I’m Not Down – The Caps put their four-game winning streak on the line tonight at Capital One Arena when they take on San Jose. Each of the Caps’ four wins in this streak was achieved via the comeback route, the first time they’ve won four straight games in that fashion since Feb. 24-March 3, 2019.
The only time the Caps have had a longer streak of comeback wins is a five-game run from Feb. 26-March 7, 2011, and the commonality between that streak in 2011 and the current one is a pair of road wins in Florida achieved on the Mentors’ Trip.
Last week, the Caps started their four-game winning streak – and their annual Mentors’ Trip – with a Monday win over the Panthers in Florida and they finished the Mentors’ Trip with a wild Wednesday win over the Lightning in Tampa Bay. Back in March of 2011, they swept a set of back-to-back games in The Sunshine State in the 2010-11 Mentors’ Trip to extend their winning streak to five straight games, with all five being one-goal wins, all five of the comeback variety, and with the Bruce Boudreau-coached Caps scoring three or fewer goals in all five of the wins.
Despite yielding four or more goals against in each of their last three games, the Caps have won them all, the first time in their half-century history they can make that claim.
The Stars (Are Out Tonight) – With the Sharks supplying the opposition for the second of Washington’s three consecutive one-game “homestands” on Tuesday, we will be treated to watching two of the NHL’s three stars from last week.
Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini – the first player chosen overall in the 2024 NHL Draft – was named the League’s No.1 star for the week ending Sunday, Dec. 1. Caps’ defenseman Jakob Chychrun was named the No. 3 star for the same period of time, with Vancouver blueliner Quinn Hughes earning second star honors.
Celebrini scored four goals and racked up seven points last week, netting a pair of game-winners in the process, and helping San Jose to a 3-1-0 mark on the week. With a three-point game (two goals, one assist) against Los Angeles on Nov. 25, Celebrini became the youngest player in San Jose’s franchise history (18 years, 165 days) to record a three-point game.
Celebrini beat Patrick Marleau’s previous longstanding franchise record (18 years, 171 days) by six days.
Chychrun had three goals and seven points in four games last week, scoring a pair of game-winning goals and contributing at least a point in each of Washington’s four consecutive wins last week. With eight goals on the season, he is tied with Colorado’s Cale Makar and Columbus’ Zach Werenski for the League lead among defensemen.
Chychrun’s average of .79 points per game is tied for 10th among NHL blueliners.
Red Light Special – Two of the NHL’s hottest offensive squads go head-to-head tonight in the District as the Sharks roll into town for their lone visit this season. In a busy holiday week in the NHL, the Caps (4-0-0) and Sharks (3-1-0) each played four games last week, and no team scored more goals than San Jose (22) and Washington (20).
While both sides boasted the hot sticks last week, both went about it differently. San Jose scored 18 of its 22 goals at 5-on-5, climbing from 27th to 14th in 5-on-5 scoring in just four games. San Jose’s 18 goals at 5-on-5 last week represent more than a third (18 of 51, 35.3%) of their total for the season, in 27 games.
Washington did a significant amount of its damage on the power play, scoring eight of its 20 goals with the extra man. Although they still lead the NHL with 69 goals at 5-on-5, the Caps scored as many goals on the power play as they did at 5-on-5 last week. And this season, the Caps have scored those 69 goals at 5-on-5 in just 24 games. In 2023-24, Washington needed 42 games with which to score its first 69 goals at 5-on-5.
“Celebrini looks like he is going to be a heck of a player,” says Carbery. “Since he has come back into the lineup, he has been a real positive for them, and it seems like he has helped their whole group.”
With Ottawa last season, Chychrun had seven goals and nine assists on the power play, both career bests. But until he netted the game-winning goal on a 5-0n-3 power play in the third period of last Monday’s victory in Florida, Chychrun had not recorded a point on the power play this season.
Caps’ captain Alex Ovechkin went down with a fractured fibula two weeks ago, and Chychrun has seen regular duty on the power play since. He carries a four-game power play point streak (two goals, two assists) coming into tonight’s game.
“He has done a nice job,” says Carbery of Chychrun’s work on the Washington power play. “His skill set is his shot and his lateral movement; that’s what he does as well as anybody in the League. He is right up there with some of the top power play defensemen. He has added that element, and he can get his shot through. And when you can move like he can laterally, you can create some shot lanes for yourself, so that’s what we’ve been trying to do a little bit more.”
Thirty of Chychrun’s 84 career goals have been scored on the power play, but each of his first half dozen goals as a Capital came at even strength.
“it’s something I’ve done for a long time, and I enjoy it a lot,” says Chychrun. “I’m playing with some really good players on that unit, and I’m just trying to move my feet to create some openings for guys, and to get pucks through when I can. It’s nice to have a little success on there.”
With their 13-for-29 hot spell on the power play in their last 11 games, the Caps have climbed from last place in the League’s power play ledger on Nov. 9 (at 8.7%) to 14th in the circuit (at 22.7%) heading into tonight’s game.
Seven And Seven Is – From Oct. 15 to Nov. 6 of this year, the Capitals won seven straight home games. A day after that home winning streak was halted in a 4-2 loss to the Penguins, the Caps went on the road and blasted the Blues 8-1 in St. Louis. That victory over the Blues started a spree of seven straight road wins, tying Washington’s all-time franchise mark, which was established just under two years ago.
This marks the first time the Caps have ever had seven-game winning streaks of both the home and road variety in the same season, and they are the first NHL team to have home and road streaks of seven or more wins this season.
The 2024-25 Capitals are the 30th NHL team ever to manage a home and road winning streak of seven or more games in the same season, but this season’s Caps are just the second of those teams to turn the trick before playing their 25th game of the season. The 1985-86 Philadelphia Flyers also pulled it off, needing only total 16 games in which to win seven at home and seven on the road.
Sixteen games into the ’85-86 season, Philadelphia was sitting at 14-2-0; the Flyers were a perfect 7-0-0 on the road and they won seven straight at the Spectrum after dropping their first two home games of the season. By the time the 25-game mark rolled around for the ’85-86 Flyers, they had increased their home streak to 11 straight and they boasted a 19-5-0 overall mark. Philly finished that season with a 53-23-4 record.
In The Nets – Seeking his 11th win of the season, Logan Thompson gets the net for Washington tonight. With 6.5 goals saved above expected (per moneypuck.com), Thompson ranks eighth in the NHL among goaltenders with nine or more appearances this season. In his lone regulation loss on the season to date, Thompson yielded only two goals against in a 2-1 loss to Colorado on Nov. 21.
Lifetime against the Sharks, Thompson is 3-1-1 in five appearances – all starts – with a shutout, a 1.78 GAA and a .935 save pct.
We are expecting to see Mackenzie Blackwood in the nets for San Jose; he has claimed five of the Sharks’ nine wins (5-8-3) to this point of the season. The Caps saw a lot of Blackwood during his days with the Devils; he has made 14 career appearances – all starts – against Washington. Lifetime against the Caps, Blackwood is 3-9-1 with a 3.59 GAA and an .879 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we believe the Caps and Sharks might look when they take to the ice on Tuesday night in DC:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 16-Raddysh
29-Lapierre, 20-Eller, 88-Mangiapane
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 63-Miroshnichenko
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Roy
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Extras
13-Vrana
27-Alexeyev
52-McIlrath
Out/Injured
8-Ovechkin (fractured fibula)
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
SAN JOSE
Forwards
72-Eklund, 71-Celebrini, 20-Zetterlund
11-Kunin, 21-Wennberg, 73-Toffoli
10-Kostin, 64-Granlund, 2-W. Smith
91-Grundstrom, 7-Sturm, 53-Dellandrea
Defensemen
96-Walman, 4-Ceci
38-Ferraro, 37-Liljegren
3-Thrun, 84-Rutta
Goaltenders
29-Blackwood
41-Vanecek
Extras
26-Thompson
54-G. Smith
56-Cardwell
Out/Injured
23-Goodrow (upper body)
39-Couture (lowr body)
44-Vlasic (upper body)
