Vegas Visits the District
Golden Knights supply opposition for middle match of Caps' three-game homestand
For the first time in more than two years and for just the fourth time ever in the regular season, the Vegas Golden Knights are in town, taking on the Capitals on Monday night at Capital One Arena. The Vegas visit is the team's first since Nov. 9, 2019 when the Caps skated away with a 5-2 win over the Golden Knights.
Monday's game is the middle match of a three-game homestand for Washington, which started the homestand with a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. The Caps entered the third period looking up at a 2-0 deficit on the scoreboard, but two goals from Alex Ovechkin in the front half of the third period squared the score and forced overtime, and Nicklas Backstrom won it for the Capitals at 1:13 of the extra session, beating Sens goalie Matt Murray with a wicked backhander to the shelf after forcing a turnover in front of the Ottawa net.
The goal was Backstrom's second of the season and second in as many games, and it extended the Caps' streak of games between consecutive regulation losses to 59 games, the third longest streak of its kind in franchise history.
After missing the first 28 games of the season while rehabbing a hip ailment, Backstrom has now recorded a point in seven of his nine games this season, and with his assist on Ovechkin's tying tally, Saturday was his multi-point game (one goal, one assist).
"It's really nice to see him have a big moment like that after a long four or five months where there's a lot of days where you're trying to get back to where you want to be," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "I think he's looked better every game, but it's nice for him to have to have that moment and end that game with a big moment and score a big goal for us."
Washington won Saturday's game without three of its top four defensemen, and with three of its other blueliners all achieving single-game season highs in ice time: Justin Schultz at 24:59, Martin Fehervary at 24:14 and Michal Kempny at 22:24.
"Obviously the three guys that we had out are top players for us that log a ton of minutes, night in and night out," says Caps defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. "And obviously you're going to miss them. But the three guys that stepped in tonight did an awesome job. We didn't give up too much, and they slid right in there and they stayed prepared."
The Caps are now 7-0-3 in games immediately following regulation losses this season. They haven't suffered consecutive regulation setbacks since April 6-8 of last season, but their immediate aim is to shake off the doldrums of what's been a dreary month of January (3-4-2) for them. Washington hasn't been able to cobble together consecutive victories since the calendar flipped to 2022; it won its last two games of 2021.
"This month hasn't been - I don't want to say easy, nothing's ever easy - but maybe the previous months have gone our way," says Laviolette. "And this month hasn't gone our way. And that's okay. It's okay to grind and to embrace that a little bit, that you have to work for something or you've got to dig out of a hole, and you've got to figure it out as a group how to do it. There's nothing wrong with that.
"[Saturday night] was a perfect example. It's 1-0, then it's 2-0. Now you need your goaltender to shut the door, and he did. Now you need your goaltender to shut the door, and he did. Now you need your players to step up and to deliver a game, when it hasn't gone your way.
"So it's okay. It hasn't all been bad. We don't like being under .500 in a month, but we're working to get out of that, by the end of the month."
Washington has three games remaining this month. After Monday's game with Vegas, the homestand concludes with a visit from San Jose on Wednesday. The Caps finish up the January portion of their schedule on Friday night in Dallas against the Stars.
Vegas hits town as the top dog in the Pacific Division standings. Heading into Sunday's slate of NHL activity, the Golden Knights were three points clear of second-place Anaheim, and Vegas is holding two games in hand on the Ducks as well. Although they cruised through December with a 10-3-0 record, the Golden Knights have scuffled this month as well. They're 2-3-2 since the calendar flipped.
Idle since this past Tuesday, the Golden Knights had games in Edmonton and Calgary, respectively, postponed last weekend. Those postponements created an eight-game homestand for Vegas which ended with a 4-3 shootout loss to the Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
Monday's game with the Caps is the opener of a four-game road trip in six nights on the East Coast for Vegas, and it's also the front end of a set of back-to-backs. The Knights are in Carolina on Tuesday, and they'll finish the trip with visits to Florida on Thursday and Tampa Bay on Saturday.
