Caps Take on Isles in First of Three
Tied atop the divisional standings, the Caps and Isles hook up on Thursday for the first of three straight head-to-head battles
Following a much-needed three-day break in between games, the Caps are back in action on Thursday night, resuming a four-game road swing with a pair of games against the Islanders in New York. Thursday's contest is the first of three straight games between the two rivals; after they meet again on Saturday night in New York, the Caps and Isles will finish off their season's series on Tuesday night in Washington.
"I think it's a well-needed rest," says Caps left wing Carl Hagelin. "I do think we've been playing well here the last two games, at least. At the end of the day, we want to keep playing and we want to get wins. But anytime we can get a couple of days off, it's nice. We've got to regroup and figure out what we have to do, because the upcoming games that we have are all against playoff teams, so we've got to get ready."
Heading into the first of these three upcoming matches with the Islanders, the two teams own identical records and are tied atop the NHL's East Division. The Caps have two more regulation/overtime wins (27-25) than the Isles, so they're officially in the top spot. Pittsburgh is a single point behind Washington and New York, and although Boston is four points behind the Caps and Isles, the Bruins hold two games in hand and could make up that difference by merely winning those two games.
In short, there is a cluster of four teams separated by very little at the top of the division. That quartet of clubs will be battling it out for seeding as the homestretch of the regular season plays out in the next three weeks, and any and every postseason matchup between the four is possible.
Peter Laviolette | April 21
"I feel we're down the road of a season where everybody understands what we're doing now," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette, "and there shouldn't be any excuses with regard to not understanding that or how we move about our business. I think that the stretch and the teams that we have to play in the stretch are games where we'll have to play the right way. And by doing that, you prepare yourself for the playoffs.
"I'm sure there are going to be some games where we say we really liked the way we played, and there [will be] some games where we needed to be better. That's just the nature of the beast. And you hope that there are more where you feel like you did the right things."
Washington's most recent game was a 6-3 loss to the Bruins in Boston on Sunday afternoon, the first of six straight games against the three teams the Caps could face in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs less than a month from now. After the three games against the Islanders, the Caps host the Penguins in a pair of games in the District.
"I think they're important," says Laviolette of this series of upcoming games. "Yeah, you want to win them; you want to have success on the ice on a nightly basis. The game in Boston [on Sunday] I thought was an important game. I thought it had that playoff feel to it, it had that physicality.
"I would imagine that the games coming up, you talk about Pittsburgh, you know exactly how you have to play. We talked about the Islanders; we weren't real happy with the last couple of games that we played against them, so there are things that we need to do better.
"So with regard to preparation for the playoffs, I think it's really important. Usually, if you can do enough right things on the ice, the scoreboard will follow as well. But I think these opponents are good down the stretch to set the tone for where we need to get to."
Washington faced the Islanders in New York twice previously this month, losing 8-4 here on April 1 and falling 1-0 on April 6. The Caps won each of the three games between the two teams in the District this season, two of them in late January and the third in mid-March. The next three games finish off the season's series between the two longtime rivals.
"They're going to be tight games," says Caps center Nic Dowd. "I think they're coached really well, and from a systematic point of view, all four lines play the same way and I think that's what makes it really successful. Yeah, they have a couple of really high end guys who can be creative and go off the page a little bit, but within the defensive zone and the neutral zone, I think they play very similar.
"They don't mess around with a lot of pucks in the [defensive] zone, which doesn't give you a lot of opportunity to turn pucks over. And then they're really opportunistic off of neutral zone turnovers. Unfortunately, at times our team does a bad job of managing the puck through the neutral zone, because we have a lot of guys who want to make plays and sometimes all of us get into trouble entering through there. I think the focus will be on getting the puck behind their defensemen.
"At its best - when both teams are playing at their best - it should be a low-scoring game. And I think that it'll be a very tight game."
The Islanders were in action on Tuesday night, delivering a 6-1 death blow to the New York Rangers' rapidly fading playoff hopes. Playing their final season at the building most still know as the Nassau Coliseum, the Islanders are 19-2-2 on home ice in 2020-21, with the two regulation losses coming at the hands of Philadelphia (March 18) and the Rangers (April 9).
Overall, the Islanders have won seven of their last 10 games (7-3-0) and they've won two straight as they prepare to take on the Capitals in their next three contests.
