Caps Resume Homestand vs. Wild
Caps hope to come out of five-day break with better health as they head into season's final month
Following a five-day break in the schedule, the Caps are set to resume a four-game homestand and to open up the April portion of their schedule on Sunday night when the Minnesota Wild makes its way into the District. The Wild is in town for the first time since Nov. 13, 2018, way back when the Caps were still defending Stanley Cup champs and less than six months removed from hoisting the coveted chalice in Las Vegas.
Following a 6-1 lashing at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes here on March 28, the Caps took two days to rest and then conducted full practices the next two days. After an optional practice on Saturday, the Caps are ready to plunge into their final 14 games of the 2021-22 season, starting with the back half of their four-game homestand.
"I think they try to maximize - as much as they can - the amount of rest we get," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "And they make sure we have time to fine tune and to get to work, too. Where we're at, we know what we need to feel like going into the playoffs.
"I think the mental reset is the biggest pro to the whole thing, getting some decompression and getting yourself geared up, because there is a lot that goes on in a season, but from this point on it's the real deal. There is going to be moving and shaking, and we need to be at the top of our game."
Washington was at or close to the top of its game for most of the month of March, posting a solid 9-3-1 record for the month. But the Caps dropped three of their last five games before their five-day break, and they lost three of their last four home games, an area of concern that has vexed them since December. After starting the season with points in 13 of their first 14 home games (9-1-4), the Caps have won only seven of 21 games (7-13-1) at Capital One Arena since.
The Caps were missing a handful of players from their lineup in those final five games before their five-day break; both center Nic Dowd and defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk missed all five of those contests after both sustained upper body injuries in a March 18 game at Carolina. The Caps are also still awaiting the debut of forward Johan Larsson in a Washington sweater. Obtained from Arizona at the March 21 trade deadline, Larsson is still recovering from sports hernia surgery in late January. Forwards Carl Hagelin (eye) and Joe Snively (hand) are both on long term injured reserve.
It's conceivable that the Caps could get Dowd, van Riemsdyk and Larsson available to them for Sunday's game against Minnesota; all three were full participants in Friday's team practice. Sunday's morning skate and/or pregame warmup will shed some better light on the Caps' Sunday lineup.
As we've seen throughout this season, the Caps are a markedly different team when they have their entire group of top six defensemen healthy and available to play, as they did for the first 20 games of the season, when they compiled a 12-3-5 record. On the season to date, the Caps are 24-7-9 when all six defensemen are in the lineup, and they are 13-14-1 with one or more of them missing.
Since the calendar flipped to 2022, the Caps are 5-12-1 in games in which they don't have their full top six on the blueline, and only two of those five victories have been achieved in regulation.
"I say this in the most positive way," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette, speaking of van Riemsdyk. "He's a real quiet presence out there. Things go quiet when he is on the ice. He is a really smart, two-way defenseman. He's got great reads in the defensive zone, he's a great first pass defenseman, he's real strong defensively, he looks to play and attack our system offensively.
"He may not make as much noise as a John Carlson, but for me, he is a really good two-way defenseman. So when somebody comes out of the lineup like that, you miss that because it's somebody who can keep things really quiet on the ice."
Minnesota hits town on the second stop of a four-game trip that opened with a 3-1 win over the Hurricanes in Carolina on Saturday. Marc-Andre Fleury won his third straight start since joining the Wild, stopping 37 of 38 starts to earn his third straight win.
After departing the District, Minnesota will visit Nashville on Tuesday and St. Louis on Friday. The Wild just finished a nine-game homestand on Thursday with a 4-3 overtime loss at the hands of the Penguins. Minnesota won seven in a row in the middle of its homestand, dropping the opener and the finale to go 7-1-1.
