Caps Take on Wings in Motown
Caps open rugged stretch of schedule on Thursday in Detroit, the front end of their first set of back-to-backs
Washington's first dozen games of the 2021-22 regular season played out in a rather leisurely fashion, as those 12 games were scattered over a span of 29 days without any of them being played on back-to-back nights. That portion of the schedule is firmly in the rear view as the Caps embark upon a strenuous stretch of schedule ahead in which they'll play seven games in 11 nights with three sets of back-to-backs in the mix. Six of those next seven games will be played on the road.
The Caps embark on a two-game trip to the Midwest to play a set of back-to-back road tilts, on Thursday in Detroit and Friday in Columbus. After they come home to host Pittsburgh on Sunday, the Capitals are right back out on the road on Monday, off to the west coast for two more sets of back-to-backs in the Pacific time zone.
"All teams deal with it, it's a part of the schedule that's tough," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "You looked at the month, you looked at October and thought it looked really nice. And then you looked at November and think it looks kind of nasty. But our guys seem to like going out on the road. The back-to-back and the three back-to-backs in [less than] two weeks is tough. But we'll just wake up every day and manage that day and do our best to try and be successful."
Peter Laviolette | November 10
The crowded schedule ahead is complicated by another injury to Washington's forward group.
Center Nic Dowd has been placed on injured reserve with a lower body injury. Just before Wednesday's practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex, the Caps announced that center Hendrix Lapierre has been returned to Acadie-Bathurst of the QMJHL, and that center Aliaksei Protas and goaltender Zach Fucale have been recalled from AHL Hershey and will accompany the team on its upcoming two-game trip.
Late in Monday's 5-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres, Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek got tangled up with Sabres winger Jeff Skinner in the crease, and Skinner appeared to land hard on Vanecek's shoulder. Vanecek practiced with the team on Wednesday before its departure for Detroit, but Fucale will also make the trip.
"Vitek had taken a hit at the end of the game there, and we're just making sure everything's okay," says Laviolette. "We're still assessing things and looking at things through the locker room, and three goalies will travel with us. We have room on the roster right now, so we'll take three goalies with us."
Without center Nicklas Backstrom (hip) for the entirety of the season to date, the Caps have played the last five games without T.J. Oshie (lower body) and the last two without Anthony Mantha (shoulder). Dowd's absence leaves Washington without four of its 12 regular forwards as it gets set to play back-to-backs and three games in four nights for the first time this season.
Lapierre, the Caps' first-round choice (22nd overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft, had a terrific training camp, becoming the first underaged CHL player to make Washington's opening night roster in two decades. Lapierre skated in six of the Caps' first 12 games and scored his first NHL goal on opening night. It's clear that he is a talented player with loads of potential, but it's also clear that the 19-year-old center needs to play more than he would have in Washington; he has skated in only 88 junior games over the last three seasons because of a combination of injuries and the pandemic.
"I think his time here was really well spent and he did a really good job," says Laviolette. "He came into training camp and - while it's always an option and it's always possible for anybody to come in and make the team - you really have to do the right things in the practices and in the in the scrimmages and the exhibition games to actually have a chance to make the team.
"Once we knew that Nick Backstrom might not be there for us [at season's outset], we started looking at the centermen and we had our eyes open. He came in and he gave us some really good minutes and he did a really good job. Now that being said, it's a lot for a young player to handle the NHL and the league itself, and so we sent him back to juniors where he can play against his peers."
Protas made his NHL debut with the Caps on Nov. 1 in Tampa, and he was returned to Hershey days later when Dowd - who missed the Lightning game with a lower body injury - was deemed healthy enough to play the following game in Florida. When Mantha was injured in the Florida game, Protas was again "recalled;" he hadn't physically reported to Hershey by that point. He was again reassigned to Hershey on Nov. 5 as the Bears had an immediate need for him with three games in as many days over the weekend.
At Wednesday's practice, Protas centered a line with Carl Hagelin and fellow freshman Brett Leason.
Facing three sets of back-to-backs in 11 nights is challenging enough, but the Caps will open this stretch with four rookie forwards in their lineup: Leason, Protas, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and Connor McMichael. It will be challenging for Laviolette and his staff to manage the ice time of the forward group in the upcoming sets of back-to-backs, more challenging than usual.
"It's a little bit more difficult," admits Laviolette. "It's a little bit more challenging when you start knocking your depth, but I've got to give credit to the young guys that have come into the lineup. I think that they've done well. Our team has played good defense; I thought we were good defensively [Monday] night.
"People have to step up and we've got to get we got to work our way through it. But I did say too that it's important that we just go one game at a time. We're playing Detroit, so let's not worry about Columbus at this point. Let's watch the game and see how it goes and try to win that game, period. And then we'll wake up and we'll figure out where everything's at."
Conor Sheary | November 10
The Caps got their first look at the Red Wings in nearly two years when Detroit visited the District on Oct. 27. Washington forged a 2-0 second-period lead in that game, and it led 2-1 to start the third, but Detroit rallied to win it 3-2 on a Dylan Larkin goal in overtime.
Heading into Wednesday's light slate of NHL activity, the Red Wings are in second place in the Atlantic Division, five points behind frontrunning Florida. Detroit carries a three-game winning streak into Thursday's game with Washington, and the Wings are 4-1-2 on home ice this season.
The Wings are in the midst of a four-game homestand; they knocked off Vegas and Edmonton, respectively, prior to the Caps' arrival in Motown. The homestand concludes when Montreal visits Detroit on Saturday night.
