Caps Collide with Isles on Tuesday

March 16 vs. New York Islanders at Capital One Arena
Time:7 p.m.
TV:NBCSW
Radio: Capitals Radio 24/7, 106.7 FAN
Washington Capitals 18-6-4
New York Islanders 19-6-4

After playing just one home game over a stretch of 18 days, the Caps are back in the District for a six-game homestand, matching their longest home stay of the season. All six games on the upcoming homestand will be played against the three teams from the New York metropolitan region, with the New York Islanders providing the opposition for Tuesday's homestand opener.
In addition to kicking off the homestand, Tuesday's tilt against the Islanders opens up the second half of the 2020-21 season for the Capitals and finishes off a set of back-to-back games. The Caps finished a three-game road trip in Buffalo on Monday night on a high note, shutting out the Sabres 6-0.
Six different skaters found the back of the net and a dozen different players picked up points in support of Vitek Vanecek, who earned his first career NHL shutout in the same building where he claimed his first NHL victory exactly two months earlier.
"It means really a lot," says Vanecek of his first shutout. "I was waiting for that for 21 games, and I'm so happy we do it today."

Monday's win was Washington's fifth straight, its longest winning streak since a six-game spree from Nov. 27-Dec. 6, 2019. The Caps have won nine of their last 10 games and they are 12-2-1 in their last 15 games. Washington swept its way through its just completed three-game road trip, and it has won four straight on the road and eight of its last nine road games overall.
The Caps have scored at least five goals in four straight games, and they've taken a multi-goal lead into the third period of all three of those games as well. Monday's game marked the first time the Caps were able to hold the opposition off the board in the third period in those four contests.
"I think from every guy on the ice it was a great effort, great execution and everything we wanted today," says Caps defenseman Nick Jensen. "It's a good sign, and it's something that we got to build off of, and we can't sit back and relax now that we had one game like that.
"It's so important to come out in a game after a game like this and match the intensity that we had in this game. The tendency for teams when you have a game like this is to sit back and put it on cruise control, and that's something that we don't want to do as a team, especially in a shortened season like this. I think the big focus [Tuesday] is matching or exceeding the effort we had [Monday]."
In two of the three games on the trip, the Caps played with only 11 forwards for the entire night, and on the other night they played with 11 forwards for virtually the entire game. Washington has also been without Tom Wilson for the duration of its current five-game winning streak; Wilson incurred a seven-game NHL suspension for a hit on Brandon Carlo in a March 5 game against the Bruins in Boston, and Daniel Sprong has filled in seamlessly in Wilson's absence.
Sprong scored his sixth goal of the season on Monday against the Sabres, and he has a four-game point streak working (three goals, one assist).
"Even with Lars being out, we're in a good place," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "Lars comes out and now you have to juggle things around and it just moves the bench. But from a positive standpoint, I think the guys have done a really good job of handling that. The players that we've called on for extra shifts, it doesn't seem to be a problem and I don't think that we've taken a forward that typically plays 20 minutes and pushed them up to 28 minutes just because we have a player out of the lineup. We've been able to bounce people in and out of that spot and move forward. I think all teams deal with this, and it's just being flexible and being able to move with what's coming up this year with regard to personnel."

Of the seven other members of the NHL's East Division, the Caps have seen the least of the Islanders to this point of the season. The two teams met twice here in Washington on Jan. 26-28, and the Caps came away with regulations wins in both of those contests. But since suffering those two early season setbacks in the District, the Isles have been on fire.
New York put together an eight-game point streak (5-0-3) before losing consecutive regulation games to the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Feb. 18-20, and it has claimed a point in every game since, a run of 11 straight (10-0-1). The Islanders bring an eight-game winning streak with them into the District, and they're 15-2-4 since their last visit here.
Most recently, the Islanders took a 3-2 shootout decision from the Devils in New Jersey on Sunday afternoon. New York has surrendered two or fewer goals against in seven of its last eight games, and through its first 27 games this season it had allowed the fewest goals (60) in team history in that number of games at the outset of a season. The Isles have averaged 2.17 goals against per game this season, the lowest rate in the NHL. New York permits an average of 27.5 shots on net per night, the fourth best rate in the League this season.