April 5 vs. Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Stream: MonSports.net/Stream
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (36-29-10)
Carolina Hurricanes (47-22-7)
Roughly 24 hours after tumbling out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference standings, the Capitals are back on the road, heading to Carolina to close out a set of back-to-back games and their season’s series with the Hurricanes. The Caps dropped a 4-1 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night at Capital One Arena in the front end of the back-to-back set.
Despite a strong first period, the Caps went into the second down 2-0. Pittsburgh funneled each of its first two shots on goal – a pair of point shots more than nine minutes apart – into the Washington net to give Pens’ goalie Alex Nejdelkovic (30 saves) all the offense he would need to record his 15th victory of the season.
While the Caps were able to get to the middle of the ice and to generate some quality chances from in tight in the first frame – Washington had an 8-2 advantage in high danger scoring chances in the first – those looks from the middle dried up in the middle frame, as did virtually all of the Caps’ offense. Washington managed only five shots on the Pittsburgh net in the second, and only two in the final 14 minutes of the frame.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh added to its lead with a Michael Bunting goal midway through the middle period. Washington captain Alex Ovechkin scored just as a Caps’ power play expired in the third, preventing his team from suffering a second straight shutout loss to the Pens on home ice. Back on Oct. 13, Pittsburgh prevailed 4-0 in the District in the Caps’ season opener.
“I thought we played okay,” says Caps’ defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. “I thought we had some pretty good chances, and [the Pens] were very opportunistic tonight. They did the hard work; they got to the front of the net – just threw pucks there – and that’s the recipe this time of year. We just didn’t get quite enough of that going tonight.
“We can’t stew on it too long; we have another chance [Friday] against a really good team to create some momentum for ourselves heading down the stretch.”
Thursday’s loss was Washington’s fourth in a row (0-3-1), its longest since a six-game skid (0-5-1) from Jan. 20-Feb. 8. Despite Thursday’s defeat and losing its hold on the second wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the Caps still control their playoff destiny, essentially because they have a game in hand on fellow pursuers Philadelphia, the Islanders and Pittsburgh, and because they have a game remaining with Detroit, with whom they are currently tied for ninth in the Eastern Conference standings.
Two weeks ago in Washington, the Caps and the Canes hooked up in a barnburner of a game, a throwback to the firewagon hockey of the 1980s. The Caps prevailed 7-6 in a shootout that night, but this year’s model of the Capitals is not designed for that sort of wide open, track meet hockey.
“Do a lot of the things we do [Thursday] night,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery, when asked what the recipe is for getting two much-needed points on Friday. “It's going to be challenging. We know their forecheck pressure, and what they do well; we all know. We know exactly how they're going to play and what their recipe is, and we're going to have to be able to break pucks out. We're going to have to be able to handle their pressure all over the ice – five-man pressure – and offensively, we're going to have to use a little bit of what they do at a really high level, which is to attack the interior, get people there, get it back, and do it again. And do it again.
“And get people to the interior, because when you're not going offensively – like when our top guys aren’t really feeling it offensively – that's how we're going to have to score, so we need to find a way to generate two, three, four goals like that [Friday] night.”
Carolina has clinched a playoff berth, and it is merely seeking to sharpen its game for the postseason grind ahead, with the playoffs just a couple weeks off on the horizon. Despite taking a 4-1 loss from the Boston Bruins on home ice on Thursday night, the Canes come into Friday’s game on an 8-2-1 run.
The Caps and Canes split their two games in Washington this season, with Carolina winning 6-2 in early January and the Caps claiming the aforementioned shootout triumph two weeks ago. In their previous visit to Carolina in mid-December, the Caps eked out a 2-1 shootout victory behind a 28-save performance from Darcy Kuemper in the Washington nets.
Charlie Lindgren started and lost Thursday’s game against the Penguins, marking the first time this season he has dropped consecutive starts in regulation. Kuemper would seem to be the likely starter for Friday’s game in Raleigh, but the Caps did recall goaltender Hunter Shepard from AHL Hershey on Thursday, and Shepard – who did not dress for Thursday’s game – accompanied the team to Carolina.
