Caps Host Rangers in Back Half of Home-and-Home Set
After leading a nomadic existence for the last month and a half, the Caps are finally home for a multi-game homestand, starting on Wednesday vs. the Rangers
By
Mike Vogel
WashingtonCaps.com
After living a nomadic and transient existence for the last month and a half, the Capitals can finally unpack their bags for a bit. Home from a three-game road trip, the Caps now start their first actual homestand since Feb. 9-11, a modest two-game run that starts on Wednesday when they host the New York Rangers. Wednesday's game against the Blueshirts concludes the season's series between the two teams and also finishes off a set of home-and-home games.
Washington earned a 4-2 win over the Rangers on Monday in New York in the opener, scoring four times in the first period and then withstanding a strong push from the Blueshirts over the game's final 40 minutes. Philipp Grubauer was excellent for the Capitals in goal, making 28 saves to earn his 14th win of the season, a career high.
Since the All-Star break, Grubauer is now 10-3 with two shutouts, a 2.11 GAA and a .930 save pct. Unfortunately for Grubauer and the Capitals, Grubauer tweaked something in Monday's win over New York, and he did not practice on Tuesday. The Caps have recalled goaltender Pheonix Copley from AHL Hershey, and Copley is expected to serve as the backup to Braden Holtby when the Caps and Rangers finish up their set of home-and-home games on Wednesday.
"He got a little tweak," says Caps coach Barry Trotz of Grubauer. "We've had tweaks, so we're being ultra-sensitive to our goalies right now. So we are going to recall Pheonix, just in case. But trust me, we're ultra-sensitive right now so I'm not taking any chances on the goalies right now. That's one area I'm not going to hesitate to bring Phoenix back."
Trotz also said that if Grubauer were to come in and say he was 100 percent on Wednesday, he would use him rather than Copley as Holtby's backup against the Rangers.
In Monday's win over the Rangers, the Caps roared out to a 4-0 lead in the game's first period, then held on over the final 40 minutes as the Rangers rallied and had the Caps chasing them. New York won't make the playoffs this spring, and the Rangers conducted a fire sale ahead of the NHL's trade deadline a month ago. After a dismal month of February in which they posted a 3-10-1 record, the Blueshirts are a much more respectable 5-5-2 thus far in March.
Four New York blueliners entered Monday's game with fewer than 40 games worth of NHL experience, and the Rangers also recalled a pair of teenaged centers from AHL Hartford on Sunday, both of whom were first-round choices for the team in the 2017 NHL Draft. Lias Andersson, the seventh player chosen last summer, made his NHL debut against the Caps on Monday and scored his first NHL goal. Filip Chytil played in his third NHL game on Monday, and he recorded his first NHL point, and assist on Mats Zuccarello's third-period goal.
"They've got some young kids that can play," says Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen of the Rangers. "They're playing pretty loose right now and they've got nothing to lose. That's not a bad way to play. They took it to us for portions of the game. It will be a tougher one on Wednesday probably, and they've got some good young players that can handle the puck for sure."
Speaking of young kids that can play, the Caps may opt to insert Shane Gersich into the lineup for Wednesday's game, just days after he signed his entry level deal and joined the team from the campus of the U. of North Dakota after completing his junior season there. Gersich has taken part in a couple of morning skates and one practice session since joining the Caps on Friday in Montreal.
With six games remaining in the regular season, the Caps are all but assured of a playoff berth. But if they win any four of those six remaining games, they will also ensure themselves of a third straight Metropolitan Division title.
Trotz talked a bit about the prospect of resting players once the Caps have clinched, and he also mentioned the need to come up with a lineup for the start of the playoffs. Washington has time - and six games - with which to figure out those details.
"We'll make any decision based on what we feel is the best lineup for the playoffs," says Trotz. "And right now, quite honestly, I'm trying to figure out what will be our starting lineup. Some guys have performed all year pretty well, and then some guys have gotten better and some guys have fallen off. And it will be opponent-based, too."
For now, the Caps are just really happy to be home, and to know that they can unpack their bags for more than a night or two. For the last 44 days, the Caps have had to travel for every one of their games, as six of their seven "home" games over that stretch was part of a one-game homestand and the other was essentially a road game, played outdoors in Annapolis with the team spending the night in a hotel.
Washington navigated its way through that long and untethered stretch of scheduling - the equivalent of a quarter of the season - quite well, thank you, particularly the last couple weeks of it. The Caps posted a 13-7-1 record in those last 21 games, winning eight of their last nine games and winning three straight road games for the first time all season. They enter Wednesday night's game seeking their fifth straight victory, and if they get it, it will match their longest winning streak of the season.
"We've been on the road a lot here," says Trotz. "Getting home, we've been good at home, and hopefully we can follow it up. You know the rangers are going to have another good push. They've got some young guys who are playing with a lot of speed and a lot of determination right now, and they're going to take some good points from [Monday's] game.
"When you're going to play a team for six periods of hockey, obviously you get that first period and you want to push them out of the game. We really didn't do that in the second and we gave them a little confidence, and they carried it right through to the third period. Going back home, we've got to ramp up our game because they're going to come in with some confidence that they finished real strong against us, and if they fix the front end [of the game], then they feel that they can beat us.
"So we've got to go in and try to kill some will if we can, and have a good start and play a 60-minute game against them, because that's what we're going to need."
