The Vancouver Canucks come home for a quick one-game stop as they face the Washington Capitals on Saturday night for Hockey Night in Canada.
Saturday’s game precedes a three-game road trip for the Canucks and the team is looking to get back in the win column by coming together as a group and working their way out of this slump.
Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin will make his one and only trip to Rogers Arena this season. The 39-year-old is up to 22 goals this season and is only 20 goals shy of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894 career goals in the NHL.
Brock Boeser scored his 16th goal of the season on Thursday and is now up to 31 points through 40 games played. Boeser has been on the ice for 25 goals scored and 22 goals against at five-on-five this season and spoke to the media postgame on Thursday.
“We’ve got to work for each other, we’ve got to stick together, we’ve got to stay positive and that’s all we can do at this point,” said Boeser.
The Canucks and Capitals played earlier this month. They had a tightly contested game that went to overtime before the Capitals ultimately won in overtime on the back of two goals from Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Quick Hits on the Competition
- The Caps sit atop the league standings and are the only team with 70+ points this season. Their 33-10-5 record features a 17-6-1 road record and they have gone 8-0-2 over their last 10 games while not losing a game in regulation since December 29th.
- Washington has outscored their opponents 170-114 this season and 85-56 on the road. Their best period has been the third, where they have outscored the opposition 34-18 on the road this season and are 3-0 in overtime.
- Scoring first is important in any game and the Caps are 8-2-0 when they score the opening goal on the road.
- John Carlson leads the Caps with an average ice time of 23:49. He has contributed four goals and 25 assists in 48 games.
- Logan Thompson has been the lead man between the pipes this season. Thompson has a 22-2-3 record to go with a .925% save percentage, a 2.09 goals-against average, and two shutouts.
- Backup goaltender Charlie Lindgren has an 11-8-2 record with a .904% save percentage, a 2.53 goals-against average and has one shutout of his own.
The Story: A Must-Win Attitude
Head coach Rick Tocchet didn’t like the way his team gifted early power plays to the Oilers on Thursday and knows that this group needs to make some corrections in their game if they want to be successful through the remainder of the season.
“We’ve got to correct some stuff,” said Tocchet on Thursday following his team’s game against the Oilers. “It’s on myself to correct this. You just cannot give people freebies. You can’t take penalties.”
The coach also noted that there are a lot of games left but wants to see his team begin to have some fun again and spoke about how winning is fun.
“We’re going to have to get some rest here and we’ve got a big game against Washington,” said Tocchet. “That’s a must-win type of game. You’ve always got to have in your mind that you are going to bring a must-win attitude.”
Canucks’ Top Performers over the Last Five Games
Quinn Hughes: 3g-2a-5p
Brock Boeser: 1g-3a-4p
J.T. Miller: 0g-4a-4p
Phil Di Giuseppe: 1g-1a-2p
Filip Hronek: 1g-1a-2p
When and Where to Watch
Saturday’s game is a 7:00 p.m. PT start, and you can watch it on Hockey Night in Canada or listen along to the radio call with Brendan Batchelor on Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network.