Caps, Pens Meet Again
Caps finish four-game road trip and two-game set with Pens on Tuesday
The Caps conclude a four-game, season-opening road trip and a two-game series in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night against the Penguins. Tuesday's tilt comes two days after the Pens trimmed the Caps 4-3 in a shootout on Sunday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena.
Washington's four-game trip is the longest in franchise history to start a season, and although it hasn't been perfect, it's been prosperous. Sunday's shootout setback followed a pair of wins over the Sabres on consecutive nights in Buffalo, giving the Caps five of the season's first six possible points.
Only two weeks have passed since the Caps first convened together on the ice for a shortened training camp under new coach Peter Laviolette. A steady and consistent accumulation of points will be paramount in the competitive East Division in 2020-21, so the swift start is welcome. But three games are five percent of the entire season. It's a shorter marathon, but it's still a marathon.
"I think it's probably what's to come in the future," says Caps right wing Tom Wilson of the busy early schedule. "We know it's going to be a lot of hockey in a short time period and I think it's going to take a little bit to adjust to it. But it was obviously a pretty good start; we're collecting points. That being said, the feeling is that we can be better.
"Right now, it's just a bit of an odd feeling. We have a decent record to show for, but we know we can be better, we know we can play better hockey. We're just adjusting to the 'new' in our shortened season and new system. There is obviously going to be a bit of and adjustment period, and hopefully we can take it in stride and continue to build our game."
Certainly the players are still working on and working with the nuances of the system, but that's a two-way street. Laviolette has only had a couple weeks' worth of ice time with these players, and he is still learning what each is capable of doing and in which situations. Coaching from behind the Caps' bench offers a different perspective than the opposing bench next to it.
"I think you're learning from day one," says Laviolette. "For me to tell you that I knew Tom Wilson - you always know a player more after you've coached him for a little bit. And everything is at the beginning stages, but I definitely see Tom's game in a different light now than maybe I did when I was on the other bench.
"That's the advantage of getting behind the bench, and working with your players and coaching them, and talking to them, and seeing what they bring. In short, I think you're forming opinions and evaluation on your personnel. Who has given a lot? Who needs to give a little bit more? Who are the power-play guys? Who are the guys that I can count on to end the game? And so all of that, I guess my eyes are just open and I'm watching right now."
While Laviolette is forming opinions on and evaluating his players, he is also viewing them as the collective group they comprise.
"Even from a team standpoint, you're looking at systems and you're looking at trends," says Laviolette. "And we're again taking too many penalties. I didn't want to come in here and before we even started saying, 'You guys need to stop taking penalties,' because I don't know whether this group is going to or not going to. It hasn't been the start that we're looking for, so we addressed it. But I think that these are the things that you just kind of come in and you're working through it, and your eyes are open and you're just learning every day about your team and about your players."
Two weeks makes up a shade less than two-thirds of a normal training season preceding a normal season, and teams typically play anywhere from six to nine preseason games, with the Caps usually on the lower end of that scale. While the early marks are good, the test is long and difficult.
Once Tuesday's game against the Pens is in the books, the Caps return to the District where they will entertain the Sabres in Washington's home opener on Friday night, the first of six straight and eight of their next nine games at Capital One Arena.
The Penguins' Sunday win over the Caps is their first in three tries this season. After taking a 1-0 lead just 19 seconds into the game, the Pens twice rallied back from a one-goal deficit to force and win a shootout. Jake Guentzel scored the only goal of the four-round shootout and Casey DeSmith earned his first NHL win since March of 2019 to prevent the Pens from a third straight loss.
"I think it's a big difference," said Pens coach Mike Sullvan after Sunday's win, referring to being 1-2 as opposed to 0-3. "The importance of these games each and every night is critically important, given the shortened, condensed schedule. There is a heightened importance on every game we play. We're trying to establish ourselves in the standings."
Look for Pittsburgh's lineup to be fortified for Tuesday's rematch. Over the offseason, the Pens acquired winger Kasperi Kapanen from Toronto. But an unexpected hold-up with his work visa and the requirement to quarantine once he finally arrived in the States from his native Finland kept Kapanen out of the team's first three games. At Monday's practice, Kapanen practiced on the right side of the team's top line with Guentzel and Sidney Crosby.
Originally a first-round (22nd overall) pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, the Pens moved Kapanen to the Leafs a year later in a multi-player swap that sent Phil Kessel from Toronto to Pittsburgh. Kapanen is the featured player in a six-player swap that brings him back to the Steel City, and the Pens' first-round pick in 2020 was the chief asset for the Leafs in the deal.
