Caps Clash with Penguins
Back in town after a week out west, Caps host Pens in their lone home game in span of 25 days
Back from a three-game trip out west, the Caps stop home to host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night at Capital One Arena. Thursday's game is the Caps' only home game in a span of 25 days.
Washington's western trip started out on a promising note, with a 4-0 win over the Coyotes in Arizona a week ago. But an uncharacteristically poor performance in Vegas resulted in a lopsided loss on Saturday, and although the Caps rebounded to play well in the trip finale on Tuesday in Denver, they fell behind early and couldn't catch Colorado in a 3-2 loss to the Avalanche.
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin missed the Vegas game with a lower body injury, but he returned for the game in Colorado, scoring his 31st goal of the season in the loss. Nicklas Backstrom missed the Colorado game with a non-Covid illness; hopefully he will be sufficiently recovered to suit up for Thursday's game. T.J. Oshie also missed the Colorado game; he flew home to be with wife Lauren for the birth of the couple's fourth child, a daughter, on Wednesday.
Tom Wilson left the Colorado game with a lower body injury after blocking a Brad Hunt shot midway through the middle period, and we should learn more about Wilson's status at Thursday's morning skate.
With Backstrom out, Aliaksei Protas was inserted into the lineup on short notice, playing for the first time at the NHL level since a Jan. 5 game in Columbus. The loss of Wilson left the Caps with a short bench and 11 forwards for the second half of the game, a situation they've become all too familiar with this season.
"Those guys are two of our top forwards and two of our leaders in the locker room," says Caps winger Conor Sheary of Backstrom and Wilson. "So when they're not here to have their voice - and Osh too, who obviously wasn't here - but to not have their voice sometimes can hurt us. But I thought [Protas] did a great job tonight. He had a really good game stepping in there on late notice, but it's just kind of a next man up and next man do their job [situation]. and I think overall we did a good job of that."
Tuesday's loss is the fifth the Caps have suffered in their last seven games (2-5-0), but they believe they've played better than the record would indicate over that span.
"I thought we had lots and lots of chances," said Caps coach Peter Laviolette after the 3-2 loss in Denver on Tuesday night. "Their goalie played well. If I look back on it, and something that we needed to do a little bit better, there were just a couple of blips that led to either a really good scoring chance or a goal against. And we'll talk about that and straighten it out.
"But as far as the attack goes, I thought the attack was really good. I thought Protas came in and gave us some really good minutes. That was good for him, to come up and not have played for a little bit here, to jump right back in and he looked good."
While the Caps are mostly pleased with the way they've been playing - Saturday night's game in Las Vegas notwithstanding - they also know they need to start picking up some points. They've followed an 11-2-2 month of December with a 4-6-1 January.
"We chalked Vegas up as an outlier before [Tuesday]," says Sheary, who scored his 12th goal of the season against the Avalanche. "The last month or two, we've been playing really good hockey. And when we're not getting results, we are still playing well and I think that was the case again [Tuesday]. So if we just stick with it, stick to our game plan and continue to grind away and try and move our way up the standings every night, I think that's a good sign to come for us."
Since losing defenseman John Carlson to an upper body injury on Dec. 23, the Caps have been unable to put together successive wins, and they are 6-6-2 since his injury. Without Carlson in their lineup this season, Washington is 7-9-4. In the 30 games he has played this season, the Caps are 18-10-2.
Thursday's game between the Caps and the Pens pits a pair of Metropolitan Division denizens which will enter the game tied in total points (56), but Pittsburgh holds three games in hand on Washington. The two teams meet only once more after this game; the Caps visit the Steel City for their only visit there this season on March 25.
Pittsburgh comes into Thursday's game on the heels of a wild one at home on Tuesday, a 7-6 overtime win over the Florida Panthers. Pens goalie Tristan Jarry was slated to start that game, but an upper body injury will keep him out until after the All-Star break, so Casey DeSmith stepped in and picked up the win - and the dent in his GAA - on short notice. The Pens have summoned veteran journeyman Dustin Tokarski from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to backup up DeSmith during Jarry's absence.
The Pens have been a streaky bunch this season; they've had winning streaks of five and seven games, and they've had losing streaks of seven (0-6-1) and six (0-4-2) games this season. As they arrive in D.C. for Thursday's game, the Penguins have collected points in each of their last five games (3-0-2), with four of those games being settled in overtime.
