Caps Take on Canucks
Caps' road trip continues with Tuesday visit to Vancouver
Washington continues its season-long six-game road trip on Tuesday night in Vancouver against the Canucks. The Caps take on the Canucks after falling 5-1 to the Devils on Saturday night in New Jersey in the trip opener, a score that was not indicative of the way Washington played in that game.
Facing the hottest team in the NHL and the stingiest at permitting shots, the Caps poured pucks on the New Jersey net all night, but by the time they scored their lone goal on a power play midway through the third, that goal merely cut the Devils' advantage to 4-1. Former Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek was excellent in net, stopping 37 of 38 shots, but the Caps believe they are capable of doing a better job of finishing, and the coaching staff seems to concur. When the Caps assembled for practice on Monday in Vancouver, there were no changes to the lines or to the lineup.
"For three games, it's been really good," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We've pushed. I hate the result last game, and we're in a position where we need to win hockey games. But in the same sense, we did push the whole game and it's coming off of two games where we were pretty happy with the way we played, and we've got to get back on track and start doing that again."
"I think if we play like that, we're going to win more games than not," says Caps center Dylan Strome. "I thought we had a pretty good game and we executed the game plan pretty well, we just didn't get the results, didn't score. I think our slot chances were high and theirs were really limited. When you've got those metrics going for you, I think you're going to win a lot more games than you're going to lose."
The Caps carry a six-game road losing streak into Tuesday's game, and two things stand out when assessing those half dozen losses. They're tending to fall behind - often doing so in the first 10 minutes - and they're simply not scoring enough goals. Washington is averaging 2.17 goals per game in its last six road games, this despite putting an average of 34.7 pucks on net nightly in those contests. The Caps have scored 13 actual goals in those last six road games, but their expected goals total - according to naturalstattrick.com - is 18.52 over that span.
Another major issue is playing from behind. The Caps have scored first in only three of their 11 road games on the season to date, posting a 1-5-2 mark when they fall behind first on the road. Washington has played with a lead for a total of just 14 minutes and 32 seconds of the 370 minutes of hockey they've played on the road since their last road triumph, a 3-0 win over the Predators in Nashville on Oct. 29.
Three is the Caps' magic number; when they score three or more goals this season, they're 9-1-1. When they score two or fewer, they're 0-10-2. On the road, they're 2-1-1 when scoring three or more and they're 0-6-1 otherwise. Washington's 2-7-2 overall road mark is 30th in the circuit.
"I think it makes a huge difference," says Caps winger Anthony Mantha of scoring the game's first goal. "Obviously in the past, we've been able to come back, even if we were behind by one or two goals, but lately it's been a little harder. So obviously starting with a lead does make a huge difference for our lineup right now."
When the Caps last saw the Canucks on Oct. 17 in Washington, Vancouver was scuffling and still seeking its first win of the season and in the midst of what would become a seven-game slide (0-5-2) to start the campaign. The Canucks led that game 4-2 after two periods of play, but the Capitals erupted for four unanswered goals in the third in a 6-4 comeback win.
Vancouver has turned its season around by going 9-5-1 in its last 15 games, and it enters Tuesday's tilt with a three-game winning streak.
The Canucks are coming in off a 4-3 overtime victory over the Sharks in San Jose on Sunday, winning on Andrei Kuzmenko's goal at 1:12 of the extra session to finish off a perfect three-game road journey to Colorado, Vegas and San Jose, respectively.
"It looks like they're doing a couple of things different systematically," says Laviolette of the Canucks since the Caps saw them last month. "From where they were at the beginning of the year, I think they've turned the corner a little bit. They've got good players. They're young, they're skilled, they're really good off the rush. They push the pace off the rush and they're a dangerous team.
"Coming off New Jersey, I think it's a good game to transition into because they're fast like that. They can attack and catch you off the rush if you're not sharp with the things you're doing with the puck and with your system and your details defensively."
