Caps Shoot for Six vs. Sharks on Tuesday
Washington takes aim on a sixth straight win when it closes a three-game homestand on Tuesday against San Jose.
© Patrick McDermott
By
Mike Vogel
WashingtonCaps.com
Washington's three-game homestand comes to a close on Tuesday night when the San Jose Sharks come to town to supply the opposition for the finale. After wins over Winnipeg and Florida, the Caps will be seeking a sweep of the homestand, and they'll be gunning for their sixth straight victory overall.
The Caps erupted for three third-period goals in a span of less than five minutes on Saturday to take a 4-2 decision from the Florida Panthers. T.J. Oshie scored twice - including the game-winning goal - and Alex Ovechkin opened the floodgates with a tip-in tally of a Brooks Orpik point shot.
Washington has seven tipped goals in 11 games this season, tied for second in the league. The Caps finished last season with 28 tipped goals, tied for third in the league. In 2013-14, the season before Caps coach Barry Trotz and his staff arrived on the scene in the District, the Caps had 16 tipped goals all season and finished 22nd in the league in that department.
"It was something that we wanted to add to our game," says Trotz. "A lot of teams are collapsing to the front of the net, and so you've got to spread people out. You go east-west, you go north, back to the blueline and back to the dirty paint. If you're just on the outside the whole time - we had to force ourselves in there a little bit.
"And I think we've done a better job of that, especially our low forward. Rather than standing in the corner for an easy puck, we're going to the front and you look at how they score their goals, they're throwing pucks to the net, they fling things there and are creating those things. That was something we wanted to add to our game and you're seeing Ovi, for instance, who is more of an off-the-rush, get-to-a-spot [scorer], and he's got a few goals right in the blue paint right now, early in the year."
The ability to get to the net, create some havoc, and then get a stick on a shot from up high has helped to diversify the Capitals' attack this season. Washington has featured one of the league's most lethal and consistent power plays over the last several seasons, but that unit has scored only five goals in the first 11 games of the 2016-17 season, and only seven teams in the league currently have fewer extra-man tallies.
But while the Caps wait for more production from their power play, they still own the second best record in the NHL. That's due in part to having more of a balanced attack, but being well ahead of last season's pace for tipped goals helps, too.
"I think we're doing a really good job of creating some havoc in front," says Caps defenseman Nate Schmidt. "And our job this year as defensemen hasn't been so much to find twine, as to get it to an area and make sure we're not getting shots blocked. We don't want to kill our own offense.
"I think our guys have been extremely good at doing that. And as we saw, when Big O gets in front, you ain't moving that guy. There is maybe one guy in the league who can move him, and that's about it. Our guys are really hanging around those gritty, grimy areas and it's tough. It's not fun for a [defenseman] to continue to have to battle in front of the net with those guys all night."
Trotz kept his lines mostly intact through the first four games of the winning streak, but he reinstalled Daniel Winnik onto the fourth line over Brett Connolly for Saturday's game, and he also tweaked his top nine during the game. Most notably, he reunited last season's top trio of Ovechkin, Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom. One or more of that trio was on the ice for three of the Caps' four even-strength goals in Saturday's win over Florida.
"I thought they were real hard on the puck, they were real hard to handle, all three of them," said Trotz after the win over the Panthers. "And I thought Ovi was skating today and Osh was skating today and Backy. They had a little chemistry and they were real good. When we needed a little push, they were the group that did it today."
The Capitals enjoyed an off-day on Monday, but when they convened for practice on Sunday morning at Kettler Capitals Iceplex, that trio of Ovechkin, Backstrom and Oshie remained intact. There's a pretty good chance they'll be together at the outset of Tuesday's tilt against San Jose.
The Sharks made it all the way to the Stanley Cup final last season in Pete DeBoer's first season behind the San Jose bench before falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a six-game set. San Jose averaged 3.5 goals scored per game over the first three rounds of the 2016 playoffs, but that flow slowed to a trickle in the final series against the Pens. The Sharks managed a dozen goals in that six-game series.
The Sharks, who had a five-game road trip against Eastern Conference foes last month, are starting a six-game road trip in which they'll face four more Eastern opponents before finishing the journey in St. Louis and Arizona, respectively. By the time the trip is done, the Sharks will have played nine of their season total of 16 slated road games against Eastern opposition.
After winning three of their first four games to start the season, the Sharks have gone 3-5 since. San Jose is lugging a three-game losing streak with it as it opens its road trip. The Sharks have scored a combined total of only four goals in their last three games, and they hit the District on the heels of a 5-0 whitewashing at the hands of the Penguins in San Jose on Saturday night.
With an average of 2.25 goals scored per game this season, the Sharks are tied for 27th in the league in that category.
Seeking Six - When the San Jose Sharks visit Verizon Center on Tuesday night to start a six-game road trip and to conclude Washington's three-game homestand, the Capitals will be seeking their sixth straight win.
As for the Sharks, they are starting a six-game road trip, and they're lugging a three-game losing streak as they head out on that journey. Most recently, the Sharks absorbed a 5-0 home ice humbling at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.
"I'm sure they're not going to be too happy coming in here," says Caps defenseman Brooks Orpik of the Sharks. "I got home after our game [Saturday] night, ate dinner and watched the third period of the game they had at home where they lost 5-0. I think they've lost three in a row here, so they're probably happy to get on the road, get things going and get things turned around. A lot like last year, we better be prepared. I think they beat us pretty good, 5-0 at home last year. We better be ready for them."
Washington comes into Tuesday's game on the heels of a strong performance, a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Saturday night. The Caps trailed that game 2-1 in the third, but scored three times in less than five minutes in the final frame, earning their fifth straight win.
With that win, the Caps erased the taste of their previous game, a Thursday win over Winnipeg in which they led 3-0 heading into the third period, but squandered it in a 4-3 overtime win.
"A lot happier [Saturday] night with the way we played," says Orpik of his team's most recent effort. "I think even when we went down 2-1 there, to that point we felt a lot better about ourselves than even when we were up 3-0 after two periods against Winnipeg. I think we were up 3-0 there, and that was probably as bad as we played maybe since I've been a Capital. So it was good to get back on track after a tough road trip, travel-wise. Obviously, we found a way to win there against Winnipeg [on Thursday night] but the win [vs. Florida] felt a lot more complete."
If the Caps are able to push their winning streak to six tonight, it will mark their longest winning run since Dec. 12-30, 2015 when they won nine straight games.
"We're confident in our group right now," says Caps goaltender Braden Holtby. "We're making strides in the right direction. But with San Jose, anytime you look there is [Joe] Thornton, [Brent] Burns or [Logan] Couture, those guys. They're good professional guys. You know that they're not going to get too low or too high, so you've got to expect them to play good every night and obviously it shows with them going to the finals last year.
"We'll expect a really good team. But like every other game, when we have the talent that we have in our locker room, it ends up on us, the way we play and the way we dictate the game."
Lies, Damn Lies, And Statistics - If you look at the NHL standings, you'll see Washington there in third place in the Metropolitan Division, three points behind the first-place New York Rangers and a single point behind the second-place Pittsburgh Penguins.
But in reality, Washington heads into Tuesday's game with the second-best record in the NHL, behind only the Montreal Canadiens, who aren't in the Metropolitan Division. The Rangers have played two more games than Washington and Pittsburgh has played one more. From the standpoint of points percentage - the only way to compare teams with varying numbers of games played - the second-place Caps (.773) are actually ahead of the third-place Rangers (.769) and the fourth-place Penguins (.750).
At this early juncture of the season, three of the league's top four teams hail from the Metropolitan Division and each of the league's top four teams comes from the Eastern Conference. Seven of the bottom eight teams in the NHL are Western Conference teams, and the three teams at the very bottom of the standings are all from the Pacific Division.
Bet The Over -Recent history shows that when the Capitals and Sharks hook up, one or both teams usually scores a lot of goals. Certainly there is a lot of firepower on both sides, but both sides also boast some good defenders and goaltenders.
"I don't know," shrugs Holtby. "It's hard to say because we don't play them that much obviously. Especially last year, we played them early in the year and it was one of our worst game of the year for some reason, just on our account. And then we played them at the end of a long road trip.
"They're a good team, obviously, and when you have a good team like that, you can't give them anything. They've got a lot of offensive threats, and depth and you've got to play a full game with everyone committed if you want to hang with them. I think it will be a better game [Tuesday]. It will be more of a standard game, a rhythmic game I guess, and it will be fun to play."
Each of the last four meetings between Washington and San Jose and six of the last eight has resulted in at least one of the two teams scoring at least five goals.
"Unfamiliarity I think, because they're in the west," says Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen, when asked about the high-scoring games between Washington and San Jose. "There might be a surprise or two every year, because you don't see them much. And there are really free points up for grabs. They call it the same, I guess, as playing anybody else, but it's different when you're a division rival trying to get points out of the game. It seems more competitive. Teams are just a little bit looser when we play teams from the other side because they're free points."
Six Pack -Along with the New Jersey Devils, the Capitals and the Sharks are one of only three NHL teams to have deployed the minimum of six defensemen thus far this season, coming into Tuesday night's NHL action.
Such Nice Boys -Along with the Minnesota Wild, the Capitals and Sharks are tied for the fewest times shorthanded in the league this season. Both Washington and San Jose have been shorthanded 31 times this season going into Tuesday night's game, but the Sharks have played one more game than both the Caps and the Wild, leaving them with the honor of league's most disciplined team to date.
Here's A Tip - There has been much talk recently of the Caps' early-season prowess at scoring tip-in and deflection goals. According to NHL.com, Washington's seven tip-in tallies this season are second most in the league. Being able to score those types of goals has made the Caps' offense more diverse and more consistent.
Tonight, the Caps will seek to defend one of the best in the business at getting to the net and getting tip-in and deflection goals, San Jose's Joe Pavelski.
"Pav is really good at it," says Orpik. "I think he is one of the most underrated guys in the league. He doesn't get a lot of attention out east, because he plays out in San Jose. But he is a guy who is not flashy at all, and he's probably not the best skater in the world. But he just finds ways to get it done. And around the net - I don't know if he's still got that white stick he's using - even when you think you have good position on him, he is so good at reaching out and getting pucks.
"I think the best thing you can do against him is just to try and box him out early so he can't get to the front of the net. Because once he does get there, even when you get tied up with him and think you have him, he finds ways to get sticks on pucks. He is obviously a real dangerous guy for them."
All Lined Up - Here's how we expect the Capitals to look when they take the ice on Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks, and also a look at how we believe the Sharks may look as well:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie
90-Johansson, 92-Kuznetsov, 14-Williams
65-Burakovsky, 20-Eller, 43-Wilson
82-Sanford, 83-Beagle, 26-Winnik
Defensemen
9-Orlov, 74-Carlson
27-Alzner, 2-Niskanen
44-Orpik, 88-Schmidt
Goaltenders
70-Holtby
31-Grubauer
Scratches
4-Chorney
10-Connolly
SAN JOSE
Forwards
42-Ward, 19-Thornton, 8-Pavelski
12-Marleau, 48-Hertl, 89-Boedker
27-Donskoi, 39-Couture, 62-Labanc
68-Karlsson, 50-Tierney, 57-Wingels
Defensemen
44-Vlasic, 61-Braun
7-Martin, 88-Burns
4-Dillon, 5-Schlemko
Goaltenders
31-Jones
30-Dell
Scratches
38-Haley
74-DeMelo
83-Nieto
