Dec. 12 vs. Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (19-6-2)
Columbus Blue Jackets (12-13-3)
Following a four-day respite from the rigors of the rink – at least the game day variety rigors – the Caps vault back into action on Thursday in Columbus against the Blue Jackets. Thursday’s game finishes a stretch of three straight games on the road, and the Caps can continue rewriting their franchise record book in this game, too.
It's a bit odd to have a four-day break in the midst of an NHL season, and it’s even odder for that break to come in the midst of a stretch of road games. But the Caps aren’t complaining. They finished November with six games in 10 nights, and they’ve been able to open December at a much more leisurely pace; Thursday’s game is just their fourth in a dozen nights. But the game in Columbus kicks off a stretch of seven games in a dozen nights between now and the NHL’s holiday break for Washington.
“It was huge; I think it’s going to benefit our group a lot,” says Caps forward Connor McMichael of the break. “We’ve got a few guys who are hurting, just from playing every other day throughout the year. We’ve talked about it, and that it could hurt us, and it could help us. And we want to be on the side of it helping us. We want to make sure that we’re not sloppy [Thursday] getting back into game action.
“But in the big picture, I think it was good for our group to get a couple of days and just take a few deep breaths.”
For the first time in the team’s half-century NHL history, the Capitals will enter Thursday’s game with a nine-game road winning streak. Entering the season, the franchise mark was seven straight road victories, but the Caps pushed that entry out of the record books last weekend with an impressive sweep of a weekend set of back-to-backs over the border.
On Friday night, the Caps triumphed over the Leafs in Toronto by a 3-1 count. A night later in Montreal, Washington rallied from a 2-0 first-period deficit to claim that ninth straight road victory, thanks to signature performances from Tom Wilson and Logan Thompson.
After taking a Jakob Chychrun point shot to his left cheek midway through the first period, Wilson bounced back up but was clearly in some distress; he went to the room to be examined. Improbably, he was back on the ice before the end of the first frame, but with the left side of his face looking as though he’d tucked a softball into his cheek.
With all that trauma above the neck, Wilson was still able to deliver the tying and game-winning goals in the third period of a 4-2 comeback win over the Canadiens, but he also fearlessly stood in front of the Montreal net to provide a screen for the Caps’ fourth goal of the game, a Dylan Strome power-play tally in the third.
Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the ice on Saturday in Montreal, Logan Thompson calmly steered aside four Montreal breakaway bids in the third period, the first two of which came before Wilson’s tying goal. In doing so, Thompson raised his record to 11-1-2 on the season.
On Wednesday morning before the Caps departed for Ohio’s capital city, Wilson took to the ice for practice with his teammates. His facial swelling has decreased drastically since Saturday night, but he still wore a bubble on the ice to protect his face.
“I think it can always be worse; it can always be better,” says Wilson. “You kind of just roll with it, once it happens. It’s a tough sport. It’s a pretty savage sport, and I feel lucky it wasn’t worse.”
That goes for all his teammates and the coaching staff, and for Caps fans everywhere, too. Washington has played its last nine games without team captain Alex Ovechkin (fractured fibula), and Wilson (five goals, four assists) leads the team in both goals and points during The Great Eight’s absence.
In addition to their franchise record road winning streak, the Caps enter Thursday’s game with the best record in the Eastern Conference, and they’re carrying a seven-game point streak as well (6-0-1). They dropped the first two games they played without Ovechkin, but they have collected points in every game since.
“I think it says a lot about this group,” says Wilson of the team’s success without their captain. “We’re a deep group; we’ve got four lines that can play. It’s not one guy on any given night; it’s balanced scoring. Everyone is stepping up on any given night. It’s a real group effort, and guys that are really playing for each other.
“It’s been a really fun year with this group, and guys are really excited to come to the rink, guys want to play for each other, and guys want to rally around each other when the game is getting tough. And that’s a pretty cool thing to see as someone who has been here and seen some different groups. It’s a fun one this year.”
Sporting an 11-2-0 road record tends to make a season fun. Reeling off nine straight on the road is otherworldly for a franchise that didn’t manage to string together consecutive road victories until the fifth season of its existence.
“Hockey is a 50/50 game,” says Caps’ defenseman John Carlson. “I don’t know what goes into it. Maybe our expectations are lower, and maybe we’re working a little bit harder. It doesn’t matter how it looks or what happens, but just getting it done is more of the mindset than it would be at home. As a team, we talk about the same things before every game no matter where we are; we’re not playing in freezing temperatures in February, like football.
“It is what it is, and we ride the hot streak, though. And certainly, it’s been going great for us on the road.”
They’ll try to keep it going for one more game, and that’s not going to be an easy task against a proud and dangerous Columbus club that is coached by ex-Washington assistant coach Dean Evason.
The Jackets just returned from playing five games in eight nights on a rugged road trip out west. Columbus won the opener of that journey in Chicago, and it stunned the Jets in Winnipeg in the finale. But in between, the Jackets dropped three games in four nights in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, respectively.
Columbus returned from Sunday’s win in Winnipeg to open a three-game homestand on Tuesday against the Flyers, but it came out flat and fell 5-3 in that game. Even after losing to the Flyers on Tuesday, the Jackets still boast an impressive 8-4-1 record on home ice this season.
