Oct. 3 vs. Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio Network
Washington Capitals (1-0-0)
Tampa Bay Lightning (0-1-0)
The Caps finish up a set of season-opening back-to-back games on the road in Tampa on Saturday night. On the front end of the set Friday night in Carolina, the Caps made like James Brown when they started the season on the “good foot,” with a 5-2 victory over the defending Cup champs in Raleigh.
Logan Thompson stopped 31 of 33 shots – including 14 of 15 during a stretch of six straight Carolina power plays in a span of less than 23 minutes of playing time – to pick up the victory. Thompson was Washington’s best penalty killer on Friday night, but he had competition.
Matt Roy led all Washington skaters with 7:35 of shorthanded ice time. Tom Wilson led all Caps forwards with 5:26 of the Canes’ total of 11:20 with the extra man on Friday. Aliaksei Protas (5:04), Alex Tuch (5:02) and Boone Jenner (4:39) all ate up a healthy chunk of shorthanded minutes, as did Vincent Desharnais (5:37) and Martin Fehervary (5:18) on the back end.
Jenner also won 13 of 17 draws on the night, including five of seven while Washington was shorthanded. Offensively, Tuch scored twice in his Washington debut while Cole Hutson and Ryan Leonard also scored at even-strength and Jakob Chychurn found twine with the Caps’ first power-play shot on goal of the season.
Thompson’s Friday victory is his 63rd with the Caps, moving him into sole possession of ninth place on Washington’s all-time franchise ledger, four behind eighth-place Pat Riggin (67). Thompson is now 18-5-0 in the month of October in his NHL career.
“I wasn’t seeing much,” said Thompson of the heavy stretch of penalty killing minutes. “I was trying to catch some air, but credit to the PK. We were keeping afloat, we were grinding, and that PK unit was huge tonight. I thought the guys did an amazing job. It’s not easy killing that many penalties in a row, but the guys are blocking shots.”
The guys blocked more shots (28) than they put on Carolina goalie Brandon Bussi (27), and 10 of those blocked Carolina shots came while the home team was on the power play. But Thompson continually stymied and frustrated the Canes, who set a dubious franchise record – including their days as the Hartford Whalers – with a season-opening stretch of 101 minutes and 45 seconds without scoring. Florida blanked Carolina 1-0 in overtime in the Canes’ season opener on Tuesday.
“I thought he had a really strong game,” said Tuch of Thompson, who was briefly his teammate with Vegas a few years back. “Obviously, there are two goals. One was back door [on the power play]. One was a deflection at the hash marks. Those are goals that are probably going to go in on any goalie. And I thought he was steady, I thought he was reading the play really well. He was always in position. He just gives us a lot of confidence.”
Now, the Caps move on to Tampa to take on the Lightning, which is also smarting from an opening night loss of its own, 5-1 to the Rangers in New York on Thursday night. Thursday’s opener also marked the Tampa Bay debut of longtime Caps defensive stalwart John Carlson, who will be facing the Caps for the first time in his 18 seasons in the NHL on Saturday.
The Caps dealt Carlson to Anaheim on March 6 of this year, and he signed a two-year, $17 million deal to join the Bolts on July 1.
After the Lightning lost its opener in New York on Thursday, Carlson said the team didn’t have its “oomph.”
“That’s a fair assessment,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “I think the disappointing thing for me is, the coach understands you’re going to lose games, you’re going to win games; but it’s how you go about that. And I just thought we had limited pushback. And that’s just not a staple of what’s gone on in this room.
“It was almost like the game was an inconvenience to play; it got in the way of summer. That’s what was disappointing, it was the lack of pushback. Take away the score; that’s not what I was worried about. But that was disappointing.”
The Lightning went 0-for-7 on the power play in its season opener in New York, holding the man advantage for just under 13 minutes and managing eight of their game total of 24 shots on net for the game. The Caps will need to be more disciplined against a Lightning power play that can be lethal when operating at peak efficiency.
“There were a couple of missed passes, missed shots, mishandles,” said Carlson after Tampa Bay’s setback in its opener. “I think you could put that all aside and still have a pretty good feel on the game. And then the rest of it wasn’t good enough for us. We’ve got to turn it around pretty quick here. We talked before the game about a good start, and it certainly wasn’t the start that we wanted. But we’ve got to clean it up and get back at it.”
