Oct. 21 vs. Seattle Kraken at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
Seattle Kraken (3-1-2)
Washington Capitals (4-2-0)
The Caps conclude a four-game homestand on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena when they host the Seattle Kraken’s lone visit to the District this season.
After winning the first two games of the homestand, the Caps fell on Sunday afternoon to Vancouver, 4-3. Twenty-five minutes into Sunday’s game, Washington was down 4-0 to the Canucks, but the Caps were able to close the gap, and they threatened to push the game to overtime in the final minutes.
In the first of their 14 scheduled matinees this season, the Caps were flat in the first frame, enabling the Canucks to open a three-goal lead. Although the Caps have now dropped four straight matinees – obviously dating back to last season – they still have a slightly better record in afternoon games (16-9-3, for a point pct. of .625) than they do overall (95-55-20, for a point pct. of 618) in the Spencer Carbery era.
Among those four consecutive afternoon losses are the April 6 game in Elmont, NY in which Alex Ovechkin scored his 895th career goal, and a blowout loss in Columbus just under a week later, a game for which Ovechkin remained in the District. The loss to the Jackets in the season’s final week was one of only three games not started by the goaltending tandem of Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren last season.
The Caps fell behind in the first minute of Sunday’s game against the Canucks, and although they were looking up at a four-goal deficit before the midway mark of the contest, they summoned the collective resolve needed to muster a comeback, and they came within a whisker of pulling it off.
“Obviously, no one was really happy during the first intermission,” says Lindgren, who absorbed his first loss of the season on Sunday. “The guys took it upon themselves to right the ship, and certainly everyone did that. That’s where – as a goalie – you have a lot of respect for the guys in front of you with the way they compete and battled back. I know they always have my back, and we always have their backs.”
Last season, the Caps rallied from deficits to win in nearly half (25 of 51) of their victories, and eight of those rallies came in the third period of those games. Another hallmark the current iteration of the Capitals is their ability to bounce back after losses. Since Carbery took over, the Caps are 43-23-7 in games immediately following losses; they were 22-7-1 under those circumstances last season.
Sunday’s game was ultimately lost in the first period, when the Caps were dented for three goals against. Aside from the third period of their opening night loss to Boston on Oct. 8 when the Bruins scored twice in the third period – the second of which was scored into an empty Washington net – Sunday’s first period marked the first time a Caps opponent had put a crooked number on the board in any of the other periods of hockey they’ve played this season.
“The first [period] basically determines the game,” says Carbery. “We did a lot of good things in the second and the third, but you also have to take that with a grain of salt. Teams play a little bit differently when they’re winning 4-0, so they sit back a little bit and we get a lot of momentum. But we did a lot of good things in the second and third. The first derails us.”
One positive to come out of Sunday’s game is the Washington power play scored for the third straight game, getting on the board late in the second period when Ryan Leonard bagged the first extra-man tally of his NHL career to shrink the Vancouver lead to 4-1. Leonard potted his own rebound with help from Tom Wilson and Dylan Strome. The latter two have had a hand in all three of the Caps’ power-play goals this season.
Leonard’s first power-play goal may have him in line for more time on the team’s extra-man unit.
“Absolutely,” says Carbery. “I give him one shift there, and he scores a goal. So that’s pretty good results.”
Caps center P-L Dubois has missed each of the first three games of the homestand with a lower body injury, and though he was on the ice on Monday morning at MedStar Capitals Iceplex, he was again clad in the baby blue non-contact sweater. Dubois will not play on Tuesday against the Kraken, and his next opportunity to return would be a Friday/Saturday set of back-to-back games this weekend, at Columbus and at home against Ottawa, respectively.
“We’ll see,” says Carbery. “I haven’t spoken to the trainers yet, but he won’t play [Tuesday]. And then we’ll see where it goes from there. We have a few days in between [games] after Seattle, so that at least gives us a few more days for the potential of him to get back into a regular jersey.”
Seattle hits town near the end of its first road trip of the season, a six-game tour that began a week ago in Montreal. The Kraken comes to DC on the back end of a set of back-to-back games; Seattle suffered its first regulations loss (3-1-2) of the season in Philadelphia on Monday night, 5-2.
Berkly Catton made his NHL debut and picked up his first point – an assist – but the Kraken’s streak of four straight overtime games (2-0-2) came to an end with Monday’s loss to the Flyers.
Tuesday’s game is the fifth stop on Seattle’s trip; it will play the Jets in Winnipeg on Thursday before returning home to the great northwest. The Kraken opens a five-game homestand on Saturday against Edmonton.
Ex-Caps assistant coach Lane Lambert is now in his first season as Seattle’s head coach. With eight points through six games, Seattle has matched last season (4-2-0) for the best six-game start in its brief franchise history.
