Caps Move On to Colorado
The Caps are in Denver for a Friday night date with the Avalanche, facing some sudden injury woes
By
Mike Vogel
WashingtonCaps.com
Washington moves into the back half of its four-game road trip on Friday night when it takes on the Colorado Avalanche in Denver. The Caps will be playing their third game in four nights.
The trip started on Tuesday night in St. Paul with a convincing 5-2 win over the Minnesota Wild, but took a sideways turn with a 3-1 loss to the Jets in Winnipeg on Wednesday night, a game in which the Caps played without a trio of key performers for all or most of the night.
Braden Holtby was slated to get the start in goal for Washington on Wednesday in Winnipeg, but he suffered an upper body injury while working with Caps goalie coach Scott Murray on the morning of the game, pressing Pheonix Copley into service as the team's starter for the second consecutive game. Copley, in his first full NHL season, was suddenly thrust into his first set of starts on consecutive nights at the NHL level.
Not only was Holtby unable to start, he wasn't up to serving as a backup, either. That meant the Caps had to hire local amateur Gavin McHale to take warm-ups and then sit on the bench during the game in the event that Copley couldn't get through the game.
Top four defenseman Michal Kempny came down with a sudden illness, and he was unable to play on Wednesday, either. Playing in just his second NHL game, rookie Jonas Siegenthaler stepped in for Kempny.
Midway through the first period, Washington lost star center Evgeny Kuznetsov for the rest of the night after he was the recipient of a hit to the head from Winnipeg forward Brandon Tanev.
Late in the game, Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey body-slammed Caps right wing T.J. Oshie to the ice, and he left the game ailing. Morrissey is to have a hearing with the League's Department of Player Safety because of the incident.
Having played three games in the last four nights and getting set to do so again on Friday in Denver against the Avs, the Caps will take Thursday off to rest and recuperate. That also means we won't know the status of Holtby, Kempny, Kuznetsov and Oshie - the four players lost to the Capitals in a span of less than 12 hours - until Friday's morning skate at Pepsi Center.
Given those adverse circumstances, the Caps did quite well to move into the final half of the third period all even with the Jets at 1-1, with a reasonably good chance to scrape at least a point out of the game. But Winnipeg's Ben Chiarot dented Copley for what would prove to be the game-winner with 7:09 remaining, sending the Caps on to Denver empty-handed.
"There is a consolation prize there that we played a little better given the travel and the circumstance," says Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen. "We played smarter and gave ourselves a chance. Obviously managing the puck is important when you're on the second of a back-to-back schedule. We kept the game pretty quiet for the most part, and I thought we checked really well, and our breakouts were pretty good."
Washington played a letter perfect first period, taking a 1-0 lead on a Jakub Vrana goal and outshooting the Jets 10-2. Winnipeg's only even-strength shot of the period came from 140 feet away.
"We had a really strong, really smart first and they get a power-play goal to tie it up on a nice play," says Niskanen. "It was a game after that, but we easily could have won that one. I think we had two two-on-ones in the third, and a couple of other looks. But they got one to go in and they won the game."
The Caps got Tom Wilson back in the lineup for the first time this season on Tuesday in Minnesota, giving them their full complement of healthy and available forwards for the first time this season. It showed on the ice that night, too, as the Caps erupted for five goals at five-on-five to tame the Wild. But a night later, that full squad of forwards took a loss, and it showed as Washington managed only one goal.
"Obviously something happens like this during the game," says Vrana, "and somebody has to leave, obviously you have to shorten your lines. Sometimes you have to go out there with somebody else. It's not a big deal. We still have to focus on the game. Whatever happens during the game happens and you still have to focus on the game and just make sure that you play good, you play a good system and you work hard."
The Caps did all of that, and they came in for significant postgame praise from coach Todd Reirden for their efforts. In a tight Metropolitan Division race nearly a quarter of the way through the season, points are of paramount importance. The Caps have to park Wednesday's game and set their sights on the Avalanche.
"Obviously we have to forget this really quick," says Vrana, "and we have to focus on the next game right away. Obviously we had back-to-backs and now we're really tired. We're going to get our rest and we're going to make sure that the next game is going to be better, and we are going to be prepared for that."
While the Caps were losing to the Jets on Wednesday, Colorado was doubling up the Boston Bruins in Denver, 6-3, in the opener of a two-game homestand for the Avs. It was the Avalanche's second straight win after a five-game slide (0-4-1).
Colorado has scored 10 goals in winning its last two games, and the Avs' average of 3.61 goals per game is tops in the NHL. Over the life of its five-game losing streak, Colorado surrendered 25 goals. But for the season to date, the Avalanche has yielded a more respectable 2.89 goals per game, good for 12th in the NHL.
The Avs' power play is humming along at 29% on the season, third best in the league, and just a shade ahead of Washington's fourth-ranked unit (28.8%).
