Feb. 1 vs. Winnipeg Jets at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7
Winnipeg Jets (36-14-3)
Washington Capitals (34-11-6)
Just back from their longest road trip of the season, the Caps jump right back into action on Saturday when they host the Winnipeg Jets at Capital One Arena. Saturday’s game pits the NHL’s top teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences for the first time this season.
Washington’s five-game, 12-day road trip was a successful one; the Caps returned home with a 3-1-1 mark for the journey, which concluded on Thursday night in Ottawa with a 5-4 overtime setback to the Senators.
With the arrival of February, the Caps can settle in at home for a spell. Because of the upcoming Four Nations tournament, Washington has a light, eight-game slate this month. The Caps play only two of those games on the road, both in the state of Pennsylvania.
In Thursday’s finale in Ottawa, the Caps overcame a pair of shorthanded penalty shots against them, a pair of bench minors for too many men on the ice that vaults them into the League lead in that department, and a two-goal deficit in the back half of the third to finish the trip with seven of a possible 10 points.
Special teams were a mixed bag in Ottawa. Washington’s power play was inept in four second-period opportunities, repeatedly being thwarted upon entry at the Senators’ blueline. Worse, the Caps’ extra-man outfit was victimized for a pair of shorthanded goals on the same penalty just 38 seconds apart, late in the second period. Josh Norris scored on a shorthanded penalty shot of dubious origin, and Shane Pinto pounced on a rebound after Charlie Lindgren vexed Norris’ bid on the second shorty.
Those two goals quickly and vastly altered the complexion of what had been a 1-1 game. Washington went into the third period down a pair of pucks, but the Caps are never without pluck; even on the tail end of their longest trip of the season, they weren’t packing it in.
“I think it shows our compete level and how much we care about each other,” says Caps forward Connor McMichael, who netted his 18th goal of the season in the second period, matching his total from last season. “We weren't going to roll over after [the second period]. You could say those were two big, deflating goals for our group, but I was really proud of how we battled back and at least earned a point.”
It was the power play that put them in that peril, and a revamped version of both units that helped the Caps pull that point in the third.
Washington’s four futile power plays in the middle frame matched the most the Caps have had in any single game since Nov. 30, a span of 27 games. Although they couldn’t reasonably expect to have a slew of – or maybe any – power play chances in the third on Thursday, the Caps made alterations to their extra-man alignment, crafting a four-righty/one lefty unit (including Ethen Frank) and a four lefty/one righty unit (including Aliaksei Protas).
The former unit scored when lone lefty Dylan Strome ripped a shot home from the right circle; the Caps craftily avoided entry fiascoes by winning the offensive zone draw at the outset and scoring eight seconds later. With two seconds left on their sixth power play of the game, Alex Ovechkin scored from the very high slot, cutting the Ottawa lead to 4-3 with 6:59 remaining.
Earlier in the power play on which Ovechkin scored, Lindgren crucially stopped Pinto on Ottawa’s second shorthanded penalty shot of the game. Minutes after Ovechkin’s goal, Strome struck again, tying the game at 4-4.
Although they fell on Thomas Chabot’s game-winner in overtime – and although they fell a game shy of matching a franchise record of nine straight games of permitting two or fewer goals against – the Caps picked up a point and headed home from a satisfying road trip.
Strome has three goals in his last two games.
“It was nice to get back on the board,” says Strome. “I thought we had some good looks the last couple of games and on the road trip, just nothing was going in. Obviously, the power play was horrible tonight through two periods, and we find a way to get two in the third and use it for momentum to get back in the game. Just too many turnovers and too many mistakes on the entries.
“Easy to clean up, which is good. We just didn’t have a lot of [offensive] zone time. When we did get in there, we got two goals in the third. But too many turnovers and just not clean enough.”
The Caps’ penalty killing unit was nicked for a pair of Ottawa power-play goals, the first time in exactly two months – and 27 games – that Washington was dented for multiple power-play goals against in the same game. The Caps’ PK has met that fate only four times in 51 games this season – including twice against New Jersey – and Washington is 2-1-1 in those four games.
Winnipeg zoomed out of the starting gate with eight straight wins this season, and it was 15-1-0 through its first 16 games. The Jets have had just one short lull in their season to date; they dropped four straight games – all in regulation – from Nov. 27-Dec. 3, scoring a total of six goals in the four losses. Winnipeg is typically a more offensive minded outfit; the Jets lead the NHL with an average of 3.58 goals per game on the season, heading into Friday night’s slate of NHL activity; the Caps are second at 3.49. In the goals against department, the Caps currently reign supreme at 2.39 on the season. The Jets are a close second at 2.40.
After the flip of the calendar to 2025, Winnipeg went 4-2-2 on an eight-game homestand. The Jets are 6-1-0 since the end of that lengthy home stay, and they roll into town carrying a five-game winning streak. Saturday’s game marks the end of a three-game road trip for the Jets, who are seeking a clean sweep of the journey after winning at Montreal and Boston, respectively.
