POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 3, Isles 2

Center Of Gravity - With less than five minutes left in a 2-2 game against the New York Islanders on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena, Caps coach Peter Laviolette wasn't worried so much about his team losing momentum. The Caps had just failed to score on a five-minute, all-you-can-eat power play, putting just one shot on Isles goalie Semyon Varlamov. Washington had a chance to take control of the game, but didn't do so, and now the Islanders were primed to seize the game's momentum and move in for the kill themselves.

Momentum was far from the forefront of Laviolette's mind, though. Nicklas Backstrom had just gone down the tunnel for the second time in the game, leaving the Caps with just two centers for the last five minutes: Nic Dowd and Mike Sgarbossa, the latter of whom was playing his first NHL game in more than 14 months.
"It was so late," says Laviolette. "Once you get down there, it's almost like you're managing the game to make sure that you're doing the right things. Where it became challenging - to be honest with you - was to lose two of our centermen. And so now, T.J. Oshie is playing center, and I know I've got to get a couple shifts out of him, but he's smart enough to do it.
"So that was the challenge, not so much the momentum after that [power play] was over because it was 3:15 on the clock or whatever it was. I looked up and I knew that we were in the final stretches and thinking about how we're going to roll the lines from there. The challenge became more of just making sure that we had the right guys and the right lineup on the ice."

As it turns out, Laviolette had the right lineup on the ice in the last half minute. Dowd and linemates Garnet Hathaway and Carl Hagelin were on the ice along with blueliners Brenden Dillon and Justin Schultz. From behind his own net, Dillon started the play that enabled the Caps to go 200 feet in a matter of seconds, culminating with Schultz's thrilling game-winner with 26.4 seconds left.
With that goal, the Caps completed an improbable win over a heated rival. Despite playing without five of their top regulars and losing two more key players as the night wore on, the undermanned Caps overcame all that adversity and avoided heading to overtime for what would have been a franchise record fifth straight game.
In a shortened season in which every game is a four-point game, the Caps had snatched what looked like a sure point - and a chance at another - away from a divisional rival in the early stages of what is likely to be a tight chase for the playoffs in the East Division.
"Whether you get the two points in overtime or not, as long as you get the two points, that's all that matters," says Laviolette. "But what was good is that the regulation win keeps teams in your division from getting points.
"You never know how a game is going to play out. I know that guys were really excited because there was less than a minute to go. You probably think you're heading to overtime; in most situations you probably are heading to overtime. And to score a goal like that late in the game, it just brings energy right to the bench. Big play by our guys off the rush, and we were able to capitalize."

Flow With It - One thing that is becoming clear in the early days of the Laviolette administration is that the guys who are going good and playing their best on a given night will earn the most ice time. That's not always the case in the NHL; with some coaches, a player's salary seems to be a primary determinant of his ice time from night to night.
In his first game as a Capital on Jan. 14 in Buffalo, Schultz skated just 15:56 on the night, the lowest figure of any of Washington's six defensemen in that game. By Sunday's game against Buffalo, Schultz was up to 24:39, his single-game high thus far this season. Schultz was just over 20 minutes again on Tuesday, reaching that plateau for the third time in seven games.
Schultz's game seems well-suited for the style of game Laviolette wants to play, and the defenseman agrees with that assessment.
"I think it suits me pretty good," says Schultz. "It took a little bit to get used to, but I'm feeling better and better and more confident with it. I think the team is really coming together and we're playing really well 5-on-5, so it's exciting. We're playing well, and we're playing hard for each other."

Schultz was without a point in his first five games of the season, and he delivered a combined total of four shots on net in those games. In his last two games, he has scored a pair of goals, he picked up a pair of assists, and he has put nine shots on net. Schultz has also taken care of business in his own end; he has been on the ice for 10 goals for at 5-on-5 - tops on then team and tied for fifth in the league - and he has been on for only three goals against at even strength.
"Justin to me," begins Laviolette, "really in the last two or three games has tried to put the skating part of his game and the attack part of his game and you can see it as he is coming out of the zone and he is joining the rush. [Tuesday night's] goal was a perfect example, just getting involved in the play.
"He is one of those players that uses his speed and uses his skating to create offense. And I think I've noticed it more in the last couple of games, but that's probably to be expected with guys. When you throw stuff on the table in training camp, it takes a little bit to sort it out. You have to have some video meetings to talk about some things. I thought he did a really good job of playing the style that we want to play, and I thought others did as well. It was a really solid team win."
Bringing It All Back Home - The Caps' backline corps has been generating a lot of offense for the team in the early going. A defenseman has had a hand in each of Washington's last nine goals, and the group of blueliners has totaled five goals and 16 points in the team's seven games to date.
Seven Nights To Rock - With Tuesday's win, the Caps extended their season-opening point streak to seven straight games (4-0-3). The streak of success matches the longest in franchise history; the Caps opened the 2011-12 season with a perfect 7-0-0 mark.
In a related note, Caps goaltender Vitek Vanecek started his fourth straight game on Tuesday, stopping 32 of 34 New York shots to improve to 3-0-2 on the season. Along with Jim Carey, who went 6-0-1 in the first seven starts of his NHL career back in the lockout-shortened season of 1994-95, Vanecek is only then second goaltender in Washington's franchise history to earn a point for his team in each of his first five starts in the league.
Seven Curses - Tuesday's game marked the seventh time in as many games this season in which Washington's opponent had more power-play opportunities than the Capitals had. The Caps have had three or fewer extra-man opportunities in six of their seven games, and their penalty-killing outfit has faced more than three opposition power plays in three of seven contests.
On the season, the Caps have had 14 power play chances in seven games while facing 26 opposition power plays. Washington's average of two power-play opportunities per game is the lowest in the NHL.
By The Numbers - For the seventh time in as many games, Caps defenseman John Carlson led the team in ice time with 24:02 … Carlson also led the Caps with five shots on net and nine shot attempts … Washington generated a single-game season high of 72 shot attempts in Tuesday's game … Daniel Carr, Jonas Siegenthaler and Trevor van Riemsdyk each blocked two shots to lead the Caps.