Feb. 22 vs. Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (25-21-8)
Tampa Bay Lightning (30-22-5)
Toting a two-game winning streak, the Caps embark upon a critical two-game trip to Florida in the back half of this week. The journey begins on Thursday night in Tampa, with the first of two remaining games against the Lightning. The Florida trip concludes on Saturday when the Caps finish up their season’s series against the Panthers in Sunrise.
With consecutive victories over the Canadiens in Montreal on Saturday and the Devils on Tuesday in the District, the Caps still harbor hopes of climbing their way back into the playoff picture. Stuck in neutral from the holiday break to the All-Star break, the Caps have played much better hockey since emerging from their midseason break just over two weeks ago, and they’re finally starting to get some results to go along with that. As they prepare to depart for Tampa, the Caps are 3-1-1 in their last five games.
Connor McMichael and Alex Ovechkin each scored twice on Tuesday in a 6-2 victory over the Devils, and Charlie Lindgren was excellent in stopping 37 of 39 shots sent his way. As they head south for the next two games, the Caps know they must continue to stack up wins and points, and they know that won’t be easy against a couple of excellent Atlantic Division squads.
“Chucky made some huge saves, especially in the second [period] to keep us in it,” says Caps’ center Dylan Strome, who scored his team-leading 21st goal of the season in Tuesday’s triumph. “We got some timely goals; obviously Mikey steps up and gets two huge goals there.
“Obviously, it’s big and we’ll take it and move on to a tough road trip.”
Unfortunately for Washington, each of its two consecutive victories came with a cost. Defenseman Martin Fehervary suffered a lower body injury early in the Montreal game, and he is out of the lineup on a week-to-week basis. In Tuesday’s win over New Jersey, center Nic Dowd departed after the first period and did not return. Dowd is listed as day-to-day, and he will not travel with the team to Florida.
With Dowd out for at least these next two games, Washington has recalled winger Pierrick Dube from AHL Hershey. Signed to a two-year, two-way deal as a free agent last summer, the 23-year-old native of Lyon, France has 24 goals and 34 points in 50 games with Hershey this season. Dubé leads the Bears in goals and is tied for second in the AHL in that department.
“Film wise, a little bit, just from tuning into a few games,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery, of his familiarity with Dubé. “I’ve seen some highlights. I’ve obviously talked to [Hershey coach Todd Nelson] a little bit about him; we get the reports from them.
“He’s having a fantastic year. His first year in the organization, I got familiar with him in training camp and exhibition. He obviously went down there and has done a tremendous job, is right up there with the top goal scorers of the AHL. I felt like he has earned the opportunity for this call-up.”
Washington plans to move Aliaksei Protas to the middle, and if he were to take Dowd’s slot in between Beck Malenstyn and Tom Wilson, the Caps would then need to replace Protas on the left side of a line with McMichael and Anthony Mantha. Dubé could be the guy to fill that slot, or Nicolas Aubé-Kubel could draw back into the lineup after sitting out the last two games as a healthy scratch.
“Down the middle,” says Carbery, “it’s something that I’ve had in the back of my mind throughout the years, is getting a good solid look at Protas in the middle, to see what that looks like. How does that affect the rest of the group? Number one, it’s him taking ownership in that role and being real solid as that – call it fourth line center; he’ll get more minutes than the typical fourth line in that role.”
Tampa Bay is in the mix for wild card positioning in the Eastern Conference. Going into Wednesday night’s slate of NHL activity, the Bolts occupy the first of two wild card slots as well as fourth place in the Atlantic Division, one point ahead of Detroit and three points behind third-place Toronto.
The Lightning has been a bit erratic this season; it won eight of nine games shortly after the turn of the calendar, but the Bolts enter Thursday’s game on the heels of consecutive losses, and with a 3-4-0 mark in their last seven games. Tampa Bay’s consecutive losses were against divisional foes, a 9-2 shellacking from Florida on Saturday and a 4-2 loss to Ottawa on Monday. Both games were played in Tampa, where the Lightning will be finishing up a four-game homestand on Thursday against Washington.
