Caps Take on Bruins in Boston
Winners of eight of their last 10 games, the Capitals are in Boston to take on the Bruins, winners of nine of their last 11
Two nights after an impressive bounce back win over the Colorado Avalanche at Capital One Arena, the Capitals are back out on the road for yet another one-game road journey. Washington is in Boston on Thursday night to face the Bruins.
Coming off a 3-1 loss to the Islanders in Brooklyn on Monday in which they played poorly, and facing the Avs for the first time since Colorado put a 6-2 hurting on them in Denver on Nov. 16, the Caps turned in a strong 60 minutes on the back half of a set of back-to-backs, earning a 5-2 win over the Avalanche on Tuesday.
"I thought we played with lots of pace and got good responses from all," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "There wasn't a line that I wasn't really happy with. I think they had their moments where maybe the other team had a push and we were maybe locked in our end a little bit, but we had a pretty good push. I thought we had good puck possession and we did a lot of good things. We had some real good looks. I think over time, they wore down and we didn't.
Colorado's top forward line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen had their way with Washington in the game in Denver last month, piling up five goals and a dozen points in the game. In Tuesday's rematch, the Caps limited the unit to a single assist from Rantanen, who was minus-2 on the night. Each of his linemates was minus-3.
"We talked about getting on top of them in the middle of the ice," says Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen. "They've got a couple of guys that can really go, especially in the center with MacKinnon.
"When he gets wound up through the center of the ice with the puck, they have a lot of options and he is dangerous. I thought the forwards did a really good job on the forecheck tonight, of bottling things up and keeping things along the wall, and just being on top of people and trying to slow down their top line."
Thirty-two games into the season, the Caps have yet to go more than two games without reeling in points, and they've not dropped consecutive games since the aforementioned loss in Denver in the middle of last month.
"It's just - I think - a lot of pride," says Niskanen. "You find some urgency when you lose a game. You're going to have a hiccup now and again during the season, but the thing you're looking for is a response, and we've been able to do it the last couple of times we lost. We'll try to get another streak going here so we don't have to respond for a while."
"I think there is a pride factor," echoes Trotz. "There is a little bit of a cultural factor, a DNA factor with this group, because we've won a lot of games and we understand that the best thing you can do after losing a game is start another streak, and don't let the streak go the wrong way. So they have pretty good responses."
Since starting the season with a 5-6-1 record in October, the Caps have won 14 of their last 20 games, climbing into a tie for the top spot in the Metropolitan Division standings in the process.
Thursday's game against the Bruins is the last game Washington will play against an Eastern Conference opponent until after the NHL's three-day holiday break from Dec. 24-26. After the game with the Bruins, the Caps return home to host Anaheim on Saturday night.
Next week, the Caps embark upon what is a rarity for them this season, an actual road trip with some length to it. Washington travels out west to face Dallas, Arizona and Las Vegas before the holiday break. The last two of those games will be a set of back-to-backs, as the Caps play two games in as many nights on both sides of that three-day break.
Immediately after the holiday break, the Caps travel to New York to take on the Rangers. That one-game journey to the Big Apple starts a series of seven straight one-game road trips for Washington. The Capitals have 19 one-game road trips this season, accounting for nearly half of their total of 41 road contests.
After the Caps take their three-game trip next week, they won't go out on the road for more than one game for nearly two months. Their next multi-game journey comes in mid-February when they visit Winnipeg, Minnesota, Chicago and Buffalo in a season-long, four-game trip.
Boston was in action on Wednesday night in Detroit against the Red Wings, and the Bruins skated off with a 3-2 overtime victory, with Brad Marchand supplying the game-winner on a top shelf backhander from a deep angle in the extra session. The Bruins were down a goal late in regulation, but David Pastrnak scored the equalizer with 1:26 remaining to force overtime.
The Bruins have won nine of their last 11 games, and they've taken a hold of the third position in the Atlantic Division standings, well behind first-place Tampa Bay and second-place Toronto, but four points ahead of fourth-place Montreal and with three games in hand on the Canadiens as well.
