Caps Take on Jets

March 10 vs. Winnipeg Jets at Capital One Arena
Time:7:00 p.m.
TV: NBCSW
Radio:Capitals Radio 24/7, FAN 106.7
Winnipeg Jets 40-23-4
Washington Capitals 40-21-7

The Caps' two-game homestand concludes on Sunday night when the Winnipeg Jets make their lone visit to the District this season. It's the second of two meetings between the two teams this season; the Jets downed the Caps 3-1 in Winnipeg on Nov. 14 in the prior meeting between the two clubs.
Along with a March 22 home date with the Minnesota Wild, Sunday's game with the Jets is one of only two remaining this season against Western Conference opponents. The Caps are 14-11-3 against the opposite conference this season, including 7-4-2 at home. Washington has won four straight over Western foes at Capital One Arena.
Washington also carries a six-game winning streak into Sunday's contest with Winnipeg, one game shy of its longest winning run this season. The Caps strung together seven straight victories from Nov. 16-30. That streak started the game after the Caps' aforementioned loss to the Jets in Winnipeg.
Most recently, the Caps blanked the New Jersey Devils 3-0 on Friday night behind a 25-save shutout performance from Braden Holtby, who earned the 35th whitewash of his NHL career to tie Olie Kolzig atop the all-time Caps franchise leaderboard. Andre Burakovsky scored for the third straight game, supplying the game-winner for the second straight contest.

Special teams were crucial in Friday's victory; the Caps snuffed out all six New Jersey power plays on the night and Nicklas Backstrom scored with the extra man for Washington early in the third, finally supplying some cushion for Holtby, who made Burakovsky's early marker stand up for more than 40 minutes.
Friday's game is one the Caps were supposed to win; New Jersey is buried in the basement of the Metropolitan Division standings and has been beleaguered by a raft of injuries recently. The Caps didn't play their best, and the industrious Devils gave them all they could handle.
"Not really even a great game, besides one or two guys, Holts being one of those," says Caps right wing T.J. Oshie of his team's sixth straight win. "We need to play better than that. They had a lot of guys hurt, a lot of top-end guys not in the lineup. You've still got to respect the other team and put forth a good effort and respect each other, respect your goaltender who is out there making a bunch of saves to kind of save us there. So I think we can be better; we're going to have to be better."
The six penalties taken were the most for Washington since Jan. 22, and the eighth time this season the Caps have gone shorthanded as many as six times in a game. Friday's game against the Devils marks the first time the Caps have gotten through such a game unscathed by the opposition's power play.

Caps winger Carl Hagelin logged 8:18 of shorthanded ice time in Friday's game, the most by a Washington forward in exactly 11 years, since Boyd Gordon accrued 9:13 in shorthanded ice time in as March 8, 2008 game against the Bruins in Boston. Hagelin was on the ice for 71 percent of Washington's total of 11:42 of shorthanded time in Friday's game.
"I think I was a little more tired after last game, than usual," admits Hagelin. "There is just a lot of stops and starts obviously on the PK, but at the same time it's fun being out there and it's fun killing it off."
Hagelin's heavy duty night on the PK is the most any forward in the league has logged while shorthanded in a single game this season. Washington's Lars Eller previously held that distinction; he skated 7:49 in shorthanded time in a Nov. 13 game against the Wild in Minnesota.
Winnipeg is finishing off a four-game road trip on Sunday. The Jets have taken two out of three on the trip to date, earning wins in Columbus and Carolina sandwiched around a setback in Tampa Bay. The Jets come in to D.C. on the heels of an 8-1 shellacking of the Hurricanes in Raleigh on Friday.
The Jets' eight-goal outburst in Carolina was the third time they've scored eight goals this season, the only team in the league to roll up as many as eight goals in three games this season. Winnipeg has outscored the opposition by a combined total of 20-11 in its last four games.
Six different Jets enjoyed multiple-point games in the win over the Canes, including Winnipeg captain Blake Wheeler, who started the road trip with a four-goal game in Columbus on March 3. Wheeler carries an eight-game point streak (seven goals, eight assists) into Sunday's game.
While the Caps' record of 13-4-1 since the All-Star break is the fourth best mark in the league over that span, Winnipeg has forged a more pedestrian 7-7-2 mark during the same time frame. The Jets are 4-5-1 in their last 10.
Winnipeg's power play outfit is 9-for-28 (32.1 percent) in its last eight games, but the Jets' penalty killing corps has been leaky of late, killing just 10 of 16 (62.5 percent) of its assignments in the team's last five games.