Caps Stop Home for Date with Devils
In the midst of playing six of seven on the road, the Caps make a quick stop at home to host New Jersey on Thursday
After splitting a four-game, 10-day road trip out west, the Caps made a quick stop at home to do some laundry and host the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night at Capital One Arena. Then they'll take to the road again, heading to the metropolitan New York area for the weekend with their mentors on the team's first Mentors' Trip in over three years.
With 17 games remaining in the 2022-23 regular season, the Caps know they'll need to put together a finishing kick that is in line with what they achieved on the ice back in December, when they forged an 11-2-2 record in the final month of 2022. Washington's streak of eight straight playoff appearances is in jeopardy because in the two plus months since that glorious December run, it still hasn't won as many games as it did in its best month of the season, posting a 10-15-1 since the flip of the calendar.
While the rest of the Eastern Conference playoff hopefuls began loading up their rosters in a remarkable arms race in the weeks leading up to the March 3 trade deadline, the Caps were reeling. They fell into the throes of a six-game regulation losing streak - their longest such slide in nearly two decades - prompting a quartet of trades that removed five productive players from their roster.
In their final game before their lengthy road trip, the Caps finally shook off that losing streak with a 6-3 win over the New York Rangers. Combined with a 2-2-0 split of the road trip, the Caps have won three of five since halting their skid. But with the days swiftly dwindling between now and the end of the season on April 13, the Caps need much more than three wins in five games. They need to find the fire and the game that they had on a nightly basis in December, but given the deadline roster attrition and the ongoing spate of injuries to key players, they've got a tall task ahead of them in finding that fire, and they know it.
"I think we've just got to keep our head down and keep working; it's all that we can do," says Caps winger Tom Wilson. "Obviously, it hasn't come easy as of late for our group, but there's been no quit. Guys are working hard. On any given night, we've got a pretty solid group in here and we've got a lot of veterans. We've got a lot of experience, and we've got some youth now, and you just try and go out there and win every game, and we have that expectation. That's how it's always been for me here, you expect to win every game, and if you keep that mentality you're going to be pushing.
"So we've just got to keep pushing and grinding and pulling in the right direction, and our pieces will fall where they do. But as a player, you've just got to keep pushing forward here. There's no time to take your foot off the gas or let up at all. It's crunch time and every single point we can get."
Starting with Thursday's home game against New Jersey, the Caps' next three games are against the three Metropolitan Division teams from the metro New York area. The Caps have enjoyed some success against all three of these clubs this season, and their performance in these three upcoming games will go a long way toward determining their fate for the 2022-23 season. The Caps are longshots to make the playoffs right now, but if they're able to catch a spark in the week ahead, they could give themselves a better chance to play meaningful hockey over the season's final month.
"Hopefully the dads can bring us some good fortune," says Caps center Dylan Strome. "And obviously every point is huge. We know these teams really well and we've played them before, so it should be nothing new for us. We'll be prepared, and we should be ready to go."
After traveling back from California on Tuesday, the Caps reconvened for a one-hour practice session on Wednesday at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.
"Practice was good, just to work on pushing some speed and pushing some pace out there," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We're playing a quick team [Thursday], so we've got to be ready to skate and ready to move at that pace out there. It was good, and there's been a lot of travel days here in between games, and I'm not sure what that does for us.
"It was good to get home [Tuesday], it was good to come in fresh, get our here and really skate, go up and down the ice hard and just get ready for our game [Thursday].'
"It's nice just to be back home and get a good practice in," says Strome. "We had a good skate, a good hour. I think everyone is looking forward to [Thursday] and then the dads' trip. It's a special time of year for most guys, and I'm looking forward to having mine in town and on the trip."
A highlight of Wednesday's practice session was seeing John Carlson back out on the ice with his teammates, even though he was in a non-contact sweater and his return to game action is still "off in the distance," according to Laviolette.
"It's great," says Laviolette. "it's the first day he is back with the group, obviously in a blue jersey. But it's nice to have him out there. It's just part of the process of getting back."
