Caps Take on Wings
Caps open critical three-game homestand on Tuesday against Detroit
On Tuesday night against Detroit, the Capitals open up a crucial three-game homestand at Capital One Arena. Heading into that contest, the Caps find themselves in both familiar and unfamiliar situations. As the Wings roll into town, Detroit is just two points behind the Caps, who faced the same situation in their previous home game last Thursday when Florida came into the District and erased a two-point standings deficit with a win over Washington. The unfamiliar part of the equation is the four-game regulation losing streak the Caps are lugging into Tuesday's tilt; it's the longest such streak Washington has been saddled with in over two years.
"They're right there," says Caps' coach Peter Laviolette of the Red Wings. "I don't know if their winning percentage is right above us or if they're right below us, their winning percentage. But it's close enough for me not to worry about whether we're .2 percent better than them or .2 percent behind them. It doesn't matter. We've got to win hockey games. So the focus is winning, the focus is two points, the focus is playing a better brand of hockey than we did the other night."
The fourth of those consecutive losses came on Saturday night in Raleigh, under the stars and the lights on the big stage of the NHL's Stadium Series. Carolina scored on its first shot on net of the night, and it added three more goals in a span of less than six minutes in the second period, rolling to a 4-1 win over the Caps.
The Capitals returned home on Sunday morning, and they took the remainder of that day off before reconvening at MedStar Capitals Iceplex for a spirited Monday practice session.
"I think our guys understand that," says Laviolette of the losing streak. "Nobody's happy with the first loss, and then three more after it, you're certainly not happy; everybody is well aware. We talk about the importance of the games, and certainly [Tuesday] falls into that category, and the guys know that.
"What we talked about [Monday] was getting better, how to get better, how to play better, and then try to go out and practice it, and see if we can take that into the game [Tuesday]. Lots of good things today coming off of a really tough game, and lots of positives today to try and build off."
For the Caps, it's now or never. Last week's three-game homestand left them empty-handed; it was the first homestand of three or more games in which they came up pointless since January of 1997, when they were still headquartered in Landover's USAir Arena. Since the calendar flipped to 2023, Washington has won only two of nine home games (2-6-1), and it has held a scoreboard lead for a mere 96:01 of the 548 minutes of hockey it has played D.C. over that span.
Given the shape of the standings, the nearness of the March 3 trade deadline, the relatively flat salary cap for next season and the plethora of impending free agents on the Washington roster, the Caps are at a significant crossroads with this homestand, which contains three of the five games the team will play between now and the trade deadline.
Washington entered the New Year with the 11th best record (21-13-5) in the NHL. But since the calendar turned, the Caps' 7-11-1 record ranks 30th in the circuit, ahead of only Columbus and Vancouver.
The Caps will still be without captain Alex Ovechkin on Tuesday; he is still away from the team after the death of his father last week. John Carlson is also still out of the Washington lineup for the long term, and the Caps have struggled mightily without their two best players. Since Carlson ascended to the NHL in 2010, both players have proven to be extremely durable. Washington has had to play only 10 games in which both players were missing from its lineup, and it has won only two (2-6-2) of those contests. This season, the Caps are 0-4-0 without both Carlson and Ovechkin in the lineup.
Injuries have plagued the Capitals throughout each of the last two seasons. The team has now played 140 straight games without a full deck of cards; it has had one or more players missing because of injury or illness for every one of those contests. The Caps' total of 622 man-games lost (334 this season) since the outset of the 2021-22 campaign is far greater than the team's total (462) for the six prior seasons combined.
Even in the face of all that adversity, the Caps are holding out hope that they can engineer a turnaround with a strong performance on home ice this week, and they believe they're capable of achieving that.
"We have such an unbelievable hockey team in this room," says Caps' forward Marcus Johansson. "We've had some unfortunate things happen here and there, and it has not been going our way. But we've got to find a way to make it go our way, like we did there in December. We just have to make it go our way, and it has to start now."
"I think it's definitely 'go' time now," says Caps' winger Conor Sheary. "We don't have many games to give anymore. We know we're capable of going on a run of winning games and stringing them together, and I think it starts [Tuesday] night.
"We play Detroit, we play Buffalo [on Sunday] and we play New York [Rangers on Saturday]. We play teams that are ahead of us, and although we may not be able to catch some of them, I think just keeping them in sight is important. This week is definitely an important one for us."
Vying for their first playoff berth since 2015-16, the Red Wings come to town on a bit of a hot streak, even though the Seattle Kraken cooled them off on Saturday night in the Emerald City, handing them a 4-2 setback. That loss halted Detroit's five-game winning streak, its longest in over a year, since Nov. 24-Dec. 4, 2021.
The Wings have also won eight of their last dozen (8-4-0) to climb to within three points of Pittsburgh, the current occupant of the Eastern Conference's second wild card playoff slot. In between the Wings and the Pens are the New York Islanders, the Caps and the Buffalo Sabres. That makes Tuesday's game every bit as big for Detroit as it is for Washington.
Tuesday's tilt closes out the season's series between the Caps and Red Wings, former co-occupants of the NHL's Norris Division from 1974-79. Previously this season, the Wings prevailed 3-1 in the opener on Nov. 3 in Motown, and the Caps claimed a 4-3 overtime win here in Washington on Dec. 19.
