One More Saturday Night – The Caps continue their strange four-game homestand on Saturday when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets at Capital One Arena. We refer to the homestand as “strange,” because Saturday’s game is the only contest the Caps play in the span of an entire week. They were idle for three days before this game, and they’ll be idle for the next three as well. The homestand continues on Wednesday with Washington’s traditional Thanksgiving Eve contest; the Caps face the Buffalo Sabres in that one.
Washington will be without Evgeny Kuznetsov for tonight’s game against Columbus. After missing Friday’s practice session because of illness, Kuznetsov still isn’t well enough to suit up tonight, so Hendrix Lapierre will dress in his absence. Lapierre has seen action in four games with the Caps this season, but he has been a scratch for each of the last three.
Defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk suffered a lower body injury against Columbus two weeks ago, but he will return to the Washington lineup tonight after missing the last four games. Winger Anthony Mantha is also back in the lineup tonight after missing the last three with an upper body injury, and it looks as though Joel Edmundson will make his Caps’ debut tonight. Acquired from Montreal in a July 1 deal, Edmundson has been sidelined since suffering a hand injury on the first weekend of training camp, nearly two months ago.
The Capitals loaned defenseman Dylan McIlrath to AHL Hershey on Saturday afternoon, and they’ve activated van Riemsdyk, Mantha and Edmundson from injured reserve.
“Physicality, his ability to defend, his range, his presence, his defensive zone [play], protecting the interior of the rink, being able to win pucks down low,” lists Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery, when asked what he’s looking forward to from Edmundson drawing into the Washington lineup. “There’s a lot of things that I think he’ll help that we’ve maybe missed a little bit back there. Just a really strong, reliable, hard defender that makes it difficult on opponents when you try to come to the interior against us.”
Know Your Enemy – Following Tuesday’s win over Vegas in the homestand opener, the Caps practiced on Wednesday, took Thursday off and then practiced again on Friday. The off day split the practice days before the Columbus game, and an off day will precede two practice days following Saturday’s game with the Jackets.
“Our schedule has been crazy,” says Caps’ right wing Tom Wilson. “But it was a back-to-back [last weekend], come home, and into a big game [Tuesday against Vegas]. Having a couple of days to just mentally get a bit of a rest is really nice. I think the energy level of practice [Friday] was awesome. And hopefully we can carry that into the game, and go out there and dictate the play, and take it to them and keep it rolling.”
Not only are the Caps seeing Columbus for the second time in two weeks, they’ve faced the Jackets four times in less than two months, including the final two preseason tune-ups. As they get ready to tangle again on Saturday, the Caps and Jackets share some special team similarities; both teams have struggled on the power play while excelling on the penalty kill of late. Columbus is 1-for-28 on the power play in its last 10 games, and the Jackets killed 22 straight opposition power plays over a span of nine games before yielding a power-play goal to Arizona on Thursday in their most recent game.
“We’re worried about ourselves,” says Carbery. “But with regards to Columbus, the way I look at it is they’ve given us some trouble this year. I look at the last game of the exhibition season – where they dressed a veteran lineup, and we dressed a veteran lineup – and the game we played here [two weeks ago].
“We lose 4-2 in the exhibition game, but they did control play and give us some issues in that game. And then you go to the [Nov. 4] game, we get out to an early 2-0 lead, and then we sort of hold on in that game. They control a lot of the second half of that game. Chucky played excellent; we win that game 2-1. So when you go back and dive into those games, they gave us a lot of trouble.
“They’re a fast team. They’re really skilled. They’re one of the top teams in the League off the rush, and they generate a ton of odd man chances. They’re skilled off the rush, they’ve got speed, all of their [defensemen] can skate and get up to add a fourth and then a fifth into the rush. They’ve given us trouble, and we need to get that corrected and be on our toes tonight, and be more concerned with us controlling play tonight.”
Columbus lugs a seven-game winless streak (0-5-2) with it into town, but the Caps would be wise to ignore that. The Jackets have led in each of their last six games, and they’ve been competitive in virtually all of their games this season. They can be a handful, as the Caps are aware. Washington has defended well of late, but it has also defended more than it would like. Some of that is due to caliber of the opposition, and some of it is due to score effects.
“What I would say to that is, as a whole, the last four games, we’ve got to now start to control play again, like we were before,” says Carbery. “Even though you look at the results of the last four games and there’s been some positive results inside of that, we need to control play. We need to get out of games where we’ve spent the majority of the time in the offensive zone, we’ve controlled scoring chances for.
“We need to get back to that, and that’s been challenging for us over the last four games, and that’s what we’re looking to do tonight.”
Washington has excelled at blocking shot lanes and passing lanes, and it has done good work in its own end of the ice, by and large. But the Caps want to be a puck possession team, and though they’re in the midst of a splendid 7-1-1 run in their last nine, they rank 19th in the NHL in percentage of shot attempts controlled (41.4%) over that span.
“We played a really good team last game, and defense is a very important aspect of the game,” says Caps’ blueliner Rasmus Sandin. “I think we're doing a really good job with that. And I think what's more impressive as well is how many guys are just blocking shots, and putting their body on the line, which is awesome to see. But definitely we want to try to spend some more time in the [offensive] zone, be a little bit smarter with some pucks and get some momentum going forward. But definitely the defensive zone has been a huge part for us.”
“We need to do a better job of two things,” says Carbery. “One is we need to dictate the terms of the game, and we need to be playing offense and not defending. And then the second part of that is playing against really good teams, and playing against the Vegases of the world and the Floridas of the world, who make it really difficult on you. So we need to get comfortable playing those games, and being able to control play – against Vegas, against Florida – if we’re going to be an elite team.”
The Corridors Of Power – Entering Saturday’s game with the Jackets, the Caps are sitting on a streak of seven straight games without scoring a power play goal. They’ve gone 0-for-19 with the extra man in those seven games, and they’ve managed an impressive 5-1-1 record over that span.
In the nearly half century of Washington’s NHL existence, the Caps’ current power-play goal drought is tied for the fifth-longest in franchise history. In their inaugural season of 1974-75, the Caps went 11 straight games without a power-play goal, going 0-10-1 in the process. They matched that 11-game drought in 1977-78, going 0-8-3.
Washington had a 10-game dry spell on the power play in 1976-77, going 2-5-3. The last time the Caps went more than seven games without lighting the lamp on the power play was an eight-game gap late in the 1996-97 season.
The Caps’ current seven-game dry spell is the ninth time they’ve hit that number on the nose; the most recent occurrence spanned parts of two seasons, running from April 2, 2016 to Oct. 15, 2016. Washington forged a 2-2-3 mark in those seven games.
Just after the turn of this century – from Jan. 26-Feb. 10, 2000 – the Caps went seven straight games without a power-play goal, and they went 5-1-1 in the process, matching their current streak for the distinction of best record during a lengthy power play drought.
On the other side of the special team coin, the Caps are also in the midst of an historical stretch. Washington enters the Columbus contest with a nine-game streak of penalty-killing perfection. The Caps have killed off 20 consecutive opposition power plays over that span, and they’ve been disciplined, too. Washington has taken the fewest penalties (23) and has been shorthanded the fewest times (20) in the circuit over that stretch.
The Caps’ current penalty-killing streak is the third-longest in franchise history in terms of number of games; Washington has twice gone a dozen games without yielding a power-play goal against. From Dec. 28, 1976 through Jan. 18, 1977, the Caps killed off every opposition power play for 12 straight games to establish the franchise record. More than two decades later, the Caps matched that streak from Oct. 26-Nov. 20, 1999.
In The Nets – Coming off a 3-0 whitewash of the Stanley Cup Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday, Charlie Lindgren gets the net again on Saturday night against the Blue Jackets. Lindgren faced double-digit shot totals in each of the three periods of Tuesday’s game, stopping all 35 to record his first shutout as a member of the Capitals and the third of his NHL career.
Darcy Kuemper left practice with a lower body injury earlier in the week, but he is fully healthy now and will be the backup tonight. Tonight marks Lindgren’s first set of consecutive starts this season.
“With time in between and a lot of rest, fatigue not being an issue, he played great last game and we’ll give him an opportunity to play again,” says Carbery of Lindgren. “I understand the optics of questions on Darcy, and how that will come into question. But at the same time, it’s an 82-game schedule and I know that we’re going to need multiple goaltenders. Charlie is playing well, and Charlie deserves to play again. I’m sure the roles will be reversed at some point, but Charlie is going to start tonight.”
In his three November starts, Lindgren is 3-0-0 with a shutout, a 1.01 GAA and a .969 save pct. He has stopped 93 of 96 shots he has faced this month. Lifetime against Columbus, Lindgren is 2-1-2 with a 3.55 GAA and an .886 save pct. in five appearances, all starts.
For Columbus, Elvis Merzlikins gets the start tonight. He is starting his fourth consecutive game, and this marks his eighth starting assignment in the Jackets’ last 10 games. Merzlikins has notched three of the four Columbus victories to this point in the season, and he has two games in which he has yielded just two goals against.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Merzlikins is 1-3-0 with a 3.49 GAA and an .885 save pct. in five appearances (four starts).
All Lined Up – Here is how we believe the Capitals and Blue Jackets might look when they take the ice at Capital One Arena on Saturday night:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
21-Protas, 24-McMichael, 77-Oshie
15-Milano, 29-Lapierre, 39-Mantha
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 96-Aube-Kubel
Defensemen
46-Johansen, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Jensen
6-Edmundson, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
35-Kuemper
Injured
19-Backstrom (upper body)
42-Fehervary (lower body)
67-Pacioretty (torn Achilles’ tendon)
92-Kuznetsov (illness)
Scratches
27-Alexeyev
45-Phillips
COLUMBUS
Forwards
10-Voronkov, 11-Fantilli, 86-Marchenko
13-Gaudreau, 29-Laine, 59-Chinakhov
4-Sillinger, 38-Jenner, 17-Danforth
42-Texier, 7-Kuraly, 24-Olivier
Defensemen
8-Werenski, 44-Gudbranson
9-Provorov, 78-Severson
22-Bean, 55-Jiricek
Goaltenders
90-Merzlikins
30-Martin
Injured
40-Tarasov (knee)
96-Roslovic (ankle)
Scratches
2-Peeke
27-Boqvist
64-Fix-Wolansky
