Fans Finally Return as Caps Host Isles

April 27 vs. New York Islanders at Capital One Arena
Time: 7 p.m.
TV:NBCSW, NBCSN
Radio:Capitals Radio 24/7, 99.1 FM
New York Islanders 29-14-5
Washington Capitals 31-13-4

For the first time in nearly 14 months, fans will be back in the building on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena. With two weeks remaining in the season, the Caps will play six of their final eight games in front of a 10 percent capacity crowd, starting with the New York Islanders' final visit of the season on Tuesday, the third straight game between the two teams.
Winners of six of their last eight games (6-2-0), the Caps downed the Isles twice in New York last week to go 3-1-0 on a four-game road swing. Washington prevailed 1-0 in a shootout on Thursday and then dismantled the Isles 6-3 on Saturday night, scoring all six goals at 5-on-5, the first time the Isles have yielded as many as six goals in a game on home ice since a 6-2 loss to Montreal on March 3, 2020.
The last time fans watched the Caps play on home ice was the very next night, on March 4, 2020 in a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. Some 418 days after that, they'll finally be back in the big barn on F St.
"I think it's exciting for everybody," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "That's the juice in the building, right? Everybody feels that juice; it's alive. It's great when your team's doing the right things and you're playing well, it's a partnership from what goes on out on the ice to get those people out of their seats and to make them yell and scream. And when that happens, I think buildings can become electric. We're excited to get some fans back."

Since the beginning of the 2000-01 NHL season, the Caps' .647 cumulative regular season point percentage on home ice is tied for the best in the NHL with Detroit and San Jose (excluding Vegas).
"It's going to be great," says Caps right wing T.J. Oshie. "I feel like we have home ice [advantage] again at home. It's going to be awesome. There are a lot of things - maybe especially hockey players and the situation where we're at - that we take for granted and having our own fans in the building I think was one of them before this whole thing started. I can't wait to get them back in the crowd, hear some noise when you do something good, get a little positive reinforcement, and maybe get a little help in bringing down the other team and the refs. I'm really excited to see the fans, we missed them a lot."
Those fans are catching the Caps at a good time. The last five periods of hockey they played in New York were exemplary; they outscored the Isles by a combined 6-0 total of 5-on-5 in those hundred minutes, with better than 63 percent of all shot attempts.
"A lot of it came from the decisions through the neutral zone," says Laviolette. "If you remember back four or five games ago, we were talking about just shooting ourselves in the foot with some of the decisions. We talked about the last 10 games [of the season] and the opponents that we're going to go through, and what we're going to see in the playoffs, and so that was a little bit of a challenge I think as well, and the guys responded well.
"It's a couple games, but they're good games. You want to build off of that. The next game isn't going to be any easier. We've got tough games coming up, they're [against] the right teams, and they're the teams I think you want to play going into the playoffs."
The Caps have won each of their three meetings with the Islanders here in the District, limiting them to four goals at 5-on-5 in the process.
"The Islanders like to get the cycle game going," says Caps defenseman Brenden Dillon. "They like to get pucks to the net and outnumber you. From the defensive side, on us [defenseman] as well as the forwards, we've been getting guys out of lanes, letting the goalies see the pucks, and obviously [Ilya Samsonov] and Vitek [Vanecek] have played great as well. It's been nice to have some success when you pay attention like that to the details of the game and show that we can still score and get our offense, too."

The Islanders are the League's third stingiest defensive team, limiting the opposition to an average of just 2.29 goals per game this season. Lately, New York has been riding its' special teams and its' defensive prowess to keep a steady diet of standings points coming. The Isles are 7-4-1 in April, but only two of the victories were achieved in regulation.
Back on April 1, the Islanders opened the month with an 8-4 beating of the Capitals on Long Island. But in the 11 games since, their average of 1.82 goals per game is the lowest in the League and they've managed only a dozen goals at 5-on-5 - also fewest in the league - over that span.
"I'm going to have some lineup changes for sure," says Islanders coach Barry Trotz, "just because I think we'll add some freshness to it and put some urgency into the group."