Oct. 17 vs. New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena
Time: 1:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio Network
New Jersey Devils (4-3-0)
Washington Capitals (4-3-0)
With the New Jersey Devils in town for the first of two early season visits to D.C., the Caps continue their five-game homestand on Saturday afternoon at Capital One Arena. The game pits a pair of Metropolitan Division rivals with identical records, seeking to stack a win on top of a victory in their previous game.
The Caps opened the homestand on Wednesday night with a 5-4 victory over the Montreal Canadiens, a game in which they put together an exemplary third-period close out performance after breaking a 3-3 tie with a pair of goals – from Justin Holl and Alex Tuch, respectively – earlier in the period.
Washington defensemen Martin Fehervary and Vincent Desharnais logged heavy duty minutes in the third period of the win over the Habs, with the former skating a team-high 9:30 at even strength in the final period. That won’t win him lifetime admission to any local night clubs, but he has the undying admiration of his coaches and teammates, which is nice.
Desharnais skated 7:34 at evens in the final frame of Wednesday’s game, while Aliaksei Protas (7:08) and Justin Sourdif (6:53) paced all Washington forwards in third period even-strength ice time. Nailing down that victory was crucial for the Caps, who were playing their second game in as many nights and their fifth in eight evenings, and coming in on the heels of consecutive setbacks.
Following a richly deserved off day on Thursday, the group reconvened for a Friday morning practice session at MedStar Capitals Iceplex in preparation for Saturday’s date with the Devils. When they did so, there was mixed news on the injury front.
Defenseman Matt Roy was a full participant in practice; he has missed those last five games after suffering a lower body injury two weeks ago, on Oct. 3 in Tampa. But the Caps are still missing center Pierre-Luc Dubois, whose illness has prevented him from playing each of the Caps’ last three games and from participating in each of their last three practice sessions as well.
Sourdif was also missing from Friday’s practice because of illness; he is day-to-day. With Dubois out of the lineup of late, Boone Jenner has shifted from left wing to the middle of the ice. But if both Dubois and Sourdif are missing from the middle of the Washington lineup on Saturday, the Caps will need to improvise further. And much more creatively.
“We’re going to have to move some things around,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “And yeah, we’ll be fine. We’ll be fine; if Sourds can go, he can go. If he can’t, someone will step up and play in that role. We’ll see how it shakes out, and what we move with how we see the matchups going.”
Ethen Frank skated the middle of a line at Friday’s practice, but he has no prior experience playing the position and Carbery indicated the forward was merely a placeholder for the Friday session.
Carbery doesn’t know whether the Dubois and Sourdif maladies are the same or different; but Dubois also remains day-to-day, and he will miss a fourth straight game on Saturday against New Jersey. Carbery reports that Dubois is feeling better, and that the next step would be returning to the facility.
As for Roy, his Friday participation at practice doesn’t necessarily indicate a return to action on Saturday.
“Matt Roy skated a full practice today,” says Carbery. “I would call him questionable for [Saturday], still day-to-day. And in Roysie’s absence, I think the [defense] corps has been one of the bright spots of our team and season thus far, is the ability of our [defense] corps missing such an important piece to still put together some good, solid performances.
“And not just putting it on Dylan McIlrath and Justin Holl, even though both guys [played well] and Hollsy obviously scoring a couple of goals in the last couple games, but all the [defense] corps doing a little bit more. The Martys of the world logging a few more minutes, [Jakub Chychrun], Cole [Hutson]. Everybody gets put in an elevated role when you’re missing someone as important and someone that plays in as many situations as Matt Roy does, so I’ve been proud of the way those guys have played in his absence.”
Montreal features a variety of offensive weapons throughout its lineup, and keeping them at bay is no easy feat.
“I think the main thing is just staying calm through those plays,” says Desharnais. “They move the puck a lot and you can’t panic; you’ve just got to know where they are at all times. Like, [Cole] Caufield you know is going to be at the back door, and you know he is going to be looking to get a good one-timer in, or a good shot, and so you have to make sure you don’t give him too much time.
“But we just try to stay calm, and to take away as much space as possible. We all have long sticks, and the forwards did a great job too there on the 6-on-5.”
Many of those same tactics will come in handy against the swift and skilled New Jersey team, one that lit up a previously stingy Rangers team for seven goals in a 7-1 victory on Thursday night in Newark. Devils center Evan Rodrigues opened the scoring in the final minute of a dull and quiet first frame, and New Jersey never let up the rest of the way. The Devils poured on four more in the second and two in the third to coast to a lopsided win.
The Rangers have allowed just 21 goals in nine games on the season, and they’re fourth in the League in fewest goals against per game (2.33), even after Thursday’s bloodletting. But the Devils accounted for one-third of New York’s total goals against on the season in that one game.
“We know them well,” says Carbery of the Devils. “Now, some of our new guys – [like] Vinny [might not know them as well], and he’s been fantastic with Matt Roy’s absence, as a right-shot [defenseman] that is penalty killing, playing in defensive situations and closing out games.
“[In] New Jersey, I would say we’re now going to see arguably the best rush, speed, attack team in the National Hockey League. And that poses a lot of specific issues that you have to be ready for when we don’t have the puck. Montreal is a very quick team as well, but they do it a little bit differently than New Jersey does. So, there will be significant challenges [Saturday], but our [defense] will talk about ways that we can counter that and hopefully be able to counter punch in some situations.”
Like the Caps, the Devils also feature a home-heavy early season schedule. New Jersey has played five of its first seven games of the season at Prudential Center, and it will play eight of its first 11 games there before finally embarking on its first multi-game road trip of the season on Oct. 27, a three-game journey that begins in Dallas.
The Caps have scored 24 goals while yielding 22 to this point of the season; New Jersey is all even at 23-23. The Devils have shown a better power play than the Caps to this point while Washington’s penalty kill has been sharper.
In their Thursday night thumping of the Blueshirts, the Devils netted the first half-dozen at even strength before Cody Glass closed out the scoring with a shorthanded strike late in the third period.
With 19 goals at 5-on-5 this season, the Caps are tied for fifth in the NHL and tied for first in the Eastern Conference. New Jersey has netted 15 goals at 5-on-5, tied for 14th in the League and eighth in the Conference.
Saturday’s Metro Division match is the first of three early-season meetings between the Caps and the Devils; they’ll play a home-and home set before the middle of next month, meeting in New Jersey on Nov. 12 with a rematch in Washington two nights later.
