Nov. 14 vs. Vegas Golden Knights at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Vegas Golden Knights (12-2-1)
Washington Capitals (7-4-2)
In the wake of a successful weekend road trip to the New York metro area, the Caps return home to set up camp for another extended homestand, this one a four-game stay. The defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights are first into town; the Caps will host the Golden Knights here on Tuesday, a night after they were feted at the White House for claiming the Cup in June.
A month into the 2023-24 regular season, the Caps are an intriguing team. They woke up Monday morning tied for the eighth-best record in the NHL, and with the fourth-best mark in the Eastern Conference. A 6-1-1 stretch has lifted the Capitals to that lofty standings perch, despite their ranking of 31st in goals per game (2.31) and 30th in power play efficiency (7.9 percent) on the season to date.
In another interesting wrinkle, Washington is the only team in the NHL that has three goaltenders with multiple victories to this juncture of the season. On Saturday night against the Islanders in New York, Hunter Shepard earned his second win of the season – and his NHL career – with a stellar 36-save performance.
Coupled with a 4-2 win over the Devils in New Jersey a night earlier, Saturday’s win gave the Caps their first sweep of a set of road back-to-backs in regulation in almost exactly two years, since Nov. 11-12, 2021 triumphs in Detroit and Columbus, respectively.
At times this season, the Caps have tended more toward surviving than thriving, but they’ve found a way to keep the points coming in.
“I would say that’s a result of our group, and the character there,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “This hasn’t been the smoothest of roads – our start, injuries, integrating new structure, line combinations, all this stuff.
“There’s a lot that’s been thrown at our group. We’ve won a lot of tight games. We found a way to grind a win on Saturday night, and to hang on, [on] Friday night. We come back in a game in New Jersey where we’re down 4-3 going into the third period.
“So when I look back and evaluate – big picture wise – and you go, ‘Okay, wow. Look where we’re sitting right now as a group. Not a bad spot at all,’ I look at the character of our group. A bunch of guys that make winning plays at winning [moments], a bunch of gamers that really want to win desperately. And that’s what I feel like we rely on in our group; they want to win, and they’re desperate.”
Where the Caps have excelled of late has been in net, on the penalty kill, and in their own end of the ice. The games haven’t always been pretty, but Washington has managed to keep itself afloat through a rash of nagging ailments, a few long-term injuries and some random in-game adversity as well. Washington lost a player to injury in the midst of three straight games going into Saturday’s game against the Isles, and none of the three has returned to action yet. The Caps also have had five goals wiped off the scoreboard – in a span of just seven games – because of successful coach’s challenges.
“I think our defense is going really well, that’s the start of it,” said Caps’ defenseman Nick Jensen in the wake of Friday’s win over the Devils in New Jersey. “I’m a big believer after looking after your own zone first, and then the rest of it will follow. I think we’ve done a good job of looking after our own end, and we’ve gotten a lot of odd man rushes and a lot of opportunities offensively, so you’ve just got to wait for your opportunities like that.”
A month into the season, the Capitals rank ninth in the circuit with an average of 2.85 goals against per game. Over the last eight games – since Oct. 25 – the Caps rank fifth in the NHL in that category, with 2.25 goals surrendered per game.
After a well-deserved day off on Sunday, the Caps reconvened at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Monday morning for a practice session to prepare for Tuesday’s tilt with Vegas. Shepard is still with the team, so there were three goaltenders on the ice. Right wing T.J. Oshie had a maintenance day on Monday.
The Caps got a glimmer of good news, as injured defensemen Joel Edmundson (hand), Trevor van Riemsdyk (lower body) and ailing winger Anthony Mantha (upper body) all took the ice ahead of practice, albeit in light blue, non-contact sweaters. But the two defensemen also stayed on the ice throughout Monday’s one-hour session, a positive sign as they strive to return to game action.
Defenseman Martin Fehervary is the most recent of the ailing; he departed Friday’s game against New Jersey in the second period and was placed on injured reserve the following day. As such, he won’t be eligible to play until Saturday against Columbus, and that’s true for Mantha as well.
“For sure he’s out [Tuesday],” says Carbery of Fehervary. “And we’ll see for the Columbus game Saturday. We’ve got a unique schedule again as we do this; I think there’s two games in eight days, something like that [actually, it’s two games in 10 days], so we’ll see for that one. That one would be probably questionable, but we’ll find out more in the coming days.
“Edmundson is going to be a little bit longer. I think TVR is moving along. Both of them practiced, but Eddie is going to take a few more practices to get up and running. But TVR is a little bit closer. We’ll see; I have to talk to the medical staff on how he did today and how he feels.”
After being honored at the White House early on Monday, the Golden Knights came directly to MedStar Capitals Iceplex for a practice session of their own. Vegas doesn’t look at all like a team that had a short summer; the Golden Knights are clicking on all cylinders through the season’s first month.
Vegas reeled off seven straight wins to start the season, and the Golden Knights bring a 12-2-1 record to town – they’re 4-1-0 on the road – as they embark upon their first extended road trip of the season, a five-game tour that also takes them to Montreal, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Dallas, respectively.
Most recently, the Knights blanked San Jose by a 5-0 count on Friday night in Vegas, ending a short slide of two games (0-2-0).
