Jan. 17 vs. Florida Panthers at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
Florida Panthers (24-18-3)
Washington Capitals (24-18-6)
The Caps conclude a three-game homestand on Saturday night when the Florida Panthers are in town to close out the season series between the two teams. The Caps have split the first two games of the homestand, and they’ll be seeking to salvage something from their set with Florida this season; the Panthers prevailed in each of the first two meetings in The Sunshine State.
After authoring a stirring two-goal, third-period comeback win over the Canadiens in Tuesday’s opener, the Caps were unable to muster an encore performance in the same situation on Thursday, falling a goal short of the Sharks, 3-2. Three San Jose goals in less than three minutes late in the middle frame was Washington’s undoing in its eighth straight loss following a win (0-6-2).
The Caps reconvened for a Friday morning practice at Medstar Capitals Iceplex, and Tom Wilson was among those on the ice and in normal full-contact practice attire. Wilson suffered a lower body injury in a game against Chicago two weeks ago and he has missed half a dozen games since, with Washington alternating wins with losses in his absence.
Justin Sourdif (upper body) skated in a non-contact sweater but won’t play Saturday against his former employer, and Jakob Chychrun (personal) was not on the ice after returning from a two-game absence (illness) in Thursday’s loss to the Sharks.
“I think today was a good day for us to get to work,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “That comes with being competitive in the drills that are scripted, of us making sure that we’re pushing each other to utilize today as a day to not only put a good workday in, but also to prepare for what’s ahead, and challenge each other to be better. Anytime we get opportunities to do that, we’re going to push each other and that’s what we need to do right now, because we all are in this and we all need to do a little bit more.”
Washington’s December doldrums have carried into the New Year, and they haven’t been able to get off the treadmill grind of alternating wins and losses. The Caps are 3-4-1 in eight games since the flip of the calendar, and they’re 5-5-1 at the midway point of rugged stretch of 22 games in 41 nights leading up to the Olympic break early next month.
Washington has been navigating some key absences from its lineup all season, but that is true for most NHL clubs. Lately, the Caps have lacked consistency – whether from shift to shift, period to period, or game to game.
“It’s not an X’s and O’s thing,” says Carbery. “It’s a consistency of being able to repeat a certain way that is required for us to play to have success in this League. That’s as simply put as I can put it. It’s an ability to do it time and time and time again. So that’s shifts, periods, games; break it down whatever you want. It’s our ability to be able to do that – and you can encompass that all in consistency – but that’s game to game, period to period, just not able to sustain it and do it for long enough consistently.”
We’ve witnessed excellent play from the Caps this season. They won six of their first eight games of the season, and they put together a torrid stretch in the back half of November. But now, their mediocre stretch has spanned a quarter of a full season, and it is now coloring – or discoloring – the stretches in which the team played well.
The same is true of individual games. The Caps are clearly capable of playing a good period or half a period, but they’re not doing so for enough of the 60 minutes on most nights, and that was certainly true of both of the first two games of the current homestand.
“We're not playing good team hockey right now,” says Caps center Dylan Strome. “We're kind of all over the place. And we did it in the third [period]. We can do it. We proved it in the third. Obviously, they have a two-goal lead, but it turns into a one-goal lead pretty quickly with [Ryan Leonard’s goal]. It's there that we can do it.
“So, hopefully that third period shows us that if we play the right way, and guys are changing for each other and making smart changes and not staying on the ice too long, I think we’ve got a good hockey team. But when we don't do that, it's looks like the first 40.”
Beyond Saturday’s game with the Cats lies a grueling six-game, 12-day road trip, the team’s longest of the season. They depart the District for Denver on Sunday, but first, the focus is on Florida.
“You could look at it a couple of ways,” says Carbery. “Getting out on the road, in think we’re [gone for] 13 days or so, finishing in Detroit. You also could look at it another way, of you’re going into some significantly challenging buildings and playing some real good hockey teams. Those are not easy games to play in.
“If we use it in the right way and we can play well, and we get away from home and you go into some difficult environments like Ball Arena and Edmonton and Calgary – and just go down the list – and can play well, then absolutely, and that will be the objective. But honestly, that’s so far from where we are mindset wise. We’re just trying to literally focus on today and figure out how we’re going to take advantage of today to better prepare us for tomorrow against Florida.”
Florida comes to town for the finale of a six-game road trip, and to conclude a set of back-to-back games. The Panthers spent Friday night in Raleigh taking on the Hurricanes; this weekend must feel like a Southeast Division flashback for the Cats.
After splitting the first four games of the road trip (2-2-0), the Panthers were on the wrong end of a 9-1 drubbing in Carolina on Friday. Florida yielded eight unanswered goals in the second half of the game, blowing open what had been a 1-1 deadlock past the midpoint of the middle frame.
Four of the Carolina goals in that span came consecutively, on the power play, off the sticks of four different players, and in a span of just over 15 minutes of playing time. Nikolaj Ehlers had a hat trick and an assist for the Canes, who scored six times in a span of 14 minutes and 27 seconds in the third period.
On the day that Latvian Olympian Uvis Balinskis signed a two-year contract extension with the Cats, he scored Florida’s lone goal in the loss, his second goal of the season. Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was reached for all nine goals while facing a total of 35 shots. Florida had only eight shots on net in the game’s first 40 minutes; it finished with a total of 17.
