Caps And Jets Go at it Again, This Time in DC
Returning home from a successful road trip through western Canada, the Caps put their three-game winning streak on the line in rematch vs. Jets.
© Patrick McDermott
By
Mike Vogel
WashingtonCaps.com
Two nights after they tangled at MTS Centre in Winnipeg, the Capitals and the Winnipeg Jets will do battle once again, this time at Verizon Center on Thursday night. The game opens Washington's three-game homestand and it closes out the season's series against the Jets.
In Tuesday night's game in Manitoba, the Caps jumped out to a 2-0 lead for the third straight game and the sixth time in their previous seven games. But the Jets mounted a late comeback, tallying twice in a span of about four minutes to tie the game at 2-2 with less than three minutes remaining in regulation.
"We sort of let the two-goal lead dissipate," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "I thought it was going to go to overtime, but fortunately it didn't."
Just as the game appeared to be headed for the extra session, Caps center Jay Beagle won an offensive zone face-off and scored what would prove to be the game-winning goal with just 30 seconds remaining in regulation. Washington got out of Winnipeg with a 3-2 victory, its third win in a row, and the Caps came home with a successful 3-1 record to show for their weeklong, four-game tour through western Canada.
Washington got a standout performance from Braden Holtby in net. Holtby made 43 saves to run his career record to 9-3-1 against the Jets. After permitting a combined total of 47 shots in its previous two games, Washington allowed 45 Jets shots on goal in Tuesday's game.
"I wasn't quite used to that, obviously," says Holtby of the inordinate number of shots he faced in Tuesday's game. "It's one of the hard games, the last one of a road trip. They're a fast team and they play hard and play good in this building. We were fortunate to get a win."
The Jets came into the game missing three regular defensemen, and with a bit of a makeshift blueline that included a pair of rookies and four blueliners with fewer than 135 games worth of NHL experience. But the Caps weren't able to command as much possession and offensive zone time as they had in back-to-back wins at Vancouver and Calgary over the weekend. Holtby and Washington's penalty-killing outfit were both instrumental in helping Washington to that third straight win in the road trip finale.
"From pre-scout we knew that [the Jets] like to shoot everything and put a lot of pucks on net, and create offense from that," says Beagle. "They came out really hard and they played a good game, I thought. Holts had to stand on his head just to give us that 2-0 lead. We're playing them back-to-back now, so it's something that we're obviously going to address and look at tape."
The first game home after a long road trip is usually a tough one, but at least the Capitals will have the benefit of facing the same foe, which should make preparation a bit smoother.
"We'll dissect it," says Trotz of the Tuesday game, and the Caps' approach to Thursday's rematch. "They're a very good team. They came at us with a real intense effort, and we are going to have to match their intensity. And we'll have to make sure we manage the game a little bit better. If we play on our toes better, then we should be fine. But I didn't think we played with the urgency they did, especially in the second half of the game."
The Jets are a sizeable team capable of wearing opponents down in their own end of the ice, but they also feature a number of swift and skilled young forwards, so they're more than capable of burning foes with wheels as well.
"They've got a lot of speed," says Beagle. "They like to come at you in waves, and they definitely feed off turnovers, so we've got to make sure we're getting it behind them and playing in their end. I think we could have played in their end a little bit more, especially in the first [when] it felt like they were playing in our end quite a bit."
Ahead of Tuesday's game against the Jets in Winnipeg, Trotz gave the following assessment of the Jets.
"A real fast team, real good on the rush," said the Caps' bench boss. "You look at the young talent and speed that they have with [Nikolaj] Ehlers and obviously [Patrik] Laine with his skills set, and then you look at the young [Kyle] Connor kid, who I haven't seen much. They've got some really nice pieces moving forward.
"I got a chance to watch [Mark] Scheifele [at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey], and to me he is going to be an elite center man in this league. And then obviously Blake Wheeler has been a really good captain and he brings his work boots to every game and is dangerous on the ice all the time. We'll have our hands full; they're a very dangerous team."
Although the Jets lost their second game in a row - both at home - on Tuesday against Washington, Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice was mostly pleased with his team's effort and performance in the game.
"You're talking about a team that gives up about 25 shots on average, so there's quite a bit of good to take off of that," said Maurice after the game. "Now if we can just find a handle on a few more [scoring chances], get to the net a little differently, maybe be a little sharper on how we move the puck at times. But it was a pretty solid game."
Unfortunately for the Jets, they lost the services of third-line forward Shawn Matthias, who got tangled up with Caps defenseman Dmitry Orlov behind the Washington net. Matthias had to be helped off the ice and he is listed as week-to-week with a lower body injury. The Jets placed Matthias (lower body injury) on injured reserve and have recalled forward Andrew Copp from AHL Manitoba, as Matthias joins a lengthening list of Winnipeg's wounded.
Copp spent the 2015-16 season with the Jets, totaling seven goals and 13 points in 77 games while averaging eight minutes per night in ice time.
Forward Drew Stafford (upper body) will not accompany the Jets on their current three-game road trip while defensemen Tyler Myers (lower body) and Brad Stuart (lower body) are both day-to-day and could return during the Jets' journey. Winnipeg travels to Detroit on Friday and faces the Rangers in New York on Sunday. The Jets are 1-2 in their three road games this season. They defeated the Colorado Avalanche by a 1-0 count in Denver last Friday for their only road win of the young season.
Rematch - Washington finished a long and grinding four-game road trip in Winnipeg on Tuesday night against the Jets, earning a 3-2 win and flying home immediately after. The Caps returned home just ahead of the sun on Wednesday morning, and after taking the rest of that day off, they're back at work against the same Winnipeg Jets tonight at Verizon Center.
Thursday's home game against the Jets kicks off a three-game homestand and finishes off the season's series with Winnipeg.
Washington rolled out to a 2-0 lead in Tuesday's game against the Jets, the third straight game and the sixth time in the last seven games in which the Caps have scored the game's first two goals. But the Caps have scored the game's first three goals only once; they've given up the next one in each of the other instances. So it was in Winnipeg on Tuesday - the Jets scored twice in a span of just over four minutes late in the third to tie the game.
Jay Beagle's offensive zone face-off win and game-winning goal five seconds later came with 30 seconds left in the game, enabling the Caps to retake the lead and avoid overtime in winning their third straight game.
When the two teams tangle tonight at Verizon Center, the Caps will be seeking a fourth straight win while Winnipeg will be looking to shake off some offensive doldrums. The Jets scored 14 goals in their first four games of this season, but they've managed only 10 goals in six games since and have netted just four goals in their last three games.
Forecheck, Please -Winnipeg's blueline is missing three regulars, including two defensemen (Tyler Myers and Jacob Trouba) who averaged better than 22 minutes a night for the team last season. The Jets are working with two rookie defensemen in Josh Morrissey and Julian Melchiori and two more who played their 100th game in the league last season in Ben Chiarot and Paul Postma.
For Washington, a key to tonight's game is to get in on the forecheck and put some pressure on the young and inexperienced Jets defense, trying to force them into mistakes that can lead to Caps scoring chances.
"The more you can put them under duress, the better it's going to be for us," says caps defenseman Matt Niskanen. "And whatever that means; if it means challenging them with speed through the neutral zone or making them play extended shifts in our offensive zone or put them under pressure on their breakouts and maybe force them into turnovers. Those are potentially advantages for us if we can have enough of those situations."
The quartet of Morrissey, Melchiori, Chiarot and Postma has combined to play a total of 277 games in the NHL. Veteran Dustin Byfuglien is averaging a league-leading 28:49 per night in ice time this season on the Winnipeg blueline, and Toby Enstrom is at 22:18 per game. Those two are expected to carrier a heavier workload as the Jets try to navigate their way through until Myers and Stuart are healthy again. Byfuglien played just under 31 minutes in Tuesday's game and he was excellent.
The Jets were able to protect their young defensemen for the most part in Tuesday's game, but the Caps and coach Barry Trotz will have more of a say in match-ups for tonight's game between the two teams.
"I think we did that early in the game [on Tuesday] and that's where a lot of our chances came from," says Trotz. "They play big Buff there for 31 minutes. I was trying to force their [defense] to have to play heavy minutes with the way they wanted the lines matched up. I was trying to force some of that, and they were avoiding some of the match-ups at home.
"They're a good team, They play hard, they can skate, they get up and down. We've got to play hard and if we do what we do, hopefully we'll be on the positive side tonight. That's not always the case, but hopefully we're on the positive side."
Two Or Fewer - The Caps have limited the opposition to two or fewer goals in seven of nine games thus far this season, posting a 6-0-1 record in those games. Since Trotz took over at the outset of the 2014-15 season, the Capitals have permitted two or fewer tallies in more than half of their games, 98 of 173 to be exact. They've posted a record of 87-5-6 in those games.
Washington's defensive stinginess is likely a byproduct of the team bringing back the same seven defensemen and same two goaltenders from the 2015-16 team that set a franchise record for fewest goals surrendered in a season.
"I just think with our seven guys," says Caps defenseman Nate Schmidt, "we are so familiar with each other now and that's the biggest thing. We see some of these other organizations that have a little more turnover, and they have to kind of relearn how to play with guys where we can chuck anybody into any situation, and they're used to playing with the other guy.
"I've played with [Karl Alzner] some, and that's something I haven't done before this year. And [Dmitry Orlov] has gone out with [Niskanen]. Those are things that I think are really important to our success as a group. Having the ability to just chuck anybody out there and have them be comfortable in the system and comfortable with their partner is a luxury."
First Game Back - Washington was out on the road for just over a week, playing four games in three different time zones, and playing the last three of those games in three different time zones, winning them all.
Getting home from that trip at 4 a.m. and having to play a home game the next day is not ideal, but all teams will be dealing with scheduling issues such as that this season because of the World Cup of Hockey. That first game back after a long road trip can be seen as something that affects a team, or it can be seen as a bit of a myth.
Your mileage may vary.
"Maybe this [trip], because of the time zones," says Niskanen. "I'm sure guys are a little tired right now, but I don't think anyone is going to feel sorry for us, either. It's a mental thing that you've got to get through, this part of the schedule, and buckle down. I'd say normally that shouldn't be a thing, but it does seem to happen. People talk about it, and there's really not an excuse for it, but it does seem to happen to just about everyone at some point."
"It's a little bit of a trap game," says Trotz. "We just talked about it. You always hear coaches talk about it. You go on a road trip and you have a little bit of success, and you finally get home and you think, 'Oh, it's going to be easy now,' and it really isn't.
"I never even heard of that until I heard Barry start talking about it," says Caps right wing T.J. Oshie. "I think it's mostly myth. But it makes sense that you can get a little comfortable when you get home and get away from your game. Hopefully we can stay on top of ours, keep playing fast and keep playing as a good group of four lines and six [defensemen]."
Keeping It Together - The Jets are now in their sixth season in Winnipeg since moving to Manitoba from Atlanta in 2011. Despite a lack of much overall success, the Jets have kept the core of that team together more so than other teams have done during the same time span.
The Jets have nine players remaining in their organization from their final season in Atlanta, the 2010-11 season: forwards Alexander Burmistrov, Bryan Little, Chris Thorburn and Blake Wheeler, defensemen Byfuglien, Enstrom, Postma and Stuart and Manitoba Moose (AHL) goaltender Ondrej Pavelec. Winnipeg has made the playoffs once since then, getting swept at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks in the first round in 2015.
Over the same time period, the Caps have just seven players remaining: forwards Nicklas Backstrom, Jay Beagle, Marcus Johansson and Alex Ovechkin, defensemen Karl Alzner and John Carlson and goaltender Braden Holtby. Despite more turnover than the Jets, Washington has only missed the playoffs once during that time span.
(Stick tap to Carter Myers for some of the statistical data contained herein.)
All Lined Up -Washington is expected to trot out the same lineup it has used for the entirety of its three-game winning streak. The Jets added forward Shawn Matthias to a growing list of injured regulars in Tuesday's game, and they've made some subsequent lineup adjustments, as you'll see below.
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 19-Backstrom, 14-Williams
90-Johansson, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
65-Burakovsky, 20-Eller, 77-Oshie
82-Sanford, 83-Beagle, 10-Connolly
Defensemen
9-Orlov, 74-Carlson
27-Alzner, 2-Niskanen
44-Orpik, 88-Schmidt
Goaltenders
70-Holtby
31-Grubauer
Scratches
4-Chorney
26-Winnik
WINNIPEG
Forwards
27-Ehlers, 55-Scheifele, 26-Wheeler
81-Connor, 85-Perreault, 13-Tanev
29-Laine, 17-Lowry, 40-Armia
56-Dano, 9-Copp, 91-Burmistrov
Defensemen
44-Morrissey, 33-Byfuglien
39-Enstrom, 4-Postma
71-Melchiori, 7-Chiarot
Goaltenders
34-Hutchinson
37-Hellebuyck
Injured
5-Stuart (lower body)
12-Stafford (upper body)
16-Matthias (lower body)
18-Little (lower body)
57-Myers (lower body)
Scratches
22-Thorburn
