiming the consecutive victories at Edmonton and Philly, Caps netminder Charlie Lindgren stopped 57 of 60 shots, stopping 51 of 52 at evens.
"He was really good," said Laviolette of Lindgren after the win over the Flyers. "He was on point, and it was busy. I thought Philly worked really hard and they're pressing to score. There are pucks coming at our net, and he is always involved in the game. You've got to stay focused, and I thought he did a great job."
"It's a huge win against a divisional opponent," says Lindgren. "It was one heck of a road trip for us; it was long, late nights. To find a way to come in here in Philly and get a big win shows a lot of character."
As a late sweetener, Alex Ovechkin supplied a pair of late empty-net goals, giving the Caps some rare breathing room and moving the captain to 795 career goals, and to within double digits (99) of Wayne Gretzky (894).
"You watch him every night and you see how hard he plays and how much he cares," says Laviolette. "That's what you don't see sometimes [from afar]. I think you see it because you watch him when he's on the ice, and you see his passion on the ice. But I always think when you coach somebody, you get a better feel - differently - for him. And he loves the game, and he loves coming to the rink and he plays hard every day. He practices hard every day. It's been great to be a part of it to this point."
Seattle was the third stop on Washington's just completed trip, and it's a game that left a sour taste for the Caps at night's end. After building a 2-0 lead in the first period, the Caps weren't able to generate any sustained offense thereafter, and the Kraken cut the lead to 2-1 on a power-play goal in the back half of the second period.
In the third, the Caps weren't able to add to their lead with a pair of power plays, and those missed opportunities loomed large when the Kraken tied the game with 2:27 left, and even larger when Seattle won it seven seconds into overtime on Matty Beniers' goal.
Since that win over Washington just over a week ago, the Kraken has played and lost twice, falling 5-1 to Florida last Saturday and 4-2 to Montreal on Tuesday. Now the Kraken opens a four-game tour of the Eastern Seaboard in the District on Friday.
Heading into Thursday night's slate of NHL activity, Seattle owns the sixth best points pct. (.660) in the League and the Kraken's average of 3.6 goals per game ranks fifth.
