Caps Host Isles
Caps start midweek set of back-to-backs on Wednesday against the Islanders
Down to their last eight regular season games and their last five in the District, the Caps host the New York Islanders on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena. The game is the first of two home games remaining with the Islanders, who will return here on April 10 to supply the opposition for the Caps' penultimate home game of the season that night. Wednesday's game is also the front end of a set of back-to-back games for the Caps, who will travel to Tampa immediately afterwards for a Thursday night date with the Lightning.
Washington comes into Wednesday's game after one of the most heartbreaking regular season games in recent memory on Saturday night in Pittsburgh. Down 3-0 in the third period, the Caps rallied to square the score at 3-3 on goals from Tom Wilson, Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome in a span of about a dozen minutes in the final frame.
Strome's goal evened the score with 2:44 left, and as much as the Caps needed the two points, they also needed a regulation win that night if at all possible. With less than a minute and a half remaining, the Caps broke the puck out of their end of the ice, only to be victimized by a swipe and snipe play from Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin, whose goal with 1:20 remaining in regulation gave Pittsburgh a 4-3 victory. Instead of pulling to within two points of the Penguins for the second wild card berth in the Eastern Conference, the Caps fell six points behind Pittsburgh.
The Caps had an off day on Sunday before reconvening for a pair of practices on Monday and Tuesday in preparation for Wednesday's game against the Islanders. The Monday session focused on even-strength play with fewer than five players per side, and it concluded with some shootout drills.
"I thought [Monday] was good," said Caps' coach Peter Laviolette following Monday's session. "We took everything out of it and just got guys working, and I thought they worked really hard. We tried to make it competitive with things that are still pertinent to the game. The 3-on-3 is important; you get to those situations and you've got to win. The 4-on-4 happens through the games. If there's a shootout, [that's important].
"[Tuesday], we'll get into some things where maybe we've worked and we're moving on and getting ready for the Islanders, which is still a big game for us. And maybe we'll base some of the things on that, and get back to power play, penalty kill and some things that we might need against the Islanders. But I thought today the guys worked really hard coming off of a tough game."
Even with a regulation win on Saturday, the Caps were longshots to reach the postseason for a ninth straight year, but the odds are now even slighter. Not only would the Caps need to run the table on their final eight games, they would also need a fair amount of scoreboard help from around the League as these final two and a half weeks of the regular season unfold.
Although they have two games remaining with the Islanders, the Caps are nine points behind New York, which has played one fewer game to this point. Assuming the Caps were able to win the two remaining games against the Isles in regulation and were also able to win the game they hold in hand, that would only shrink the deficit to three points, and would leave both teams with four remaining games.
Catching up to the Pens is also a longshot; the Caps trail by six points with eight games to play. No matter how you look at it right now, the mathematics are daunting for Washington. The Caps haven't been able to win as many as three games in a row at any point in calendar 2023, and winning each of their last eight games would get them to 92 points, a number that hasn't been good enough for a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference since 2011-12 when both the Caps (seventh seed) and the Ottawa Senators (eighth) snuck into the dance with that point total.
The Islanders are coming into Wednesday's game on the heels of a convincing 5-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Monday, a victory that keeps them firmly in control of their destiny and in the first of the two Eastern Conference wild card playoff berths. With 85 points coming into Wednesday's contest, New York could end any remaining hopes the Caps have of catching them by winning any four of its remaining seven games.
"Well, I know it's cliché," began Islanders' coach Lane Lambert following Monday's win over the Devils. "But we really just have to look at the next game and just keep playing each game as it is and focusing on our next opponent. That's all we can do."
