Caps Host Sens in Sunday Matinee
Caps aim to halt home slide in traditional Super Bowl Sunday game
For the second time in just over two weeks, the Caps will host the Ottawa Senators on Sunday afternoon in the District. The Super Bowl Sunday matinee match is the last of three meetings between the two teams this season, and it is the make-up game of a contest originally scheduled for Dec. 27.
In their previous meeting here on Jan. 22, Ottawa carried a 2-0 lead into the third period of the game. But a pair of Alex Ovechkin goals in the front half of the third period tied the game and forced overtime, and Nicklas Backstrom won it for Washington in the extra session. Backstrom took advantage of a turnover deep in Ottawa ice and then he patiently outwaited Sens goalie Matt Murray and put a backhander under the bar at 1:13 of the extra session. Ovechkin has eight goals in his last four games vs. Ottawa, and he has a dozen goals in his last 10 games against the Sens.
Washington hasn't won on home ice since that night over three weeks ago, dropping four straight in regulation for the first time since a six-game regulation slide at home from Oct. 26-Nov. 26, 2007. Home cooking has been unkind to the Caps for two months now; they're just 3-8-1 in their last dozen games here in the District. Only one of those three wins - a 6-3 triumph over Nashville on Dec. 29 - came in regulation.
Over that rare fallow stretch at home, the Caps have subsisted on their road game, which has been consistently strong for a number of years now. Washington comes into Sunday's game on the heels of a 5-2 victory over the Canadiens in Montreal on Thursday night, and the Caps are 7-2-2 in their last 11 on the road.
"I still think that there's confidence at home," said Caps coach Peter Laviolette in the immediate wake of Thursday's victory over the Canadiens. "The Edmonton game (on Feb. 2), I liked the way we played. I hate the result, I hate the score, I hate that we lost in front of our fans in our home building.
"You can hate all of that, and then you go back and watch the game and you break down the chances and you break down the scoring opportunities and what you did inside of the game. We'll get there. I don't think there's a lack of confidence [at home]."
Coming into Sunday's game on the heels of that victory in Montreal gives the Caps yet another opportunity to piece together consecutive wins once again, a minor feat that they've only been able to achieve twice in the last two and a half months. Washington's offense has kicked back into gear, scoring 21 goals in the team's last five games, with 13 of those coming at 5-on-5. We've seen more in the way of sustained time in the offensive zone, cycling and forechecking and a lot of movement of players and the puck recently when the Caps are on the attack.
"Yes, and I'd like to see even more of that," agrees Caps center Lars Eller. "That's a big part of what's been this team's identity, is being able to grind a team down over 30 or 40 seconds. And as soon as you can stay 15 or 20 seconds and you get a second chance, you get a rebound, you get it back, you win the puck back or you force a turnover, your chances of scoring increases significantly.
"I think we ought to be we ought to be emphasizing doing more of that, because that is what's going to lead to goals, and that's what's going to lead to to wins. When you do that -when you spend 20, 30 seconds or 40 seconds in the other team's zone - they're going to be dead tired. They're going to have nothing left. And you're not going to turn it over in the neutral zone or your own zone as much if you're playing more [in their end]. Sometimes the best defense is offense. And the best defense is not just defending, but it's winning the puck back quickly. I think a lot of times that's something we can do better, just winning pucks back quicker."
Washington is catching the Sens in the back half of a set of back-to-back games. The Sens' Sunday game in the District interrupts what would have been a five-game homestand for Ottawa, which hosted the Bruins on Saturday afternoon in Canada's capital city.
Since their loss here last month, the Sens have played relatively well. Including their 2-0 Saturday afternoon setback to the Bruins, they're 5-4-1 since their previous visit to Cap One. The Sens fell behind the B's in the first minute of Saturday's game in Boston and weren't able to recover. Saturday's 2-0 loss was the Senators' second in succession; they fell to Pittsburgh on home ice by the same score on Thursday night.
"They're one of these young, fast, skilled teams," says Laviolette of the Senators. "There's a few of them that are in the League, the young players are coming in and they're impact players now, and Ottawa's got a few of them. They're dangerous, and you've got to be ready to play.
"Last time they came into our building, they played really hard. They played a good game. So we've got to be ready for that, and then it's always a bit more challenging with this early game, too. Guys have got to get up, get into their routine and be ready to battle. It's early afternoon, so it happens quick."
As they head into Sunday's game against the Caps, the Senators are saddled with a lengthy scoring drought. They have gone 157 minutes and 6 seconds without lighting the lamp, dating back to early in the second period of Tuesday's 4-3 win over Carolina. Ottawa scored the first four goals of that game in the first 23 minutes of the contest, and it has been outscored by a combined total of 7-0 since.
