Caps Face Wings in Motown
With personnel reinforcements in tow, Caps travel west for Thursday tilt with Wings
Concluding a busy stretch of travel, the Caps head west to Detroit to take on the Red Wings in a Thursday night contest in Motown. The game is the Caps' only visit to the Motor City this season.
Thursday's game is Washington's sixth road contest in its last eight games, and it's the eighth of nine consecutive games for which the Caps will have to travel. When they return from Detroit, the Caps will finally be able to unpack their bags and settle in; they'll have a four-game homestand starting with a Saturday night game against Arizona.
Washington's travel travails have been compounded by a spate of injuries. The Caps started the season with a trio of key players on injured reserve, and they've lost three more skaters in their last three games. This past Saturday in Nashville, winger T.J. Oshie and defenseman John Carlson both departed the game in the first period. In the Caps' most recent game, a 3-2 overtime loss to Vegas in the District on Tuesday, winger Beck Malenstyn was lost to the team after blocking a shot in the first period.
Oshie (lower body) is out indefinitely while Carlson is day-to-day, but his status for Thursday is unknown; the Caps did not conduct a practice on Wednesday prior to their flight to Detroit. Malenstyn was still being evaluated when Caps coach Peter Laviolette spoke to the media following Tuesday's loss.
On Wednesday afternoon, Washington announced the recall of a trio of players from AHL Hershey, and it placed Carlson, Malenstyn and Oshie on injured reserve. Summoned to the big club ahead of the trip to Detroit were defenseman Lucas Johansen and forwards Sonny Milano and Garrett Pilon. The recalls flesh the Caps' active roster to its full complement of 23 players once again, but one or more of those three players could find their way into the lineup on Thursday in Detroit.
Washington comes into Thursday's game - its fourth in six nights - having suffered consecutive 3-2 losses, but the Caps picked up a point in each of those games, both of which came against formidable foes. On Monday in Raleigh, the Caps dropped a shootout decision and a night later in the District they fell in overtime to the Vegas Golden Knights. Washington held a 2-1 lead in each of those games, but the second loss stings a bit more because they held that lead past the midpoint of the third period, only to be held without a shot on net for more than 11 minutes while the Knights rallied to tie it up and force the extra session.
"We played a great second period," says Laviolette. "The first period was tight both ways, and I thought the second period was excellent and we just needed to keep pushing and tighten it up defensively.
"It's not like we gave up 12 chances; we gave up five or six chances and we didn't generate enough, and so it's tilted our way a little bit. We needed to tilt it back like we did in the second period, and we weren't able to do that. Some of the chances I think are preventable in the third just by more details to what we're doing."
What Washington did get throughout both of those games and has gotten in virtually all of its games this season is consistently solid goaltending. Charlie Lindgren got his first home start as a Capital on Tuesday against Vegas, and he turned in a third straight strong outing in as many appearances.
"I thought we found a way to play pretty well and to get the point," says Caps center Dylan Strome. "Four out of six points in four nights is not too bad, and you've got to take the positives and take the four out of six points and move on to Thursday [in Detroit]. Obviously, it's a quick turnaround back on the road, but that's the season and we've got to be ready to go on Thursday."
For the Wings, Thursday's game is the opener of a two-game homestand, and it's also a night to celebrate Detroit's 1996-97 Stanley Cup championship squad on the 25th anniversary year of that title. When the New York Islanders visit the Motor City on Saturday night, the Wings will fete the 1997-98 team that repeated as Cup champs, sweeping aside the Capitals in the Stanley Cup Final that spring.
Like the Caps, the Wings are missing some key players from their lineup. Forwards Tyler Bertuzzi, Robby Fabbri, Oskar Sundqvist and Jakub Vrana are currently out of commission for various reasons, as are defensemen Mark Pysyk and Jake Walman.
When they take the ice against the Caps on Thursday here, the Red Wings are likely to be smarting from an 8-3 Halloween humbling at the hands of the Sabres in Buffalo. Sabres center Tage Thompson put up a hat trick and six points, becoming the first Sabre in nearly 30 years to pile up a six-pack of points in a single game. Pat Lafontaine (one goal, five assists) was the last one to achieve the feat before Thompson; Lafontaine's six-point game came on Feb. 10, 1993 in a 6-2 victory over the original Jets in Winnipeg.
