Forever Changes – The Caps recently went 15 months between visits to Long Island to face the Islanders at UBS Arena, but when they walked into the building for Tuesday’s morning skate, there were plenty of smiles and good feelings and vibes all around.
That’s because the last time they were here – just nine days ago, on April 6 – Alex Ovechkin scored career goal No. 895 to break Wayne Gretzky’s 31-year hold on the NHL’s all-time goals record.
“It’s funny when you go through events like that,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “Now this building – for the rest of our lies – will have a different feeling when you walk into it. And we were walking in this morning as coaches, and walking up that ramp for the rest of our lives, and walking into this building, it'll just be different.
“It'll bring you back to the moment and all the different things after, and Ovi breaking that record. And it's pretty special to now come back – even just standing in here and looking up – and you were a part of history, and one of the biggest goals in the history of the game took place, and we were standing right there a little over a week ago.”
Get Ready – As they head into their penultimate regular season game tonight on Long Island, the Caps are still seeking to restore some sheen to their game. The Caps are just 3-6-1 in their last 10 games, and they don’t look nearly as sharp, as connected, or as crisp as they did for most of the first 70 games of the season.
Six months and 82 games makes for a mighty long season, and there are bound to be some peaks and valleys across that stretch. Peaks have been plentiful for the Caps this season, and valleys have been few and far between, but this current stretch is quite easily Washington’s longest run of mediocrity this season, and with the start of the playoffs less than a week away now, the timing isn’t ideal.
Although their most recent outing was a 4-1 loss to Columbus, those 60 minutes were better than many of the Caps’ recent overall performances, and they’re hoping to use that Sunday home finale as a building block for this two-game trip, which amounts to a preseason for the postseason for Washington.
“We’re worried about results; obviously we want to win hockey games,” says Carbery. “That’s what we’re in the business of, and that’s who we are as competitors, and that’s who I am as a head coach; we want to go out and win a hockey game tonight.
“At the same time, we are trying to make sure that we're staying tight with some details and some things inside of our system that are going to be critical to our success in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And so we're balancing that, of trying to win a hockey game, but also trying to prioritize things inside of our game from an individual standpoint and a team standpoint, and that's where the game against Columbus – in our building – I loved a lot of things we did.
“A lot of the things that we did – and it's what I showed our guys – are going to be important in a week, and we have to continue to do those. Now, are there reasons that we lost that hockey game? For sure. Do we need to find ways to exit our defensive zone when we have the puck on our stick? Yeah, we do. We can't hand a team [free offense], especially this time of year.
“So, there's things to clean up – the reasons why we lose the game 4-1 – but there was a ton of very positive things throughout that hockey game that are going to be really, really important, and those are the things that I'm trying to focus on as a coach, is making sure that we're staying on top of those as a team.”
I Found That Essence Rare – Caps fans know what a unique and rare player Tom Wilson is; they’ve seen him grow and evolve for more than a decade now. And in this remarkable 50th anniversary season for the Capitals, he has accrued some numbers that illustrate nicely just how rare of a player he is.
This season, Wilson has amassed 30 or more goals and assists, 100 or more penalty minutes, 10 or more power play goals, and multiple shorthanded goals. In doing so, he becomes just the 30th player in NHL history to hit all those marks in the same season.
Wilson becomes just the second Caps player ever to hit them all in the same season, joining Dennis Maruk (1981-82). Wilson is just the third player to turn the trick in the salary cap era and the first to do so in almost a decade and a half. Brenden Morrow did it with Dallas in 2006-07 and Corey Perry did it with Anaheim in 2010-11
Among those who came before Wilson, two Hockey Hall of Famers – Bobby Orr and Brendan Shanahan – each achieved the feat three times in their careers, tied for the most ever. Orr was the first ever to do it, in Boston’s Cup-winning season of 1969-70, and by the time he did so for the third time in 1975-75, he finally had some company; Philly’s Bobby Clarke became the second player to achieve the feat in ’73-74.
Finally, when Wilson takes the ice tonight at UBS Arena, he will have one other member of that exclusive club in the Washington bench area with him, Caps assistant coach Kirk Muller. Muller pulled it off with New Jersey in 1987-88.
In The Nets – Charlie Lindgren takes a second crack at nailing down his 20th win of the season tonight against the Islanders. Lindgren has recorded each of Washington’s three April victories, and he will be making his sixth start – and seventh appearance – in Washington’s last eight games.
Lifetime against the Islanders, Lindgren is 1-1-0 in three appearances – all starts – with a 3.31 GAA and an .883 save pct.
Ilya Sorokin – who yielded Ovechkin’s record-breaking goal here on April 6 – gets the start for the Islanders.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Sorokin is 4-3-1 in eight appearances – all starts – with a 2.23 GAA and a .924 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we the Capitals and the Islanders looked the last time they played; there could be some changes on both sides for this one:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 72-Beauvillier
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
88-Mangiapane, 20-Eller, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 16-Raddysh
Defensemen
38-Sandin, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
42-Fehervary, 3-Roy
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
33-Stevenson
Extras
27-Alexeyev
52-McIlrath
53-Frank
Out/Injured
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
21-Protas (lower body)
48-Thompson (upper body)
77-Oshie (back)
NEW YORK
Forwards
27-Lee, 14-Horvat, 21-Palmieri
7-Tsyplakov, 44-Pageau, 10-Holmstrom
18-Engvall, 53-Cizikas, 20-Fasching
17-Martin, 32-MacLean, 16-Gatcomb
Defensemen
3-Pelech, 6-Pulock
28-Romanov, 4-DeAngelo
8-Dobson, 24-Mayfield
Goaltenders
30-Sorokin
50-Hogberg
Extras
2-Reilly
11-Duclair
26-Perunovich
34-A. Boqvist
Out/Injured
13-Barzal (lower body)
40-Varlamov (lower body)
