Caps Open Homestand vs. Avs
Caps host defending Cup champ Colorado on Hockey Fights Cancer Night in D.C.
After going winless (0-2-1) on a three-game road trip, the Caps return home to start a three-game homestand on Saturday night against the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche. The last two games of the homestand are Washington's traditional Thanksgiving Eve (vs. Philadelphia) and Black Friday (vs. Calgary) games.
A trio of abysmal first periods did the Caps in on their just completed trip. They were outscored by an aggregate of 8-0 in the three first periods, they were outshot 39-22 and they were out-attempted - at all strengths - by a 64-48 count. They also yielded a power-play goal against in their first penalty killing mission of the night in all three games, and they were on the short end of a lopsided 17-3 disparity in high-danger scoring chances at all strengths, this according to naturalstattrick.com.
"The last few our starts have not been good enough," says Caps winger Conor Sheary. "[We're] just giving up early goals and our penalty kill needs to be a little better early on in games. And if we're not chasing games so much, maybe we'll be able to play a full 60 [minutes] and get to our game more often.
"I think it's a good sign that we're clawing back in the games. We dominated the shot totals and we dominated the second half of the game, and unfortunately it didn't go our way. But yeah, the starts need to be better."
In the trip finale on Thursday in St. Louis, the Caps were in a 3-0 hole after the first period, but they were dominant thereafter against a Blues team that had played the night before in Chicago and was playing its first game back home after almost a week on the road. Sheary's goal with 3:03 left in the third tied the game at 4-4 and ultimately earned the Caps a point.
Over the final 40 minutes of regulation against St. Louis, Washington enjoyed a 40-12 advantage in shots on net, including 22-3 in the third period. The Caps had a 12-1 lead in high-danger scoring chances at all strengths in the third period, and they appeared to have taken a 5-4 lead when Nic Dowd scored with 2:23 left. But video review nullified Dowd's goal; his stick was just above the crossbar when it made contact with the puck.
The Caps fell in a six-round shootout, literally getting a bad break in the fifth round when Anthony Mantha's stick snapped in half on his shootout attempt. But in rallying to take a point from a game in which they trailed by three goals late in the second period, the Capitals avoided the ignominy of coming home empty-handed from a trip of at least three games, a wretched fate that hasn't befallen them since March of 2017 when they went 0-for-California, losing three games in four nights in the Golden State.
Returning home for the holiday week, the Caps will aim to fix their first periods, which hadn't been a problem until this trip. They yielded a total of eight first-period goals in their first 16 games of the season before getting dented for eight in the three first periods on the trip.
"I think we played a little better than the last first period, but still the way things are going, we've got to play perfect," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "And then we've got to keep it mistake-free all around, and then just wait and wait and wait. It doesn't seem to be going our way whether we deserve it or not, so we've got to play better to give ourselves a better chance. Obviously, that's the biggest thing we can harp on and get better at is the first period, but that's just the way it's going."
Playing in his 900th career NHL game on Thursday against the Blues, Carlson was critical to the Caps' comeback efforts. He scored a shorthanded goal late in the second to get the Caps within one at 3-2, and his power-play goal late in the third ended an 0-for-23 drought for the Washington power play, and also pulled them to within a goal of their hosts yet again.
Carlson's shorthanded goal was just the second of his NHL career and his first one was an empty-net shorty at Pittsburgh on Feb. 17, 2015. Carlson is the first NHL defenseman with a shorthanded goal and a power-play goal in the same game since Buffalo's Brandon Montour achieved the feat more than 19 months ago. Along with Kevin Hatcher, Al Iafrate and Mike Green, Carlson is one of only four Caps defensemen ever to turn the trick, and the first to do so since Green did so on Feb. 7, 2009, the sixth of eight straight games in which Green scored a goal.
For the Avalanche, Saturday's game is the middle match of a three-game road trip. The Avs started out their journey with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Hurricanes in Carolina on Thursday night, winning on Artturi Lehkonen's goal at 1:55 of the extra session and a heroic 46-save night in the nets from goaltender Pavel Francouz, one shy of his single-game career high. Colorado was outshot 48-15 in the game.
Colorado has won five of its last six games. Its lone blemish over that span was a 3-2 home ice loss to St. Louis on Monday night in the Avs' final game before their current trip. The Avalanche is 5-3-0 in its eight road games to date this season.
