Caps Make Return Visit to Ottawa

Dec. 29 vs. Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre
Time:7:00 p.m.
TV:NBCSW
Radio: Capitals Radio 24/7, FAN 106.7
Washington Capitals 23-10-3
Ottawa Senators 15-19-4

The Caps take to the road for the final time in calendar 2018 when they make a second straight Saturday night trip to Ottawa to take on the Senators. Behind a 35-save performance from Pheonix Copley here last Saturday night, the Caps rolled into the NHL's holiday break on a high note, after a 4-0 victory over the Sens.
In the interim, the Caps earned a 3-1 home ice win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, their third straight win and their 15th victory in their last 18 contests. After a scoreless first, the Caps took a 1-0 lead on a Chandler Stephenson goal early in the second, and they kept the lead the rest of the way. Thursday's win over Carolina marked the third straight game in which Washington took a shutout into the third period.
Through much of their current run of success, the Caps have been filling the nets with pucks. Before Pittsburgh slowed them down with a 2-1 win at Capital One Arena on Dec. 19, the Caps had scored three or more goals in 14 straight games, their longest such streak in nearly a decade. The Caps have won three straight since that loss to the Penguins, and they've allowed only two goals in the three games.

Washington is 6-8-1 this season when it scores three or fewer goals in a game, and two of its last three wins have come under such circumstances.
"Some games you're going to be a little bit off, and some games [the opposition] is going to be really on," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "You've just got to kind of navigate your way. I think we always want to dictate what we're doing out there, and to dictate the pace of the game and how it's played.
"But when the other team is playing better than you at certain times, you've got to figure it out. Try to adapt to whatever is going on and put out a good effort. I think we know certain ways to win in here, and we've got to find those in a game like this or in a different game than maybe we've had the majority of this year."
The only downer to Thursday's victory was when defenseman Matt Niskanen absorbed a face first smash into the corner glass in the third period. Niskanen was clearly ailing in the aftermath of the play, and he eventually managed to get off the ice under his own power, but he did not return to the game.
"He is day-to-day, and he will travel with us [to Ottawa]," says Caps coach Todd Reirden of Niskanen. "We'll continue to take it day-by-day here and see how does through the flight and see how he is [Saturday] morning."

Washington should be in an advantageous position on its encore visit to Ottawa this weekend. Veteran Sens netminder Craig Anderson has been ruled out of action all weekend because of a concussion suffered in a Dec. 21 game against the Devils in New Jersey. With Anderson sidelined, the Senators now have a goaltending tandem of veteran journeyman Mike McKenna and untested rookie Marcus Hogberg. The Caps beat McKenna in last Saturday's 4-0 win over the Sens. The 35-year-old McKenna has a total of seven NHL victories (7-16-3) spread over parts of six seasons with six different teams in the circuit.
Hogberg is a 24-year-old second-year pro from Sweden who was Ottawa's third-round choice (78th overall) in the 2013 NHL Draft. Hogberg has appeared in only eight games thus far this season, posting a 3-3-1 mark with a 2.32 GAA and a .916 save pct. Over the course of his brief AHL career, Hogberg is 9-18-1 with a shutout, a 3.14 GAA and an .899 save pct.
On top of the goaltending woes, the Sens played on Friday night in Brooklyn, facing the Islanders in their first game back from their holiday break. With McKenna in goal, the Sens owned a 3-1 lead with less than three minutes remaining in the second period. But the night turned out about as badly as it could have for Ottawa. The Isles scored five unanswered goals in a span of under 22 minutes of playing time to stun the Sens 6-3, and Ottawa also lost top defenseman Thomas Chabot to an upper body injury. Chabot won't be available for Saturday's game against Washington.
McKenna fell to 1-4-1 on the season with Friday's loss, yielding five goals on 38 shots. With McKenna owning an 0-4-0 lifetime mark against the Caps, we may be seeing Hogberg's NHL debut on Saturday.