Caps Head to Brooklyn to Face Isles
After playing nine of their last 10 games at home, the Caps head out for a quick trip to Brooklyn, taking a four-game winning streak with them
Just over a month ago, the Caps returned from a disappointing trip to Western Canada. In finishing that trip with a 1-2-0 mark the Capitals left themselves with a pedestrian 5-6-1 record for the month of October, the first losing month they'd endured since January of 2014.
In their first game upon returning from that trip, the Caps eked out a 4-3 win over the New York Islanders. As has been the case on a number of nights this season, it was largely the play of goaltender Braden Holtby that enabled the Capitals to prevail over the Isles that night, but beginning with that Nov. 2 victory over the Isles, Washington has reeled off 13 wins in its last 18 games.
Now, after going 8-2-0 during a stretch in which they played nine of those 10 games on home ice, the Caps are finally heading back out on the road on Monday, but only for one night. They travel to Brooklyn to face the Islanders in the second meeting between the two Metropolitan Division rivals this season, and the front end of Washington's sixth set of back-to-back games this season.
Washington surely made the most of its lengthy stretch of mostly home games, and now it returns to the typical whimsy of the NHL schedule. To wit: the Caps will play four games in the next six nights, traveling for each of them but playing two of the four at home. And they'll also face an opponent from each of the league's four divisions.
The Caps carry a four-game winning streak with them to Brooklyn; it's their longest winning run of the season to date. They dropped the New York Rangers by a 4-2 count on Friday night to earn the fourth of those victories. After taking a 2-0 lead midway through the contest, the Caps found themselves even at 2-2 with the Rangers with less than four minutes remaining. It looked like overtime, but Washington winger Tom Wilson had other ideas.
Wilson picked off an errant pass and converted that New York turnover into the game-winning goal, setting up Matt Niskanen's tally from the top of the paint. Two minutes later, Wilson scored a goal of his own, his third in two games. After the contest, he talked about Washington's recent run of success.
"I think just the work ethic and the buy in," said Wilson."Tonight wasn't our best; I thought we were on our heels a little but throughout the game. But the past five or six games, you've seen that work ethic, you've seen the speed, you've seen the determination and that identity of every line chipping in.
"Earlier on in the year, there were maybe one or two lines that were kind of going on any given night, and one wouldn't be, and we weren't putting together a team game. But now you see all four lines that are really chipping in, and that's hard on another team when you've got four lines that can roll over and over and create that momentum throughout the whole game."
Those four lines rolling also mean a lot of guys are feeling good about themselves offensively right now. Every single forward on the roster has collected at least a point in his last four games, and most of them have produced much more than that.
Earlier in the season, the Caps were also dealing with some scheduling woes, a slew of new faces in the lineup, and a handful of injuries. They've persevered through and have successfully dealt with most of those issues, and they've gone from surviving to thriving in the process.
"When the schedule comes out," said Caps center Jay Beagle after Friday's win, "you look and see that the beginning part of the season is going to be a little bit tougher, and it's been nice playing at home. We're just kind of getting it rolling here, everyone is able to read off each other and we're starting to get to know the new guys and their tendencies. It's clicking."
And while the Caps have improved their lot in the ultra-competitive Metropolitan Division significantly over the last several weeks, they realize they're far from a finished product or a perfect hockey team. And they know that it's much easier to tumble down the Metro standings than it is to climb them.
"Our record is pretty good right now," says Holtby, "but we still have some areas that we'd like to get better at. We feel like we can be an even better team.
"I think going forward, maybe some games have gone our way that could have went the other way this time, so we're going to have to create our own success moving forward. At some point, the luck will turn the other way and we'll have to battle through it and grind out some wins that way. So we have to make sure we keep a level head and take it game-by-game."
After posting excellent records in both October (7-4-1) and November (8-3-1), the Isles have scuffled a bit since the start of December, going 1-3-1 in five games so far. New York has been terrific on home ice (8-1-2), but they've also played the fewest number of home games of any of the league's 31 teams thus far.
The Islanders are just back from a four-game road trip in which they scraped out a shootout win over the Panthers in Florida in the first game of the trip, but went down to defeat in each of the next three stops on the tour. They were able to rally from a late two-goal deficit in Pittsburgh on Thursday, tying the game and forcing overtime, and thereby earning a point despite losing the game.
Most recently, the Isles finished up the trip with a 3-1 loss to the Bruins in Boston on Saturday night. Now, New York is hoping that a stretch of extended home cooking will be as beneficial to it as it was for the Capitals. Starting with Monday's game against Washington, the Isles will play seven of their next eight games on home ice.
