#CapsHawks Skate Shavings: Windy City Saturday Night

The Caps are on the third leg of their four-game road trip, facing the Blackhawks in Chicago on Saturday night. The Caps come into the Windy City on the heels of an impressive 5-2 win over the Wild in Minnesota on Thursday night, a victory that ended Minnesota's 13-game home points streak (10-0-3), the longest such spree any team in the league has managed this season.

Now the Caps face a team at he opposite end of the pole, a Chicago club hat has dropped eight straight (0-7-1) and seven straight (0-6-1) at home.

The Caps defeated the Hawks 6-2 in Washington on Dec. 6.

Washington is 1-0-1 on the trip to date, and the Caps have earned at least a point in eight of their last nine road games (5-1-3).

"It feels like we're more playing the right way right off the bat, where we're not chasing the game," says Caps winger Alex Chiasson. "We have enough talent on this team here to score goals, and we've been able to score the first goal here lately, which leads to our game and helps us to play with confidence and to do the things that we're doing right."

Fifteen Hundo - Caps coach Barry Trotz mans the bench for his 1,500th game in the league tonight in Chicago. Trotz is just the fifth coach in league history to reach that milestone, following in the skate steps of Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour, Joel Quenneville and Ken Hitchcock.

"In some ways, it's a little bit surreal," admits Trotz of his newest milestone, "because when I started in this business, I was just trying to get through the first year without getting canned and all of that. Obviously I made it through, and now it's gone by really quick.

"When you say 1,500, it doesn't seem like a lot of games. But then you think about the years and all that, it means you've been around for a long time. So it's a little bit surreal because when I started in this business, the people that you really admired and looked up to are people you learned from, guys like Roger Nielsen and Pat Quinn - guys that you had the ultimate respect for. And they were very accommodating to a know-it-all young coach who just came in with Nashville.

"They would share some of their wisdom, and I kept finding out how little I did know when I started out. It's sort of surreal because those are people you grow up and admire and now you're passing people like Roger Nielsen who were great coaches in this league. That feels a little awkward - I always use the word 'awkward' - it just does."

Center Stage - Both Washington and Chicago feature a good deal of strength up the middle on both sides of the puck, and both the Caps and the Hawks come into Saturday's game with a trio of pivots who have reached the double-digit level in goals scored for the season.

Washington's top two pivots are Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov, and both come into Saturday's game with 15 goals while third line center Lars Eller has 11 goals on the season. On the Chicago side, top two centers Jonathan Toes and Nick Schmaltz each have 15 goals as well, and third-line center Artem Anisimov has 14.

"Well, it's a great challenge," says Eller. "I always personally like those games where you know you're going up against some of the best players. It inspires you to play better and it motivates you, so I like that challenge tonight."

"When you're both strong up the middle, you sort of neutralize each other a little bit," says Trotz. "The middle of the ice is a prime battleground for creating offense or preventing offense. So by having a strong middle, you usually can match up pretty well defensively against them, and hopefully you can create some offense when they do break down."

Shooting Gallery -Although the Hawks have been scuffling of late, they've not had difficulty possessing or shooting the puck. Over their last six games, the Hawks have averaged nearly 40 shots on goal per night and they've outshot the opposition by a combined total of 232-163. Yet they've lost all six games in regulation and have been outscored by a combined 24-10 in those half dozen games.

"I think our approach is that we always look at the pre-scout in the morning," says Eller, "and we look at what to be aware of and what to take away. But I think it goes for any team in the league that you've got to take time and space away, and of course the more we have the puck the less they're going to have it, and time and room to create scoring chances.

"We've got to play the same way we did in Winnipeg and Minny. I think we played good games. We've just got to play 60 minutes and I like our chances."

"They're playing good hockey," says Trotz of the Hawks. "They just haven't been able to get the bounce when they've needed it, or to get the goal when they need it. Things are going off the post or there's not enough steam t get over the goal line.

"That's what happens in this game; it's so humbling. Sometimes when you're actually playing pretty well, you're not getting the results, and then sometimes when you're playing like junk you get a win that you don't deserve, because your goaltender stands on his head or every shot you take finds the back of the net."

In The Nets - Braden Holtby gets the net for Washington on Saturday in Chicago. In his last start on Tuesday in Winnipeg, Holtby joined Olie Kolzig as just the second netminder in Washington franchise history. He's still got a long way to go to catch up to Kolzig, who sits atop the franchise's all-time leaderboard with 41,260 minutes in net in a Washington sweater. Since the 2014-15 season, Holtby has logged 14,215 minutes to lead all NHL goaltenders over that span.

Lifetime against the Blackhawks, Holtby is 7-2-0 with a shutout, a 2.21 GAA and a .930 save pct. in nine career appearances. He made 37 saves in a 6-2 win over the Hawks in Washington back on Dec. 6.

Chicago will go with Anton Forsberg against the Caps on Saturday night. On the season, Forsberg is 5-11-3 in 22 appearances, with a 3.06 GAA and a .907 save pct.

He picked up his first NHL victory at Washington's expense, coming on in relief of an injured Curtis McElhinney in overtime of a Jan. 2, 2016 game in Columbus. Forsberg made six saves in four minutes of work in the extra session, then nailed down his first victory as the Blue Jackets prevailed in the shootout.

The Caps got another crack at Forsberg on Dec. 6 in Washington when he started in the previous meeting between the two teams this season. That game did not go well for Forsberg, who yielded three goals on 10 shots in just 15:22 of work before being pulled in favor of J-F Berube, who will be backing up Forsberg again tonight. That December relief appearance against Washington is the only NHL action Berube has seen this season.

All Lined Up - Here's how we expect the Capitals and the Blackhawks to look when they take the ice on Saturday night at United Center:

WASHINGTONForwards

8-Ovechkin, 19-Backstrom, 43-Wilson

39-Chiasson, 92-Kuznetsov, 77-Oshie

10-Connolly, 20-Eller, 65-Burakovsky

18-Stephenson, 83-Beagle, 25-Smith-Pelly

Defensemen

29-Djoos, 74-Carlson

9-Orlov, 2-Niskanen

44-Orpik, 22-Bowey

Goaltenders

70-Holtby

31-Grubauer

Scratches

4-Chorney

13-Vrana

Injured

None

CHICAGOForwards

20-Saad, 19-Toews, 57-Wingels

17-Bouma, 8-Schmaltz, 88-Kane

48-Hinostroza, 15-Anisimov, 91-Duclair

10-Sharp, 38-Hartman, 12-Debrincat

Defensemen

2-Keith, 82-Oesterle

6-Kempny, 7-Seabrook

63-Dahlstrom, 5-Murphy

Goaltenders

31-Forsberg

34-Berube

Scratches

13-Jurco

56-Gustafsson

64-Kampf

Injuries

32-Rozsival (upper body)

44-Ruuta (undisclosed)

50-Crawford (upper body)

81-Hossa (skin infection)