Depleted Caps Blank Preds, 3-0

Despite losing two key players before the end of the first period, the Capitals banded together and put forth a gritty, workmanlike effort on Saturday night in Nashville, delivering likely their best 60-minute effort of the season to date. Darcy Kuemper was stellar from the start, making 34 saves to record his first shutout as a member of the Capitals in Washington's 3-0 victory over the Predators.

Both T.J. Oshie and John Carlson departed the scene with lower body injuries in the first period, leaving the Caps with 11 forwards and five defensemen the rest of the way, and without two key components of their top power play group. No substantial updates as to the condition of either player were available after the game; the Caps are off on Sunday before facing the Hurricanes in Raleigh on Monday night in the trip finale.
Beck Malenstyn's first goal of the season stands up as the first game-winner of his NHL career, Aliaksei Protas added a critical insurance marker in the seventh minute of the third period to give the Caps some breathing room, and Alex Ovechkin bagged a late empty-netter, his 784th career NHL goal.
"I thought we played really well," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "And when you lose one player, it's tough; you're swinging the bench in different ways. But when you lose two players -one forward and one defenseman, and it's pretty early on in the game - then you're really juggling it for the rest of the game. I thought our guys did a terrific job. We put a lot of minutes on guys, and I thought they responded really well."
Both sides had plenty of scoring chances in a scoreless first period, and both goaltenders had to be and were at their best. Kuemper was tested early, setting aside a Yakov Trenin shot in a 1-on-1 situation just 13 seconds into the first.
Nashville netminder Juuse Saros was strong in a losing effort; he made a key stop on Anthony Mantha's breakaway bid just after the midway mark of the first.
Kuemper was again needed to come up big in the early seconds of the middle period, thwarting Ryan Johansen from in tight in the first half-minute of the frame. Washington's rockiest moments came early in the second when Nashville put some sustained forechecking heat on them, leading to a Predators power play ahead of the first television timeout. The Caps' penalty killers were also stalwarts on this night, snuffing out all five Nashville power plays and eating a fair number of shots in the process.
Just after an unsuccessful Washington power play in the middle of the second, Malenstyn provided Kuemper with all the offensive support he would require. The Caps' fourth line dumped the puck into the right wing corner and went to work on the forecheck, with all three forwards down low along the right side. Once the puck battle was won, Malenstyn drifted to a soft area in the slot, and Nic Dowd made a nifty play to feed him after first selling the idea of a shot. Malenstyn fired it to the shelf for a 1-0 lead at 12:49.

"We put the puck in the zone, and [Garnet Hathaway] was quick on it," recounts Malenstyn. "And then it's just a great pass from Dowder, a great deception. That was an easy one to put in, so I'll take those any day of the week."
Washington needed to kill a bench minor late in the second to nurse that 1-0 lead to the second intermission.
Early in the third, the Dowd line again put together a dominant forechecking shift, hemming the Preds in their end while the Caps were able to gradually change out all of their forward personnel as the teams battled for the puck in the corner. With fresh bodies in the fight, Dylan Strome dug the puck out and got it to the right point for a Nick Jensen shot. On the ensuing goalmouth scramble, Protas scored from the top of the paint to make it 2-0 at 6:44 of the third.
"It was great just to get the puck in," says Malenstyn of his line's table-setting shift. "Get some possession and work it in a little bit, and then just a great scheduled change from three guys to get those guys fresh out there and just let them do the work. They really too advantage of it, and it was great to see that puck go in."

At the time of Protas' goal, all five Nashville skaters had been on the ice for at least 80 seconds.
"Dowder's line had a pretty good shift out there, they were working and they had a great game," says Protas. "And they've been playing good the last couple of games. We kept the puck alive, and like coach said before, get our guys up the ice and get to the net, and something will happen."
Washington's penalty killers were needed twice more thereafter, with Hathaway, Dmitry Orlov and Martin Fehervary all delivering third-period shot blocks on the penalty kill to aid Kuemper in his successful bid for his first shutout as a Capital. Ovechkin's empty-netter put a coda on the contest, giving Washington its fifth win in its last seven games.
"I was feeling good coming into the game about the way my game has been trending," says Kuemper. "Tonight the guys did a great job in front of me, and it made my job a lot easier. When you're seeing pucks clean and everything like that, you can kind of get into a rhythm."