Arizona Skies – The Caps conclude their lengthy western swing trip on Monday night in Tempe when they face the Arizona Coyotes in the finale – and the rubber match – of a five-game trip. The Caps enter tonight’s tilt with a 2-2-0 mark to show for the trip to date.
“We’re trying to finish this road trip off on the right foot,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “We’ve had good moments through it; we felt like we started it real well in San Jose [a week ago tonight] even though we didn’t get the results. We found a way to win in a couple of games, then took a step back in Vegas a little bit, with the way that we played for certain stretches of that game. And now we’re looking to finish this road trip off the right way, here in Arizona.”
Center Evgeny Kuznetsov will be a healthy scratch for Washington tonight, and Matthew Phillips will return to the Caps’ lineup.
“Just a reset, a mental reset for him,” says Carbery of the decision to scratch Kuznetsov. “He’s just been struggling of late to find his game. We’ve talked to him, we’ve looked at some different stuff, and we think it’s a good opportunity for him to just take a step back, reset mentally and focus on getting his game back to where it’s capable of being.”
Despite the highest average ice time (21:01 per night) of his 11-year NHL career this season, Kuznetsov’s offensive production numbers are down from his established rates in virtually every category. His ice time total is tops among all Washington forwards; he is getting nearly 90 seconds more per night than second-place Alex Ovechkin (19:35).
Kuznetsov’s next game will be the 700th of his NHL career.
Put A Quarter In The Jukebox – Tonight’s contest is game No. 22 for the Caps this season, so a quarter of the campaign is now in the rear view mirror. With that in mind, we talked to Carbery and a few players about where the Caps are at the quarter mark, and what they need to do to elevate their game closer to its ceiling between now and the midway mark in mid-January.
“I think we need some more positive games,” says Caps’ center Dylan Strome. “I feel like through 20 games, we probably had a few too many negative games where we’re getting outplayed or out-chanced. But having said that, our record is pretty good. And you’ve got to take the good with the bad, and deal with it the way that it is.
“But we’re 12-7-2, so we’re in a pretty good position and in a pretty good spot in the standings, and with some games in hand, I might add. We’ve been good at finding ways to win, we’ve been really good in one-goal games, and if we can keep that up, I think it’s a good trait to have. If you’re able to hang around in games where you’re not playing good, that’s a benefit.”
Washington is 7-1-2 in one-goal games, tied for the fourth-most victories in the League in that situation. The Caps’ .700 winning pct. in one-goal games is fourth in the NHL.
“We like where we are in the standings,” says Caps’ center Connor McMichael. “But there are a lot of things that we need to clean up. I think the biggest thing is staying connected; all five guys on the ice need to know exactly what we’re doing. It can’t just be two or three guys, and the other two or three guys just read, and hope the play gets made. We’ve just got to be more connected, and more together.”
And since McMichael and linemates Aliaksei Protas and Anthony Mantha have been the Caps’ most connected trio of late, we asked McMichael to elaborate on that connectedness and what it looks like.
“Us three are just playing with high confidence right now,” says McMichael. “We just keep it simple together, and that makes it easy to read off each other. We’re playing at a fast pace as well, and that’s a huge thing for our group. Pro and Mo are great on puck retrievals and using their big frames, and I bring a little bit of speed, so it’s a good match.”
The Caps are pleased with the way McMichael’s line is going, and they also like the consistency they get from the Nic Dowd trio on a nightly basis. But they are seriously seeking some top six combinations with some staying power. On too many nights this season, the Caps have lost games in which their own top players haven’t been as noticeable as those of the opposition.
Beginning with their opening night loss to Pittsburgh, and running right through their most recent loss against Vegas on Saturday, that’s a fairly common thread in most of the Capitals’ regulation losses this season.
“It feels like for me as a coach, it’s been a rollercoaster ride,” says Carbery. “But when you step back and [look at] where we’re sitting, the end result, we’ve done a good job. We’ve found ways to win games. So first and foremost, that is number one – a positive. We’re sitting in a good spot, we’ve got standings points and we’re doing well.
“Do we know that we need to get a lot better in some areas, whether it’s puck possession wise, whether it’s offensive chances, or whether it’s finishing? Yes, we do. Is that a product of finding a spark within the top six with [Ovechkin] at 5-on-5, with Stromer at 5-on-5? Yes, it is.
“And that’s where we know we need to be better. And especially when you go up against – and this is what you’ve seen from our group in the last little bit – good teams that are Stanley Cup contending teams – the Vegases of the world, the Edmontons of the world, the Florida Panthers of the world – it shows you that we want to be in that conversation. We want to be one of those teams. We look at those as measuring stick games, and we know we’ve got lots of work to do, and we’re going to get to work on fixing the areas or improving the areas that we need to get caught up in.”
“The goal is obviously to first be making the playoffs, and then to be peaking when you get there,” says Caps’ goaltender Darcy Kuemper. “Even though we’ve been having success, I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job of keeping that focus on trying to get better every day, whether it’s watching video or out there in practice. We’ve just got to keep that mindset, keep building, and parts of our game will continue to sharpen up.”
The Grand Tour – Now in the midst of his 13th season as Caps’ equipment assistant, Dave Marin will be behind the bench for the 1,000th game of his pro career tonight in Tempe. Marin began his career with the Columbia Inferno of the ECHL, spending two seasons there before ascending to Washington and the NHL.
On Sunday night in Scottsdale, the Caps’ traveling staff feted and toasted Marin at a nearby dining and drinking establishment, and his coworkers presented him with a Caps’ road sweater with his name and “1000” emblazoned on the back. The sweater was also signed by all the players on the 2023-24 squad.
Congratulations and a hearty “up five” to one of the best humans in the business.
This Is Not A Test – Arizona is seeking its fifth straight victory tonight, and if it succeeds, it will have its longest winning streak since a six-game spree from Feb. 19-March 2, 2019. More impressive than the mere number is the list of teams the Coyotes have conquered over the life of their current streak.
The run started with a 2-0 road win in Vegas on Nov. 25. Then came three consecutive home ice triumphs over Tampa Bay, Colorado (in overtime) and St. Louis, respectively. Those four victories took down the last four Stanley Cup champions, and the Coyotes can make it five straight against the last five Cup champs with a win over Washington tonight.
That’s as far as the streak of Cup winners can go; Philadelphia is in town next to close out the Coyotes’ five-game homestand on Thursday.
In The Nets – Ex-Coyotes netminder Darcy Kuemper gets the start for the Capitals tonight against his former employer. Kuemper blanked the Yotes here last January, claiming a 4-0 victory in Washington’s first-ever visit to Mullett Arena. Kuemper made 26 saves in that win over Arizona.
Lifetime against the Coyotes, he is 6-1-3 with four shutouts, a 1.19 GAA and a .952 save pct. in 10 appearances, all starts.
Washington will get its first ever look at Connor Ingram in the Arizona nets on Monday night. Karel Vejmelka has excellent career numbers against Washington, but Ingram has wrested the starting job from the right-handed catching native of the Czech Republic.
Ingram has accounted for 10 of Arizona’s dozen wins to date this season, going 10-3-2 with a shutout, a 2.40 GAA and a .926 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here is how we believe the Capitals and Coyotes might look when they take the ice at Mullett Arena on Monday night:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
21-Protas, 24-McMichael, 39-Mantha
15-Milano, 29-Lapierre, 45-Phillips
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 96-Aube-Kubel
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
6-Edmundson, 3-Jensen
Goaltenders
35-Kuemper
79-Lindgren
Injured
19-Backstrom (upper body)
67-Pacioretty (torn Achilles’ tendon)
77-Oshie (upper body)
Scratches
27-Alexeyev
46-Johansen
92-Kuznetsov
ARIZONA
Forwards
9-Keller, 92-Cooley, 8-Schmaltz
63-Maccelli, 17-Bjugstad, 67-Crouse
53-Carcone, 15-Kerfoot, 16-Zucker
21-Kelemen, 38-O’Brien
Defensemen
90-Moser, 50-Durzi
4-Valimaki, 24-Dumba
5-Kesselring, 51-Stecher
3-Brown
Goaltenders
39-Ingram
70-Vejmelka
Injured
22-McBain (lower body)
29-Hayton (upper body)
33-Dermott (undisclosed)
52-Kolyachonok (lower body)
72-Boyd (upper body)
Scratches
37-McGregor
