Caps Head West Again to Face Jets
Washington's road run resumes with a two-game trip against a pair of Central Division foes
With a three-game winning streak and freshly laundered sartorial accoutrements in tow, the Caps are back on the road again. Following a successful two-day stay in the District that included a 4-1 win over the Seattle Kraken on Friday night, the Caps are westward bound once again, en route to Winnipeg for a Sunday night date with the Jets. Washington will then make a Tuesday night stop in Chicago to face the Blackhawks as it makes its way back to the District.
After winning the final two games of a six-game road trip, the Caps stopped home and got past the Kraken to record its first three-game winning streak of the season, pushing over NHL .500 in the process. Charlie Lindgren stopped 25 shots to record his third straight win on Friday against Seattle; he has stopped 82 of 86 shots in his three consecutive starts/wins. Lindgren has yielded only two goals at 5-on-5 during those three games, stopping 70 of 72 shots sent in his direction at even strength.
"It seems like three games in a row we've just played amazing hockey," says Lindgren. "Honestly, I think it's been fun to play goal for this team all year long, but especially the last few games. We've just been playing incredible. We can't get complacent; we've just got to keep on going to work. I think we're finally over .500, but let's keep on pushing here."
Friday's game came eight nights after the Caps faced the Kraken in Seattle. In both games, Washington carried a 2-1 lead into the third. But the Caps generated little in the way of third-period offense in the game in Seattle - despite having a pair of power plays in the final frame - and the Kraken was able to tie the game late and win it in overtime.
Friday's home game against Seattle was different; it was the Caps that faced down a pair of Seattle power plays in the third. But Washington also kept pushing the issue offensively, keeping ex-Caps goalie Philipp Grubauer busy in the third. Grubauer was also excellent in Friday's game, keeping his team close by stopping a fusillade of Washington shots in short succession in the front half of the final frame.
"We just kept playing aggressive and we didn't sit back and wait," says Caps forward Marcus Johansson, whose power-play goal in the second period snapped a 1-1 tie and gave Washington the lead for good. "I think that's kind of what happened last game [vs. the Kraken], we were a little bit on our heels, and they got going and got momentum, and I think that was the difference. We kept playing. We didn't sit back and that's the way we should play. That's a big win for us."
On the downside, the Caps lost another player to injury in Friday's game against Seattle. A shift after rookie defenseman Alex Alexeyev notched his first NHL point with a secondary assist on an Anthony Mantha goal, Alexeyev was leveled by a hit to the head from 6-foot-7, 257-pound behemoth blueliner Jamie Oleksiak. Oleksiak will have a Saturday hearing with the NHL's Department of Player safety, and the Caps are likely to make a roster move or two ahead of Sunday's game with the Jets.
Alexeyev played in each of Washington's last four games, helping the Caps mitigate the ongoing absences of top four defensemen Martin Fehervary and Dmitry Orlov. Washington was missing eight players from its lineup when it faced Seattle, a number that could increase for Sunday's tilt with the Jets.
Over the last decade and a half, the Caps have been known as a prolific offensive outfit, but during the life of their current 6-2-1 stretch of hockey, the Caps have been getting it done with sturdy defense, solid goaltending and excellent special teams. Washington ranks 27th in the NHL in scoring this season, averaging 2.83 goals per game. But in their last nine games, the Caps have allowed just 20 goals and their 2.22 GAA is second best in the NHL over that span.
Washington's power play outfit has contributed a goal to the cause in eight of those nine games, almost all of them at critical junctures of those contests. The Caps' penalty-killing crew has successfully snuffed out 87 percent of the opposition's power-play opportunities in the last nine games, the third-best rate in the circuit over that stretch.
"I just think we're playing better," says Caps center Lars Eller. "We're putting together better 60-minute efforts. Sometimes it's not our best, but I think we're more consistent when we playing. In [New] Jersey on [Nov. 26] we played the right way, but we didn't get rewarded. [Against] Seattle in Seattle, we did a lot of good things but ended up on the wrong side for whatever reason. In most of the games, we were able to get away with two points.
"I think we're playing better hockey overall, with and without the puck. But I still think we're not at our best yet. I still think we're able to score more goals at 5-on-5 than we have. And when we start doing that, we'll see how good we really are."
With an 18-7-1 start to the 2022-23 season, the Jets are out to the best start in franchise history. Winnipeg is also 10-3-0 on home ice this season, the second-best mark in the NHL from a points percentage (.769) standpoint, trailing only Boston (.967).
Most recently, the Jets claimed a 3-1 victory over the Blackhawks in Chicago on Friday night. That triumph was Winnipeg's fourth in a row and its seventh in its last eight games. Sunday's game against Washington is the start of a three-game homestand for the Jets, who have allowed an average of just 1.85 goals per game at home this season.
