Nov. 24 vs. Edmonton Oilers at Capital One Arena
Time: 3:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Stream: MonSports.net/Stream
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Edmonton Oilers (5-12-1)
Washington Capitals (10-4-2)
The Caps conclude a home-heavy stretch of the schedule – and a four-game homestand – on Black Friday afternoon against the Edmonton Oilers at Capital One Arena. Friday’s game is Washington’s ninth on home ice in its last 11 contests, and the Caps have made good use of their time at home of late, going 6-1-1 in their last eight games in the District. The Caps also carry a five-game winning streak into Friday’s game, matching their longest winning spree of last season.
Wednesday night’s thrilling 4-3 overtime win over Buffalo extended the Caps’ winning streak to five, and the feat was achieved via the comeback route. The Caps fell down by a pair of goals in the first period before Alex Alexeyev’s first career NHL goal halved the visitors’ advantage ahead of the first intermission. T.J. Oshie’s first goal of the season knotted the game at 2-2 ahead of the midpoint of the middle period, but the Sabres regained the lead when they ended the Caps’ 10-game streak of penalty-killing perfection with a Dylan Cozens power-play goal late in the second.
Although the Caps’ best period was the third, they needed nearly the whole 20 minutes to draw even, finally doing so on Tom Wilson’s 6-on-5 strike with just 1:15 remaining in regulation, the second time this season the Caps have forced overtime with a late 6-on-5 goal with their netminder pulled. Late in the extra session, Dylan Strome netted the first overtime game-winner of his NHL career to extend Washington’s winning streak to five.
Half of Washington’s wins have come in one-goal games; they’re 5-0-2 in games decided by a single goal. Half of the Caps’ wins have also come in games in which the opponent scored first; Washington’s 5-4-1 record in such games is eighth-best in the League, from a winning percentage (.500) standpoint.
One of the most pleasant early season developments for the Caps is their 7-3-1 record on home ice. It’s one more win – in half as many games – than they managed at home during the 2023 portion of the 2022-23 season when they went 6-11-5 in 22 home games. Only San Jose (four) had fewer home wins over that span of four plus months.
“I think it just coincided with the point in the season where we talked a whole lot about where we thought we should be, where we were, and what we had planned,” says Caps’ defenseman John Carlson. “That was a big thing coming into the season, and certainly at that point, we had a chance to come in and have a big homestand. Momentum is great if you can build off some really big efforts, and I think that’s exactly what we’ve done. It just coincided well with where our team was at the beginning of this thing, and what needed to be done to get ourselves back in the conversation here.”
With the Oilers coming in to close the homestand on Friday and with a lengthy road trip looming ahead on the horizon, the Caps are now seeking to finish the homestand with a flourish before they head out on a five-game, 12-day trip out west, a journey that’s days longer than the cumulative time the team has spent on the road to this point of the season. They’ve been able to focus on the task at hand to this point, and successfully doing so once more on Friday will make for a happier coast-to-coast flight afterwards.
“This whole week has posed some different things than last week or the week before,” says Carlson. “Just based on the schedule, the holiday, the looming road trip, there’s a lot going into it. But we’re trying to stay grounded and focused, and it’s imperative that we take advantage of every single situation that we have. I think we’ve done well at doing that, but we can’t just take our foot off the gas.”
Edmonton entered the season with high hopes, which have been dashed by a dismal start that led to the dismissal of coach Jay Woodcroft. After starting the season with a 2-9-1 mark in their first dozen games, the Oilers reeled off three straight victories before embarking upon a four-game tour of the eastern seaboard. But they’ve given it all back on this trip, dropping each of the first three games and yielding at least five goals against in each of the setbacks.
Most recently, the Oilers were dented for four goals in a span of less than six minutes in the first period of Wednesday’s game against the Hurricanes in Raleigh. That was all the offense the Canes needed in a 6-3 doubling up of Edmonton.
Friday’s game is the finale of the trip for the Oilers, and they’re desperate not to head home empty-handed. Edmonton will play eight of its next nine games at home before heading back out for six straight on the road; the Oilers take a three-game trip to the New York metro area ahead of the NHL’s three-day holiday break at this time next month, and they head west for a three-game California trip after the holiday break.
