Caps Host Oilers
Caps look to snap four-game slide against Edmonton on Monday in D.C.
Washington's four-game homestand continues on Monday when the Edmonton Oilers make their lone visit to the District this season.
Monday has been a busy day for the Caps in the early going of 2022-23, this is the fourth straight Monday night in which Washington has been in action this season, and they're 2-0-1 in the previous three. But as they take the ice on Monday against Edmonton, the Caps are seeking to shake off a four-game losing streak (0-2-2), a stretch of games characterized by loss - players lost to injury, leads lost, and games lost.
The latest loss is a 3-2 setback to Arizona on Saturday night in the opener of Washington's four-game homestand, its longest of the season. The Caps owned a 2-0 lead early in the third period of that game, only to surrender three unanswered goals in the final 14 minutes of the game, including Nick Ritchie's game-winner with 35.4 seconds left in regulation.
In all four of those consecutive setbacks, the Caps have held a lead beyond the midpoint of the contest. And in three of their last five games, the Caps have lost one or more players to injury in the first period of the game, leaving them with a hole or holes on the bench and in their lineup for the rest of the way. None of those four injured players have returned to the Washington lineup; the Caps' list of ailing was at eight players at Sunday morning's practice.
The latest fallen Cap is durable defenseman Dmitry Orlov, who left Saturday's game against Arizona with a lower body injury. Orlov did not play in the final two periods against Arizona, leaving the Caps without their blueline's leading minutes muncher at 5-on-5 for the game's final 40 minutes.
Orlov did not practice on Sunday, while blueliner John Carlson (lower body) skated while wearing a non-contact sweater. His status for Monday's game should be clearer after Monday's morning skate. Washington's four-game losing streak coincides with the four games Carlson and T.J. Oshie have missed, and the Caps are now 4-7-3 in the 14 games Carlson has missed since the outset of the team's Stanley Cup championship season of 2017-18.
Both Orlov and Carlson have had consecutive games played streaks of over 400 games during their respective NHL careers, and the Caps have not played a single game without both blueliners since 2014-15 when Orlov missed that entire season while recovering from wrist surgery.
"Obviously it's not what you want, but it happens," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of his team's ongoing spate of injuries to key players. "And we have to adjust and we have to deal with that. We're in a position to win the last four games regardless of what happened, regardless of what the lineup was or of somebody got lost or we end up not having players. We were in a position to win four hockey games.
"And probably the whole room leaves angry, everybody leaves the building angry [Saturday] night. You're angry, you're angry when you wake up [Sunday] morning, you can't wait for [Monday] to get here and play another hockey game. But with regard to injuries, sure we wish we were healthy. Sure, we wish we didn't have guys going down in the middle of the game, but at the end of the day, we were in a position to win those games, and we didn't get it done."
While Washington has outscored the opposition by a combined total of 5-2 in the second period of its last four games, it has been outscored 7-1 after the end of the second period in that quartet of contests.
"We're just not doing the right things in the third," says Caps defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. "Unfortunately, it's becoming a bit of a habit right now, but we're going to get back to it, we're going to figure it out, and we're going to be better next time."
In each of their last two games, the Caps have lost to teams coming off lopsided losses in their previous games. Detroit downed Washington the wake of an 8-3 beating to Buffalo, and the Coyotes took down the Caps in the aftermath of a 7-2 home ice spanking at the hands of the Dallas Stars.
Washington will be dealing with that dynamic again on Monday against Edmonton, which took a 6-2 home ice drubbing from Dallas on Saturday before flying into the District. Saturday's loss dropped the Oilers to 4-5-0 at home this season, and Edmonton has had the luxury of playing nine of its first dozen games at home.
Monday's game in D.C. starts a four-game Eastern seaboard trip for the Oilers, who will visit Tampa Bay, Carolina and Florida, respectively, after departing the District. Monday's game is also the front end of a set of back-to-backs for Edmonton, which faces the Lightning on Tuesday night.
The Oilers are a perfect 3-0-0 on the road this season, sweeping through a three-game trip in a four-night span late last month in St. Louis, Chicago and Calgary.
