Caps Seek to Spark Offense in Vancouver
Trotz tinkers with lines as Caps prepare to take on the Canucks on Saturday night in Vancouver.
For the first time in 19 months, the Capitals head into a regular season game seeking to avoid the loss of three straight regulation games. When they take the ice against the Canucks on Saturday night in Vancouver, they'll be coming in pointless in their previous two games for the first time since mid-March of 2015.
Washington lost a 4-2 home ice decision to the New York Rangers a week ago, and it followed that loss with a 4-1 setback to the Oilers in Edmonton on Wednesday in the opening game of a four-game road swing through western Canada. Those two consecutive defeats in regulation are the first for the Capitals in the regular season since March 11-13, 2015 when they dropped successive home games to the New York Rangers and Dallas, respectively.
Two games in a row without collecting a point is normally nothing to get worked up about. But the Caps expect better of themselves than what they've put forth over the last two games, and for some of the games that preceded them as well. After enjoying a day off in Vancouver on Thursday, the Caps got back to work on Friday afternoon with a practice session at Rogers Arena.
To no one's surprise, the Washington forward lines received a thorough makeover. All four lines were different during practice, and it's likely those units will be in place at the outset of Saturday's game against the Canucks.
"Just spread them out a little bit and see what we can come up [with]," says Caps coach Barry Trotz, when queried as to his thinking behind the changes. "Sometimes you change them around. It's not a revelation; all coaches move them around. We're spreading them around a little bit. Hopefully, it will give some teams something to think about."
Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom are reunited on the top trio, with Justin Williams skating the right side. Tom Wilson slides up to play on the right side of a line with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Marcus Johansson, and Brett Connolly draws back into the lineup on the fourth line with Jay Beagle and Zach Sanford. Lars Eller centers for Andre Burakovsky and T.J. Oshie on Washington's other line.
Daniel Winnik would be the odd forward out if those lines hold for Saturday.
"It's exciting," says Eller. "It's two very good players. I think it could be good. It's got a lot of elements to be a good line. I'm very excited about [Saturday]."
Despite outshooting the opposition in each of their first six games of the season and being a top-five possession team in the league in the early going, Washington has struggled to score goals consistently. The Caps' power play has scored in one of the team's first six games, and Washington has managed a dozen even-strength goals in those six games.
"Sometimes that comes in spurts," notes Trotz of his team's offensive output. "We'll get some on the power play when we get going there. All that will come about.
"In an 82-game season, you're going to have some dry spells where goals are harder to come by, and other times they're just going to come in bundles. And you really can't control the time. It's just early in the season here we're not finding the back of the net. We're getting chances. Our possession numbers are off the charts."
Ovechkin has scored in four straight games, and he has accounted for three of the team's last five goals over a span of two-plus games.
"Obviously we have to regroup ourselves mentally," says Ovechkin. "I don't know if [the lines are] going to be [the same on Saturday], but we'll see. But it's obviously a message to us to wake up and play better offense.
"The chances are there. All the lines have had chances, and you know that if you don't score, you can't win the game. We have to produce more in the offensive zone than we did in a couple of the games."
It's been a long time since the Caps have lost three straight in regulation during the regular season. The last time that happened was Feb. 22-27, 2015. But the losses don't bother the Caps as much as the way they're playing, mostly because they all know they're capable of playing so much better in so many areas.
"I don't think it's necessarily the losses," says Williams. "I think it's the way we've lost. I don't think we've played that great to be honest with you, and I don't think anybody will stand here and say that we have. We need to be accountable to each other and certainly be a much better team than we showed."
Beginning with Saturday's game against the Canucks in Vancouver, Washington will play three games in the next four nights as the Caps gradually work their way back east. They'll play the Flames in Calgary on Sunday and then finish the road trip in Winnipeg on Tuesday night before returning home.
Vancouver is coming into Saturday's game on a four-game slide (0-3-1). Like the Caps, the Canucks are struggling to score. Vancouver has been blanked in each of the first two games of its current three-game homestand, falling 3-0 to Ottawa on Tuesday and 2-0 to Edmonton on Friday night. The Canucks have scored a total of five goals while losing those four straight games.
While the Caps will be playing the front end of their first set of back-to-back games this season on Saturday night at Rogers Arena, the Canucks have been one of the busiest teams in the NHL. Vancouver will be playing the back half of its third set of back-to-back games already, and the Canucks will also be playing their ninth game in 15 nights to start the season.
Vancouver roared out of the gates with four straight victories, and the Canucks pulled at least a point in each of their first five games of the season (4-0-1). But the lone regulation win of the bunch was a 2-1 home ice win over a depleted Buffalo Sabres team on Oct. 20.
Veteran goaltender Ryan Miller was in net for the Canucks in Friday night's loss to the Oilers, so it's likely the Capitals will see Jacob Markstrom on Saturday. The big Swedish netminder is 3-0-1 on the season with a 1.95 GAA and a .923 save pct. Lifetime against the Caps, Markstrom is 0-3 with a 3.97 GAA and an .875 save pct. in three appearances.
Back to the Ice - Along with Buffalo and Colorado, the Washington Capitals are one of only three teams that has played just six games in the first two-plus weeks of the NHL season, coming into Saturday's slate of NHL activity. The Caps have played just one game - a 4-1 loss to the Oilers in Edmonton on Wednesday night - in the last six nights.
The Caps get back to work tonight when they take on the Canucks in Vancouver in the second game of a four-game journey through western Canada.
Washington has been on the road since Tuesday, but has played only that one game so far. But things will thicken up quickly here for Washington. The Caps are starting their first set of back-to-back games this season, and their first group of three games in four nights tonight against the Canucks. Washington takes on Calgary on Sunday and concludes the trip in Winnipeg on Tuesday.
Finding themselves in the rare position of having dropped back-to-back games in regulation, the Caps also find themselves in perhaps a rarer position of having multiple nights off the ice following each of those setbacks.
"It kind of feels like you're in a bit of a stalemate," says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. "It's tough when you lose that first game on the road, and then you have a couple of days to think about it. The road trip's not really as fun and as easygoing as it would be if you win the first one, but that's part of the gig. You've got to be a pro, you've got to be ready to jump in whenever you can and obviously it will pick up pretty quick here. We don't play for a couple of days here, and then we play back-to-back and then we go to Winnipeg, so you've got to stay sharp.
"It's a big game for us tonight, a bounce-back game. We've got to bring our 'A' game."
When a team is going good, it wants to play every other night. It wants to maintain that rhythm. When a team isn't going as well, sometimes it would like to get right back at it after a loss.
"Last year, we found a way every game to make something happen," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "Even when we weren't playing that well, someone would step up, be it the power play or [Braden Holtby] or whatever. Right now, it's a little more difficult, so you find out a lot about your backbone. You just stick with the plan; you don't deviate from the plan.
"I think we have a good hockey team, but you've got to play better. You've got to be more detailed and you've got to play more precise. Our execution early last game - especially in the first period - was poor, and therefore you can't play in the offensive zone a whole lot. I thought it was better in the second and even in the third.
"It is what it is, you've just got to play through it. You can complain about it, but we've just got to go out and do something about it, that's all."
Grubauer In Goal -Tonight's game is the start of Washington's first set of back-to-back games this season. The Caps were expected to start Braden Holtby in one of the games and Philipp Grubauer in the other, but it's a mild surprise that Grubauer will get the start tonight for Washington, and Holtby will get Sunday's game against the Flames in Calgary.
"Just change it up a little bit," says Trotz. "Grubi always gets some of the [back end of] back-to-backs. He's played well in his first start, so we'll give him something on the front end."
Grubauer's lone previous start this season was an 18-save shutout against the Colorado Avalanche at Verizon Center on Oct. 18, the first shutout of his NHL career. Grubauer will be making his first ever NHL appearance against the Canucks tonight.
Scuffling To Score - Coming into tonight's game, the Capitals are tied for 26th in the NHL in goals per game at 2.33. The Canucks rank dead last in that same category at 1.75 goals per game. I combed through the Vancouver media guide this morning was not able to find any other instances of the Canucks being blanked in consecutive home games, as they have been coming into tonight's game against Washington.
The Canucks dropped a 3-0 decision to Ottawa here on Tuesday and fell 2-0 to the Oilers on Friday night.
Washington was second in the league in goals scored last season, but it has scored two or fewer goals in four of its first six games this season, winning just one of those four contests.
"It's kind of a double-edged sword," says Caps center Jay Beagle. "We've been making plays, but sometimes we've been trying to make plays at the bluelines where we should just be getting it in deep. So I think getting it behind the [opponent's] defense is crucial, but we also have to acknowledge that we can score off the rush. All four lines can do that, but especially our top two. You give them a three-on-two, and they're going to make you pay.
"For us though as a fourth line, it's just getting it deep. And as a team when we get it behind their defense and work them at five-on-five, it not only wears them out, but they take penalties from it. It's something that's a momentum changer, but you also get scoring chances and goals from it. But you've got to get it behind them and go to work."
In losing consecutive games, the Caps have scored a total of three goals in those games. Alex Ovechkin, who carries a four-game goal-scoring streak into tonight's game, has netted two of the three.
"Sometimes they go in, and sometimes you press and they don't go into the net," philosophizes Caps right wing Justin Williams. "But we're certainly not doing enough. We certainly can't sit here and say that one goal or two goals should win you a game, because it usually doesn't. It's usually a 3-2 league, and we're obviously not doing enough.".
Line Dancing - When scorers aren't scoring, coaches start changing up the lines. So it goes for the Capitals, who saw wholesale changes to all four of their lines at Friday's practice. The changes held for Saturday's morning skate, too, and Trotz says he'll start Saturday's game with those combinations.
Wilson slides up from the fourth to the second line for tonight's game, skating the right side of a unit with Marcus Johansson and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Trotz was asked about that line on Saturday morning.
"I don't know yet," says Trotz. "We'll see if that line works. We're going to start with those lines as you have them all written down. If they work we'll stay with them. If they don't, we'll move them around. We have to get better offensively for our group. I think we're just in the middle of the pack at five-on-five, but we need to get our special teams going and we need to start winning."
Lars Eller will center for Andre Burakovsky and T.J. Oshie. While some in the Caps' camp believe the team is generating a fair number of scoring chances and just needs to finish with more consistency, Eller finds that to be only partially true.
"I think two games ago against the Rangers we had plenty of chances, but didn't cash in on them," observes Eller. "Last game in Edmonton, I think it was a little bit the other way around. We didn't create enough scoring chances to be able to score three or four goals. We've got to get back to creating scoring chances, and if we get that, it will take care of itself, I think."
So, what needs to be done to create the chances needed to net three or four goals?
"Just getting on the inside," answers Eller. "We had a lot of possession, but just getting on the inside of their [defense] and getting the puck inside of them, we can do a little better job of that. That one time [against Edmonton], Ovi got on the inside, he gets a rebound and gets rewarded. Stuff like that, we need more of."
All Lined Up -Here's how we expect the Capitals to look when they take the ice against the Canucks on Saturday night at Rogers Arena, and here's how the Canucks looked for Friday's game against Edmonton (Vancouver held an optional morning skate on Saturday):
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 19-Backstrom, 14-Williams
90-Johansson, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
65-Burakovsky, 20-Eller, 77-Oshie
82-Sanford, 83-Beagle, 10-Connolly
Defensemen
9-Orlov, 74-Carlson
27-Niskanen, 2-Alzner
44-Orpik, 88-Schmidt
Goaltenders
31-Grubauer
70-Holtby
Scratches
4-Chorney
26-Winnik
VANCOUVER
Forwards
22-D. Sedin, 33-H. Sedin, 21-Eriksson
60-Granlund, 20-Sutter, 36-Hansen
47-Baertschi, 53-Horvat, 9-Skille
46-Megna, 50-Gaunce, 18-Virtanen
Defensemen
23-Edler, 51-Stetcher
27-Hutton, 44-Gudbranson
5-Sbisa, 63-Larsen
Goaltenders
30-Miller
25-Markstrom
Injured
8-Tanev (lower body)
14-Burrows (undisclosed)
15-Dorsett (undisclosed)
17-Rodin (knee)
41-Nilsson (undisclosed)
Scratches
40-Zalewski
55-Biega
88-Tryamkin
