Caps Return to Vegas to Face Knights

Dec. 4 vs. Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena
Time:10:00 p.m.
TV: NBCSW
Radio: Capitals Radio 24/7, FAN 106.7
Washington Capitals 15-8-3
Vegas Golden Knights 14-13-1

Last spring, the Capitals earned their 16th and final win of the postseason in Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena, and they spent a dozen or so joyous hours there afterwards, hoisting the freshly won Stanley Cup on the ice, and conducting a boisterous postgame bacchanal in the visitors' locker room after that.
Just under six months later, the Caps return to the scene of their greatest conquest, and they do so seeking their 16th win of the 2018-19 regular season.
Alas, that 16th win and its resulting two points should have been safely stowed in the cargo area of the Capitals' charter flight to Vegas on Sunday. And it would have been, except the Caps let that one - and their seven-game winning streak - slip away in painful fashion. Washington surrendered five unanswered goals to Anaheim in under 21 minutes as a 5-1 second-period lead morphed into an ugly 6-5 setback to the Ducks.
Immediately after that loss to the Ducks, the Caps departed for the desert; they practiced on Monday morning at T-Mobile. An 82-game season is going to be dotted with agonizing losses and buoyant victories, and Washington will look to move forward from a bad beat.
"Obviously this is my first year with this team," said Caps center Nic Dowd after Sunday's loss, "but just being around the guys the last 20-something games, they know how to win They did it last year, they've won for a long time. The leaders in this room are going to hold everybody accountable, including themselves. We're not going to win every game. This one stings, but I think it's a great lesson for us."
The seven-game winning streak was Washington's third longest run of success in the last six seasons, and it's always tough to see a healthy winning streak go by the wayside. But being just a game removed from two straight weeks of winning should help the Caps move past Sunday's loss.

"Having won seven in a row makes it easier," says Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen. "We've been playing well. For a few various reasons, we let that one slip away. We don't like it. I think we understand what happened, and we'll try to put that in the memory bank for the future. But we're looking to get excited for the next game; I don't think we need to dwell on it.
'We definitely acknowledged it and talked about a couple of things. You just put it in the back of your head for when that situation ever comes again, just what you can do better to close the game off."
Washington squandered a late lead to the Canadiens in Montreal in its first game of November, and it rebounded to go 10-4-1 in November, tying a franchise mark for most wins in that month.
"It's obviously disappointing, and to be able to put it to bed is important," says Caps coach Todd Reirden, "just like we put some of our wins to bed that we had during our streak. I think it's important that you move past and learn from your mistakes.
"It's a good league, and we learned a tough lesson to start last month, and we learned a tough lesson to start this month. So we'll see how we respond. Our leadership has been really strong at recognizing those points, and clearly it's pointed out by our coaching staff what happened and why it happened, and now, what's our response like?
"So we can learn something both ways from every game. Hopefully that serves as a tough reminder that it's difficult to win in this league, regardless of what the score is. [It was] disappointing to lose the streak that way, but we'll be back at it [Tuesday]."

Being back in Vegas is also a bonus, and Reirden believes his team will get a lift from playing here for the first time since that memorable Cup-clinching night of June 7.
"I think we will [Tuesday]," says Reirden. "It's a very live venue, so the crowd gets you into it anyways. But certainly how our last game finished up here is something that we all will remember forever, and it will be a good thing to build around [Tuesday]."
The Caps and Golden Knights met once previously this season, on Oct. 10 in the District in Washington's second home game of the season. The Caps prevailed in that one by a 5-2 score, but the Knights are coming in hot. They've been playing much better hockey of late.
After a tough 9-12-1 start, the Golden Knights reeled off five straight wins to put themselves in the thick of the Pacific Division chase. That winning run was halted on Saturday night in Edmonton when the Knights fell 2-1 to the Oilers. Vegas outscored the opposition by a combined total of 23-8 during the life of its five-game winning streak.