November 9 vs. St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Caps Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (9-4-0)
St. Louis Blues (7-7-0)
A pair of teams seeking to rebound from a loss in their previous outing will tangle at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on Saturday night. For the Caps, Saturday’s game is the second half of a set of back-to-backs; Washington’s seven-game home winning streak was halted at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night in DC.
Friday’s game pitted the League’s third-best 5-on-5 team against the NHL’s third worst; Washington entered the game with a plus-13 goal differential at 5-on-5 while the Penguins stood at minus-16.
None of it mattered when the Pens jumped out to an early 2-0 lead before the game’s first television timeout. The Caps got one back right away on Rasmus Sandin’s first goal of the season before the midpoint of the first, and they drew even early in the second when Jakub Vrana made a sublime backhand saucer feed to Andrew Mangiapane, whose finish tied the game at 2-2.
The Caps missed out on a number of excellent scoring chances the rest of the way, some that they weren’t able to finish, and some that were thwarted by rookie goaltender Joel Blomqvist. The game turned into a goaltending duel for the next 25 minutes or so of playing time, as both netminders made big stops and the game remained deadlocked.
For the first time in a span of five home games, the Caps were dented for a goal in the third period, and it proved to be the game-winner. Evgeni Malkin potted the rebound of a Bryan Rust shot to life the Pens to a 3-2 lead midway through the third, and Washington wasn’t able to answer back. A late empty-netter gave Pittsburgh a two-goal victory in the first of four meetings this season between the two Metropolitan Division rivals.
Washington’s power play went 0-for-3 in Friday’s game, falling to a League low 4-for-46 (8.7 percent) on the season. The Caps’ 5-on-5 excellence has been enough to overcome the opposition on most nights, but not on Friday against Pittsburgh.
“I felt like we didn’t play too bad,” says Caps defenseman John Carlson. “We had the momentum when they scored there, and we had a lot of good chances throughout the game that could have maybe changed the trajectory of it.
"Not that we played the perfect game; we probably gave up too many chances, but it felt like we were on the attack, too. It felt like we were getting a lot of good chances, a lot where you’re like, ‘Oh man, how did that not fall?’ Those things matter. Those things matter for momentum and they matter – obviously – for the score.”
What matters now for the Caps is nipping Friday night’s setback in the bud and responding with a game in St. Louis that gives them a chance to bring home two points against a rested Blues team that is also unhappy with its previous result. The Caps have managed a win after each of their first three losses this season; good teams don’t let losses fester into lengthy losing skids.
Saturday’s game pits the NHL’s two worst power play units; St. Louis’ extra-man unit ranks 31st in the League at 11.8 percent while Washington occupies the cellar at 8.7 percent on the season.
“We’re just going to have to find a way to continue to work at it,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery of the Washington power play. “It’s evolved without [Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie] now, and so we’re going to have to figure out a mix of who those players are, and the options that best suit those players and their skill sets, and we’re still working our way through that.”
For the Blues, Saturday’s game is the fourth contest in a five-game homestand, their second longest of the season. St. Louis took the first two games of the homestand, defeating Toronto and Tampa Bay, respectively. But the Blues fell to Utah on Thursday night in the middle match of the homestand, 4-2.
In the wake of that defeat – a game in which they were limited to just 15 shots on net, and only seven of them in the game’s final 40 minutes – the Blues shuffled their lines a bit ahead of Saturday’s game with Washington.
“Obviously [Thursday],” begins Blues’ coach Drew Bannister, “I think the shot total was indicative of our game as a whole, and our lack of forechecking and our lack of [offensive] pressure that we had on. When you look at the chances, I think in the first period we probably created seven chances. And then in the second and the third, we didn’t create a lot of the chances we’d like to see.
“[Thursday] night was certainly a game that overall was off for us. When you’re not forechecking, and when you’re not playing the right way, you’re not going to get rewarded offensively.”
St. Louis has been a bit banged up in the early going; the Blues are missing a number of regulars. Right-handed top six center Rob Thomas has a fractured ankle, and St. Louis is missing a trio of regular defensemen as well: Nick Leddy, Philip Broberg and Torey Krug.
