Caps Close Quick Homestand vs. Colorado
After facing two Metropolitan Division foes to start the season, the Caps get their first taste of the Western Conference in the high-scoring Avalanche.
© Patrick McDermott
After opening the season with a pair of games against fellow Metropolitan Division denizens, the Caps face their first Western Conference foe of the season on Tuesday night when the Colorado Avalanche visit Verizon Center for the only time this season. Tuesday's game against Colorado closes out a brief two-game homestand for Washington.
The Caps are coming off a 2-1 victory in their 2016-17 home opener on Saturday night against the New York Islanders. Daniel Winnik scored a pair of goals to account for Washington's offense, and Braden Holtby made 21 saves to record his first victory of the season and the 150th of his NHL career. It took Holtby 246 NHL games to reach that plateau.
Holtby is the third-fastest goaltender to reach the 150-win mark, trailing only Ken Dryden (241) and Andy Moog (245). It's worth noting that none of Dryden's first 150 wins came in overtime, and only six of Moog's did. Holtby has achieved 35 of his victories in either overtime or the shootout.
Perhaps most impressively, the Caps throttled New York's offense after Winnik's second goal restored Washington's one-goal lead at 7:46 of the second period. The Caps limited the Islanders to only nine shots on net the rest of the way. Only seven of those shots came at even strength, and only three of the nine came from inside 30 feet away.
"It was really good," said Holtby after the game. "We killed off a lot of minutes down in their end, grinding it out. It showed we carried over one of our strengths from last year, battled out the last minute or so and pulled out a win."
The Caps were second in the NHL in winning pct. when leading after two periods last season (.974, 37-0-1). Including Saturday's win over the Islanders, the Capitals are now 67-1-6 when leading with 10 minutes left in the third period during the Barry Trotz era.
"I think it just comes down to awareness of the time and the score of the game," says Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen. "It's just being more aware of what kind of plays you're making. There is an extra emphasis on the bluelines and the third forward position, and the defensemen may be a little more selective about pinching down the wall.
"It's just playing smart with the lead, without taking your foot off the gas. You want to be aggressive, but aggressive from position, without taking risk."
Part of being aggressive is forechecking. Washington has been effective in that aspect of the game in the early going, too.
"Our forecheck is the exact same," says Washington winger T.J. Oshie. "It could be guys making better reads on when to put the puck in on the way into the zone. If that timing is not great, it's hard to make the forecheck work. If you can put a puck in on a forecheck when everyone's moving at the same time and everyone's moving into the zone, it's really hard for a [defense] to get it out. And if one guy has to stop up, now you've got a two-man forecheck for two or three seconds.
"I think our timing might be getting better, and that comes with repetition and guys not second-guessing - everyone knowing exactly what we're supposed to do. But either way, if you're not a good forechecking team, you're going to have a tough time in this league."
Tuesday's game against Colorado is the first of 28 for the Caps against Western Conference opponents this season. When Las Vegas enters the league next season, the number will go up to 30. After starting the season against familiar foes in Pittsburgh and the Islanders, the Caps will now face a much less familiar team, and one with a new coach.
"It's enjoyable," says Niskanen, of facing a Western foe. "It's fresh. You see different players. Teams in the west play a little bit of a different style. Colorado didn't use to be the prototypical, big and heavy west team, but they still have the same players even though they have a new coach. They're going to have some of the same elements - the speed and skill - from a handful of their forwards for sure.
"It's fun playing new teams. I enjoy the challenge of just seeing different players and different styles, things like that."
The Avs come into town on the heels of a Monday night match-up against the Penguins in Pittsburgh. Colorado rebounded from an early 2-0 deficit and a 3-2 third-period deficit to down the defending Cup champs in overtime, 4-3.
The Avs have shown some resilience in their first two games this season. Despite surrendering the first two goals of each of their two games to date, the Avs are 2-0. They rallied from a three-goal deficit in the second period to win their season opener over the Stars in Denver on Saturday, 6-5.
Colorado endured an unorthodox summer. Quite suddenly in August, Avs coach Patrick Roy announced his resignation, leaving the team without a bench boss with the season looming. The Avs quickly worked to replace Roy, settling on Jared Bednar as their next head coach after a search that identified Caps' assistant coach Lane Lambert as one of the finalists.
Bednar coached the Lake Erie Monsters to the Calder Cup championship this past June, sweeping Hershey in the final series. The Monsters were 15-2 during the postseason of the '15-16 campaign. Bednar began his coaching career as an assistant at South Carolina of the ECHL in 2002-03. He coached alongside head coach Jason Fitzsimmons (now a Washington pro scout) from 2002-07, before replacing Fitzsimmons in 2007-08.
Bednar piloted the Stingrays to a Kelly Cup crown in 2008-09, during the initial affiliation between the Capitals and South Carolina.
Trotz and his staff will have their hands full game-planning for the Avalanche, which has scored 10 goals in two games, including four on the power play.
"I think it's a great challenge for us," says Trotz. "We'll see where our minds are in terms of Colorado. I watched a little bit of the third period after our game [with the Islanders on Saturday]. They were playing the Stars, and it was 6-5 or whatever. There were some interesting things that happened in that game.
"They're very talented. They've got a lot of speed and they've got some dynamic people. You look at guys like [Nathan] MacKinnon and they've got the great speed of [Matt] Duchene, and they've got Landeskog, who is a hard-nosed guy. They've got a [future] Hall of Famer in [Jarome] Iginla, who can shoot the lights out and is one of the great goal scorers in the league.
"They've got a lot of really good pieces. They've got a dynamic guy on the back end, they've got [goaltender Semyon] Varlamov, who I believe we're going to see in net here. I think they're starting [Calvin] Pickard in [Pittsburgh on Monday].
"They look like they're having fun and playing really hard right now. They're a dangerous team. We played them a couple times last year and they scare you because they have some of those dynamic people and they do some things that - if you're not paying attention to detail - they can light you up."
Once Upon A Time In The West - After facing a pair of extremely familiar Metropolitan Division opponents in their first two games of the season, the Capitals now prepare to play their first of 28 games against Western Conference opponents this season. First up is the Colorado Avalanche, which brings its 2-0-0 record to Verizon Center tonight.
The Caps see the Avs twice a year, but prepping for Colorado could be a bit trickier this time around. The Avalanche hired Jared Bednar as the team's head coach, and his NHL coaching experience consists of only the two games the Avs have won to start this season.
Is it more difficult facing an unknown coach with unknown tendencies?
"Not really," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "In your preparations, you know their tendencies because you've coached against a lot of the guys all the time. So you know a little bit of the cadence and what have you. But I don't think so.
"I think when we're on the bench we have certain match-ups or certain indicators, and the game sort of presents it a little bit. Half the time - the way we're set up at home - I can't see the other bench anyway. I'm blind to it because of the guys in between [the benches] and the trainers and everybody.
"We're a little bit blind to that, and we'll worry about us more than the other team. We've got to worry about our game. There are a lot of things that we can improve in our game, and we'll continue to do it. It's early in the season. But there are certain areas that we definitely have to tighten up, and individuals too."
Trotz watched the end of Colorado's season opener, a 6-5 come-from-behind victory over the Dallas Stars in Denver on Saturday night. And certainly he and his staff watched the Avs come from behind again last night to overcome the Penguins in Pittsburgh, 4-3 on Gabriel Landeskog's overtime goal.
Ten In - Brett Connolly will make his first appearance in the Capitals' lineup tonight, slotting in on the left side of a line with Lars Eller and Justin Williams. Rookie Zach Sanford, the lone freshman on the team, will sit out for the first time at the NHL level.
"We have the luxury here of having a lot of guys who can play," says Connolly. "For me, I'm excited to get back. It's been a little while now. I'm excited I'm going to play with two good players tonight. It's a good chance for me to go in there, make an impact and help the team win."
The 24-year-old Connolly signed as an unrestricted free agent with Washington last summer. The former sixth overall pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, Connolly totaled nine goals and 25 points in 71 games with Boston last season.
"I think Brett is interesting," says Trotz. "I think he's going to fill a few roles for us. He can play both wings. I think he can play in some offensive situations for us. He hasn't killed penalties, but he's diligent enough and responsible enough where he can help us on the other side of the puck, too.
"As we get to know Brett a little bit more - the sample size is small, especially for me not being here for training camp - we will try to carve out a defined role for him. Right now, I probably don't have that. But as we go forward we'll try to carve him out a defined role."
Connolly was a bit snake-bitten offensively during the preseason. He had some strong chances, but wasn't able to finish. The defensive side of his game was strong, however, perhaps better than expected.
"I think when I first came into the league," says Connolly, of his defensive play, "that was the part of my game where I needed to get better. That's the part of the game where I've worked very hard the last few years. I feel that I don't have to worry about that side of the game anymore. It's a matter of getting a couple breaks and trying to regain that confidence that I can score on a consistent basis in this league. I believe I can do that; it's just a matter of putting it together.
"On the part of defense, it's nice to be trusted out there on that side of the game. But I'm excited to get back out there tonight and hopefully be part of something special here."
Connolly started his NHL career with the Lightning before being dealt to the Bruins at the trade deadline in March of 2015. This time around, he was able to select his landing spot, and he had the luxury of a full training camp with which to learn systems and integrate himself into the team and the locker room.
"They were a team that called right away. It's really hard to pass up an opportunity to play with such a good team and a team that's on the cusp of winning and is very close every single year. You want to go to a team where you're going to get an opportunity, and it's also good to be on a team that has so much firepower and is going to win a lot of games this year. I'm excited to be a part of that."
Grubi Goes -Tonight is Braden Holtby appreciation night at Verizon Center, and Trotz is showing his appreciation by giving Holtby the night off. Holtby's night off has nothing to do with the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, and more to do with making sure backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer doesn't sit too long between starts.
Grubauer's last preseason action came on Oct. 5 in Kansas City against the St. Louis Blues. Washington doesn't play its first set of back-to-back games this season until Oct. 29-30, so if Trotz were to wait for then to give Grubauer his first start, he'd be playing a guy who hadn't started in nearly a month. Tonight's starting assignment neatly breaks up the span between Oct. 5 and Oct. 29/30, and Trotz has already stated Holtby will start on Thursday against the Panthers in Florida and on Saturday against the New York Rangers at Verizon Center.
Grubauer appeared in 22 games -- including 17 starts - for Washington in 2015-16, his first full season in the league. His first start of '15-16 came in the Capitals' seventh game of the season, on Oct. 23 in Edmonton. This time, he'll start Washington's third game of the season. Trotz has expressed a desire to get Grubauer a bit more work this season.
"The schedule is a little bit more compressed this year with the bye week," says Grubauer, "so everything is more packed together - a couple more back-to-backs, I think - so it's nice to get a couple more games maybe this year.
"I know Holts wants to play every game. I want to play every game. But it's a long-term thing. We're trying to win the Stanley Cup here. It doesn't help us if somebody's tired or gassed. The same goes for the defensemen and the players, too. You want to find a happy medium in playing the right amount of games and not getting out of a groove. You want to get guys into a groove, and it's up to coaches to find a happy medium."
Speaking of happy mediums, it was feast or famine for Grubauer in goal last season. Washington scored seven goals in his first start of the season against the Oilers, and it scored seven goals in a January start against the Senators. But other than the 14 goals in those two games, Grubauer didn't receive much "run support." Washington scored a grand total of 26 goals in Grubauer's other 15 starts, scoring two or fewer goals in 12 of his 17 starts overall.
The Caps were blanked in each of Grubauer's last three starts last season. He enters tonight's game with a streak of 222:30 consecutive minutes with him in net without his team scoring a goal, a slide that stretches back to the middle of the second period of a 5-2 loss to the Sharks in San Jose on March 12.
The Ex-Files -Former Caps defenseman Mike Green notched the first hat trick of his NHL career on Monday for the Red Wings against Ottawa, doing so in the final home opener ever at Joe Louis Arena.
During his time in Washington, Green had 16 multi-goal games, second only to Sergei Gonchar (17) among all defensemen in Caps franchise history.
Gonchar and Kevin Hatcher remain the only two defensemen ever to record a hat trick for the Capitals. Gonchar was the last to turn the trick, on Jan. 4, 2000.
All Lined Up - Here's how we expect the Capitals to lineup for tonight's game, and here's how the Avalanche lined up for their Monday night game against the Penguins in Pittsburgh. Calvin Pickard was in goal for Colorado last night, so we're expecting to see former Caps netminder Semyon Varlamov tending the twine tonight for the Avalanche at Verizon Center.
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 77-Oshie
90-Johansson, 19-Backstrom, 65-Burakovsky
10-Connolly, 20-Eller, 14-Williams
26-Winnik, 83-Beagle, 43-Wilson
Defensemen
9-Orlov, 74-Carlson
27-Alzner, 2-Niskanen
44-Orpik, 88-Schmidt
Goaltenders
31-Grubauer
70-Holtby
Scratches
4-Chorney
82-Sanford
COLORADO
Forwards
92-Landeskog, 29-MacKinnon, 12-Iginla
25-Grigorenko, 34-Soderberg, 9-Duchene
57-G. Bourque, 8-Colborne, 17-R. Bourque
27-Martinsen, 20-Smith, 14-Comeau
Defensemen
32-Beauchemin, 4-Barrie
16-Zadorov, 6-Johnson
51-Tyutin, 28-Wiercioch
Goaltenders
1-Varlamov
31-Pickard
Scratches
7-Mitchell
44-Gelinas
55-McLeod
