"We've got to work from the inside out a little bit more," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "We're staying on the perimeter a little bit; we've got to get inside first and then work our way from there. Just get a few more pucks [to the net], the shot mentality, the net front mentality, the creating of tips and second [chances], and zone time. I think we're always good on zone time and possession, but just forcing the issue to create a little bit more of the dirty goals.
"We can create the real creative ones offensively, we can do it off the rush and we can do it different ways, but in the playoffs we're not going to get all of those odd-man rushes. We're not going to get maybe as much zone time, you're not going to get a lot of space. So you've got to fight for your space. If you get to the inside first, then you're already there, rather than starting on the outside and trying to get inside. It doesn't work that way. So just being really diligent and working from the inside out."
In The Nets -Philipp Grubauer picked up his 11th win of the season on Wednesday in Denver, but we expect Braden Holtby to be back in the crease for the Caps on Friday in Arizona. Holtby's last start was on Tuesday in Minnesota when he earned a 5-4 victory over the Wild for his 40th triumph of the season. With that win, he became just the third goaltender in NHL history to earn 40 or more wins in three consecutive seasons. He joins Martin Brodeur and Evgeni Nabokov with that distinction.
Lifetime against the Coyotes, Holtby is 3-0-0 in three starts with a 1.31 GAA and a .950 save pct.
Mike Smith has handled the lion's share of the netminding chores for the Coyotes for several seasons now, and the Caps faced him in Washington last Saturday night. But Smith is under the weather and won't play tonight, so the Capitals will face Louis Domingue instead.
Domingue is 9-15-1 on the season with a 3.08 GAA and a .906 save pct. He started and lost his lone career game against the Capitals in Washington last season, a 3-2 loss at Verizon Center on Feb. 22, 2016. He has a 3.07 GAA and a .912 save pct. in that extremely small sample size against the Caps.
All Lined Up - The Caps take on the Arizona Coyotes in the middle match of a five-game road trip on Friday night at Gila River Arena. Here's how we expect the Capitals to look for that contest and an uneducated guess at how the Coyotes might lineup for that contest:
WASHINGTONForwards
8-Ovechkin, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie
90-Johansson, 92-Kuznetsov, 14-Williams
10-Connolly, 20-Eller, 65-Burakovsky
26-Winnik, 83-Beagle, 43-Wilson
Defensemen
27-Alzner, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 2-Niskanen
44-Orpik, 22-Shattenkirk
Goaltenders
70-Holtby
31-Grubauer
Injuries
None
Scratches
4-Chorney
28-Carey
88-Schmidt
ARIZONAForwards
16-Domi, 91-Burmistrov, 10-Duclair
29-Perlini, 48-Martinook, 8-Rieder
14-Keller, 18-Dvorak, 17-Vrbata
67-Crouse, 13-Holland, 19-Doan
Defensemen
23-Ekman-Larsson, 5-Murphy
33-Goligoski, 77-DeAngelo
6-Chychrun, 2-Schenn
Goaltenders
35-Domingue
41-Smith
Injuries
15-Richardson (broken tibia/fibula)
44-Connauton (upper body)
63-Bolland (lower body)
Scratches
4-Michaelek
12-Pulkkinen
86-Jooris