Caps Host Sharks on Super Bowl Sunday
Caps will play six of next seven games on home ice, starting with Sunday matinee match against San Jose
The Caps conclude a set of weekend back-to-backs on Sunday afternoon when they host the San Jose Sharks at Capital One Arena. Along with the Anaheim Ducks - who will visit D.C. on Feb. 23 - the Sharks are one of only two teams the Capitals have yet to face this season. Sunday's tilt carries on the Caps' tradition of hosting a matinee match on the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday.
Washington started the weekend on a high note, taking a 2-1 win from the Bruins in Boston on Saturday afternoon. Facing a juggernaut Bruins team that boasts the best record in the League and entered Saturday's game with just a single regulation loss in its first 26 home games this season, the Caps won the special teams battle and the game. They never trailed in taking a pair of points from one of the circuit's elite teams.
Boston came into the contest with the League's best penalty killing outfit and the NHL's fifth best power play, but the Caps grabbed an early lead on Nicklas Backstrom's 5-on-3 goal in the front half of the first frame, and they held on in the third by killing off a pair of Boston power plays. Darcy Kuemper was a rock in net for Washington, stopping 27 of 28 shots on the afternoon to notch just his second career victory in nine starts (2-7-0) against the Bruins.
Saturday's win was especially big for the Caps given the opposition and the location of the contest, but also in that it was their first game following a 10-day layoff for the NHL's All-Star break and Washington's bye week. Coupled with a 4-3 overtime victory in Columbus on Jan. 31 in the Caps' last game before that break, Washington will now enter Sunday's game with San Jose on the heels of consecutive victories for the first time in 2023.
"Just coming off the break and not knowing exactly what you're going to get, I thought we played a smart period and I thought we defended well," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of the first frame on Saturday. "A couple of breakdowns, but for the most part defended pretty well. We were able to get a lead and able to get a power-play goal, so there were some positives to come out of the first period.
"We talked about the start and everybody's first shift, and then in the first period just making sure we were ready, and then seeing if we could come out of there with a lead."
The Caps came out of it with a lead, and they added to it with Garnet Hathaway's goal midway through the second period. Boston's Nick Foligno halved the Washington lead to 2-1 late in the second, but Washington and Kuemper staved off a potent Boston attack in the third.
"I thought he had some big saves in the first," says Laviolette of Kuemper. "But certainly in the second he had some big saves. It wasn't ridiculous volume, but it was [against] a team where you've got to be at attention all the time because they're dangerous. They were dangerous off the rush, they're dangerous when they get into the offensive zone off of their [offensive] zone play. And so there were some big saves that needed to be made, and he was good."
During the course of their 10-day break, the Caps watched as the teams behind them in the standings picked up points and closed the gap. Being able to start a weekend set of back-to-backs with a road win over the best team in the League in the most difficult building in the circuit is something they believe they can build from.
"Looking at the standings, and you saw the other teams below us keep winning," says Backstrom. "So we've got to jump on that train, too. It's tight there, so you need every point you can get. Obviously, coming off the break and playing against a good team like Boston, it means a lot."
The Sharks come to town at the tail end of a lengthy road stretch. San Jose played five straight road games heading into its midseason break, going 1-2-2 over that stretch. The Sharks then reconvened on the road in Florida following their bye week, defeating the Lightning in overtime on Tuesday before falling to the Panthers in South Florida on Thursday, 4-1.
After playing their eighth straight road game in Washington on Sunday, the Sharks head home where they will play eight of their next nine games, a stretch that ends with the Caps' visit to San Jose on March 4.
