Nov. 27 vs. San Jose Sharks at SAP Center
Time: 10:30 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Stream: MonSports.net/Stream
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (10-5-2)
San Jose Sharks (4-15-2)
On Monday night in San Jose, the Caps open up their longest road trip of the season against the Sharks. Monday’s match is the first of a five-game trip spread over 11 days, but the five games will be played in a span of eight days. The game also finishes up the season’s series with the Sharks; the Caps took a 3-1 victory when San Jose visited the District on Oct. 29.
The Capitals started the season with a home-heavy schedule, playing a dozen of their first 17 games at Capital One Arena. Washington went 7-4-1 in those dozen home games, and the Caps take to the road with a sterling mark of 9-2-1 in their last dozen contests. Their most recent effort was not up to their standards; the Caps fell 5-0 to Edmonton on Friday afternoon in Washington, a loss that halted their winning streak at five.
The Caps went 0-for-5 on the power play in Friday’s loss, extending their drought to 0-for-30 over the last 10-plus games with the extra man. They were also dented for a trio of power-play goals from the Oilers in the second period of the game, the first time in almost six years that they’ve surrendered three power-play goals against in the same period. Edmonton’s lead was only 2-0 after the first frame, but the Oilers put the Caps away with their power play outburst in the middle frame.
“It became a special teams game, and we didn’t win that side of it,” said Washington winger Tom Wilson in the immediate aftermath of that loss. “It’s a two-goal game, and there’s a couple of situations there that it ends up [5-0] and we’re chasing the game, and it’s tough against a team like that. They got their touches on the power play, and they made it count. We’ll review this one, get rid of it, and get back to where we left off.”
The worst result of Friday’s setback to the Oilers was the loss of right wing T.J. Oshie to an upper body injury just 10 seconds into his first shift of the second period. Oilers’ defenseman Mattias Ekholm put a hard hit on Oshie at the Edmonton line, and the veteran Washington winger had to be helped to his feet and then helped off the ice. Oshie did not make Friday evening’s trip to the west coast with his teammates.
Upon arriving in California late Friday night, the Caps enjoyed an off day on a glorious Saturday here weather wise, and they reconvened for a Sunday morning practice at SAP Center in preparation for Monday’s meeting with the Sharks.
“I think it’s a good test,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery of the lengthy trip. “We had a long stretch of home games; we had some success, we got some results. And now we get to go out on an extended road trip, and we get to play against some real difficult opponents in some hostile environments.
“I think as a group, our guys embrace that opportunity and not necessarily build off what we’ve done at home or carry anything over from that, but to be a good team in this League, you’ve got to win road games. You’ve got to be able to go to the west coast, and to take points and play well. So that’s our first true test of the year, to go on the road and be able to do that. And that starts here [Monday] night.”
Adjusting to Oshie’s absence, it appears as though Hendrix Lapierre and Matthew Phillips could both draw back into the lineup on Monday, and Connor McMichael will slide from the middle to the left wing. Lapierre will likely be reunited with Sonny Milano and Aliaksei Protas; each member of that line had a multi-point game in a 4-3 win over Columbus in Washington on Nov. 18.
“Just a way to get Hendrix back into the lineup, is essentially what it comes down to,” says Carbery of the changes brought about by Oshie’s absence. “And we can move Lappy to wing; he played it in junior, and I’ve talked to him about potentially moving to the wing at some point, to be able to get him into the lineup. But I just feel like it’s a little bit more comfortable for him to go in the middle with the line that he played with a couple of games ago.
“And Mike, to me, what he showed at the beginning of the year [on the wing] until we moved him to the middle, eventually he is going to be a center man – we all know that – but his ability to go seamlessly to the wing and still be effective I feel like is probably our best option. And that’s why we go in that direction.”
For the Sharks, Monday’s game marks their third home game in a span of just four nights, and it’s the finale of a three-game homestand. They absorbed a 3-2 shootout loss to Montreal on Friday night in the opener, then trimmed the Canucks here by a 4-3 count on Saturday night.
San Jose stumbled out of the gate this season, going winless (0-10-1) in its first 11 games. The Sharks are 4-5-1 in 10 games since. For just the second time this season, the Sharks enter Monday’s game with an opportunity to stretch their modest point streak to three games.
