Brand New Year – The Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins will renew acquaintances on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, ringing in the 2024 portion of the 2023-24 season at PPG Paints Arena. The two longtime rivals enter the game all even in the Metropolitan Division standings; each team has 40 points, and the Caps hold a game in hand on the Pens.
Also knotted with the Caps and Pens at 40 points are the New Jersey Devils, Washington’s opponent on Wednesday night in Washington when the Caps finish up this set of back-to-backs – their fifth in 26 days – and open up a five-game homestand at Capital One Arena.
For more than three weeks now, the Caps have been playing the schedule, the road and whatever opponent they’re facing on a given night. They enter the new year lugging their longest losing streak of the season, a four-game slide (0-2-2) in which they’ve done well to scrape a pair of points, given that they’ve scored a combined total of five goals during the four games.
Washington’s recent tailspin has dropped it from the top eight in the Eastern Conference standings to a point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second and final wild card playoff slot. The schedule has been rugged, but every team has patches it must fight through, and the Caps are in the thick of one right now. But it’s important not to make a crutch or an excuse out of the schedule. Games must be won, regardless of when or where they’re played.
“The schedule is a grind, no matter what way you slice it,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “Whether you’re post-Christmas and you’re playing a bunch of back-to-backs. I know we’ve had a lot of them, but we’ve had a lot of success in those situations.
“Everybody’s playing a lot of games, everybody travels, everybody plays back-to-back. It’s just the time of the year where you get to 35-40 games of the season, and this is where we as a group can’t be looking for ways to find excuses, and fatigue, and this is hard and difficult, because that’s where you don’t get results, and all of a sudden you’re behind the eight ball. So it’s a real important portion of the year for us, pre-All-Star break.”
The schedule is difficult, but there's no changing it. And whenever the schedule serves up Pittsburgh, there’s never any worry about the Caps getting amped up for the game.
“It’s always cool playing Pittsburgh, after growing up watching then rivalry between [Alex Ovechkin] and [Pens’ center Sidney Crosby],” says Caps’ pivot Connor McMichael. “And now that I’m involved in those games, it means a little bit more. But it’s always fun to beat the Pens.
“You can feel the buzz in the arena, right when you step on the ice for warm-ups. You just know it’s going to be a highly competitive game with high emotion. They’re always exciting, and you get a little nervous before the game.”
Red Desert – Scoring goals has been an ongoing issue for the Capitals since night one of the season, when the Penguins shut them out 4-0 on home ice, the first opening night shutout setback in Washington’s franchise history. As they draw closer to the midpoint of the season, the Caps are still second-to-last in goals per game (2.29), with a figure that is just slightly ahead of the 2.21 average the inaugural Washington team posted back in 1974-75, when the team scored 181 goals and posted an anemic 8-67-5 record in its first NHL season.
One massive advantage this year’s model has over the expansion Caps of nearly half a century ago is the ability to keep pucks out of its net. Even after being dented for five goals against in consecutive road games in the New York metro area last week, the Caps rank 10th in the NHL – and fourth among Metropolitan Division teams – with 2.79 goals against per game.
The ability to keep games close and tight – and to scrape points from them – has enabled the Caps to stay close to the playoff pack, almost three months into the season. And as crazy and as counter-intuitive as it sounds, it’s imperative that Washington keeps that staunch defensive mindset.
“I think that's a huge part,” says Carbery. “And that's why you saw us have that success through that long stretch in November. Even though we have been scoring deficient – arguably through the year, other than some spurts – we've been able to win games because we've been able to keep them out of the back of our net, and limit what we give up. So that gives us a fighting chance, and it gave us a fighting chance to be able to win some games 2-1 or 3-2 – keep games tight, score first, hang on.”
That said, the Caps simply have to score at a higher rate over their remaining 48 games this season. They enter tonight’s game having scored three or fewer goals in nine straight games, their longest such streak within a single season since they opened the lockout-abbreviated 2012-13 season by going 11 straight games without scoring as many as four goals in a game, a situation that led to a 2-8-1 start that season.
In the past, when they've struggled to score over extended periods of time, the Caps have fared poorly, with much worse results. They know their current pace isn't likely sustainable without a significant uptick in scoring.
“The scoring we have to address,” says Carbery. “And we've got to continue to work on it, and to find ways to create a little bit more and finish on our opportunities, no question. But we can't lose sight of the fact that in order to win games and why we're at where we are, it is because we were able to keep it out of the back of the net. I think it's an important point that we realize, and we continue to focus on as well as trying to put the puck in the back of the net.”
In The Nets – Darcy Kuemper will be in net for Washington tonight in the front end of a set of back-to-backs. He will be seeking to shake off a couple of rugged outings – one as a starter and one in relief of the injured Charlie Lindgren – in which he yielded five goals against in each. Prior to those performances, Kuemper had reeled off three straight victories for the second time since joining the Capitals last season.
Lifetime against the Penguins, Kuemper is 3-4-1 with a 3.08 GAA and a .910 save pct. in eight appearances, all starts.
For the Penguins, we expect to see Tristan Jarry in the nets tonight. Since being pulled and suffering a 7-0 defeat in Toronto on Dec. 16, Jarry has started just two of Pittsburgh's six games, but he has won both while allowing a combined total of two goals against.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Jarry is 6-4-1 with a couple of shutouts, a 2.80 and a .910 save pct. in 11 appearances, all starts.
All Lined Up – Here is how we believe the Capitals and Penguins might look when they take the ice on Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
21-Protas, 24-McMichael, 39-Mantha
29-Lapierre, 17-Strome, 45-Phillips
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 96-Aube-Kubel
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 25-Bear
6-Edmundson, 3-Jensen
Goaltenders
35-Kuemper
31-Hunter
Injured
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (lower body)
67-Pacioretty (torn Achilles’ tendon)
77-Oshie (lower body)
79-Lindgren (upper body)
Scratches
27-Alexeyev
57-van Riemsdyk
PITTSBURGH
Forwards
59-Guentzel, 87-Crosby, 67-Rakell
19-Smith, 71-Malkin, 17-Rust
10-O’Connor, 20-Eller, 48-Puustinen
43-Harkins, 55-Acciari, 77-Carter
Defensemen
28-Pettersson, 58-Letang
27-Graves, 65-Karlsson
7-Ludvig, 2-Ruhwedel
Goaltenders
35-Jarry
39-Nedeljkovic
Injured
83-Nieto (lower body)
Scratches
5-Shea
63-Zohorna
73-Joseph
