Kuemper, Caps Blank Jackets, 1-0

Sunday afternoon turned into a great night for the Capitals. They got Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson back in their lineup, both for the first time this season after long absences. They got a 37-save shutout performance from Darcy Kuemper and they got 25 blocked shots from 13 different players in front of him. Thanks to Erik Gustafsson's goal at 2:43 of the first - on Washington's first shot on net of the night - it was enough for a 1-0 Caps win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Capital One Arena.

Sunday's win over the Blue Jackets marks the first time the Caps have managed to pull two points from a game in which they scored fewer than three goals this season.
Caps coach Peter Laviolette put both Backstrom and Wilson into the starting lineup, and both were given rousing and standing ovations from the packed house. Both players admitted to some nerves and a bit of a feeling out process, but also said they were more comfortable as the game wore on.
"It was great to have them back out there," says Laviolette. "That's a that's a lot, jumping into that game. I thought they did fine, and every day from today as they move forward, they'll get more confident and just feel better about it. I'm sure they're both glad to have it behind them and in the rearview mirror."
Backstrom finished the night with 14:03 in ice time. He registered three hits and won five of seven draws, blocked a shot and had a shot on net, and he also took a penalty in the third period.
"It meant the world," says Backstrom of being back on the ice with his team. "Obviously, I missed this and without knowing what my future was going to hold and just coming back and playing, it feels great."
Wilson logged 14:10 in the game, led the team with six hits and had a shot on net. After one of his six hits - a hard check on Jackets' forward Liam Foudy - Columbus winger Mathieu Olivier challenged him to a fight.
"He is a tough player, and he plays honest, plays hard," says Wilson of Olivier. "I think he wanted to fight, and I just said, 'Hey, give me a game to get my body back.' Those are the great parts of hockey, and why you play the game, and the passion and the competitive nature."
Columbus played an excellent defensive game; Washington's best chances came in the first on a couple of timing plays where goaltender Elvis Merzlikins had the answer both times, denying Martin Fehervary just before the midpoint of the first and doing the same to Nick Jensen a couple minutes later. The Caps played well in the first period and in pockets of the game thereafter, but Columbus had the edge territorially and in terms of possession the rest of the way.
"It was an excellent game by us, all the way around, from the goaltender on out," says Jackets' coach Brad Larsen. "The compete was very, very high, and we had a ton of looks. Their goalie was good."
Kuemper was obviously excellent all night; he allowed few rebounds and was sharp whenever tested. He was at his best in the third when Washington was shorthanded twice and had to face a 6-on-5 test late.
"Good teams can find a way, and a lot of different ways, and tonight was one of them," says Kuemper. "As the season goes along, things get a little bit tighter. So it's nice to get the ones like tonight."
Washington's fourth line manufactured the team's lone goal in Sunday's game, scoring on the forecheck on the trio's first shift of the night. The Caps got the puck deep, and Garnet Hathaway easily got to it first, and he pushed it to Nic Dowd, still below the goal line on the opposite side of the Columbus cage. Dowd found Gustafsson in the high slot, and the defenseman carried to the left and let go of a wrist shot from above the left circle, getting a good bounce off defenseman Tim Berni's skate and through Merzlikins' legs.
"There was nothing to do," says Merzlikins. "I was tracking the puck, and at the last second unlucky. It hit the skate and went right through the five-hole."
The game's only goal of the game came at 2:43 of the first period on the first of Washington's 19 shots on net for the night, the Caps' lowest single-game shot total of the season; their previous low was 20 on Halloween night in Carolina.
Kuemper's best save of the first came in a one-on-one situation late in the frame. Gustav Nyquist took a feed from Patrik Laine and chipped a high shot from in tight, and Kuemper was able to shoulder it aside.
In the second, Kuemper stopped Johnny Gaudreau from in close late in the period, but the Caps' netminder was at his best in the third when the Jackets started to win some face-offs and sustain some time in Washington ice.
Nine of Kuemper's 37 saves came on the dangerous Laine, and five of those nine shots were launched in the third period, and the best two came in the last four minutes. Kuemper also denied a Cole Sillinger one-timer on a Blue Jackets power play midway through the third.
Nearly half - a dozen - of Washington's 25 blocked shots came in the third period, too. Jensen led the Caps with four blocked shots, but Trevor van Riemsdyk and Dmitry Orlov chipped in with three each, and only five of the Caps' 18 skaters didn't have a blocked shot by night's end.
Two nights after suffering their first regulation loss in over three weeks, the Caps got right back in the win column. It wasn't their prettiest victory, but it counts the same in the standings.
"I thought we were off a little bit," says Laviolette. "A lot of the things we were trying to do - you've got to give Columbus credit - just to get out of our defensive zone and through the neutral zone, we just seemed off a little bit with passing. It was behind us. It was ahead of us. It was in our skates, and we just couldn't get to the next level.
"And when a team's defending well, those things become more difficult; your precision and your execution has to really be on point and so that was just off a little bit. But we got the early goal, and I thought we did a pretty good job five-on-five for the most part at holding them off. And when we needed some big saves - and there were some big ones tonight - I thought Kuemps was really good."