Friend Or Foe? – This afternoon’s Caps-Sharks matchup in San Jose pits a pair of former ECHL South Carolina Stingrays coaches against one another. Both Washington’s Spencer Carbery and San Jose’s Ryan Warsofsky cut their coaching teeth in Charleston with the Stingrays before ascending to the NHL, and the two have remained close friends over the years.
Carbery is in his second season as the Caps’ head coach and Warsofsky is in his first season with San Jose. Warsofsky’s squad prevailed in the first NHL head coaching meeting between the two men, a 2-1 overtime win for San Jose over the Caps last Dec. 3 in Washington.
Although the Sharks’ .336 point percentage is the lowest in the League this season, and although San Jose is 8-27-4 since that victory in the District just over three months ago, the Sharks are 3-3-0 in their last six games, and they’re coming off a 4-2 victory over Chicago here on Thursday, in the third game of an eight-game homestand.
“Going through some of their stuff this morning, I find – especially early in games in their building – if you go through even the Boston game in Boston, and Dallas here, they’re all of a sudden up 2-0,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of the Sharks. “Tampa Bay, I think they’re leading that game, I think it was 2-0 midway through the second period. So you can tell it’s a team capable of playing with anybody in the League, and then obviously the losses are accumulating from a little bit of third-period stuff, or late in games or closing stuff out.
“But like I said [Friday], we have a lot of respect for this team; they beat us in our building. The talent, the speed that they have, the transition attack with a lot of their young forwards is a real issue if we’re not prepared for that. And so we’re going to need to be good today, and I know our guys won’t be taking this contest lightly.”
Today marks the end of the Caps’ last road trip of three or more games in duration this season; they’ve only had three such excursions this season, a pair of three-game journeys and a five-game trip. Washington owns a 7-2-1 record in the first 10 games of the 11 contained within those three trips.
Do You Know The Way To San Jose? – Just over seven years ago – on March 10, 2018 – the Caps rolled into San Jose in a state of late-season flux for the final game of what had been a fruitless California trip to that point. Owning a lackluster 5-6-2 mark in their previous 13 games, the Caps were – along with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia – one of three Metro Division teams clustered within three points at the top of the division.
Washington was in second place in the Metro when it arrived here for that trip finale, but it was wobbling, only five points clear of the second wild card berth in the Eastern Conference.
The Caps opened the California trip with a 4-0 loss in Anaheim, a game in which Washington netminder Braden Holtby was pulled for the fourth time in 11 starts. The Caps’ star goaltender – who led the NHL in wins in each of the two previous seasons and was aiming for a fourth straight season with 40 or more wins – was scuffling. From the All-Star break to being pulled in Anaheim, Holtby was 4-6-2 in his last dozen starts, with a 4.31 GAA and an .875 save pct.
Two nights later in Los Angeles, with Philipp Grubauer in goal while Holtby underwent a “reset,” the Caps fell 3-1 to the Kings. Just as they are doing this season, the Caps came into San Jose on a Saturday afternoon to play their 67th game of the season.
With the second intermission drawing near, the game was still scoreless. That’s when Nicklas Backstrom cranked a slapper from the left circle to the far corner of the cage behind Sharks netminder Martin Jones. That goal was the only one given up by a goaltender that day; Lars Eller added a late empty-netter to relieve the pressure on Grubauer, who made 24 saves for the shutout win.
Despite scoring just three goals on the entire trip – one of them an empty-net goal – the Caps would take two points home from an otherwise dismal California trip. The victory in San Jose was one of only three the Caps managed in 27 games that season when scoring two or fewer goals (3-21-3).
“I remember there were certain ups and downs that season, especially around the goalies,” says Eller. “I didn’t remember that it was particularly that trip, but I do remember in that season, there was a little uncertainty around certain stretches of that season.
“And that trip is always tough. It took me at least six or seven years into my career before I ever won a game in San Jose. That was always, always a tough place for us to play, and so for us to go in there and get those two points in that situation, it probably meant a lot more to us than just the two points in the big scheme of things.”
Eller was right. The California trip in those days was a gantlet. This season, both Anaheim and San Jose are well south of playoff contention, and both teams have been in that situation for several seasons now. But in 2017-18, all three California teams made the Stanley Cup playoffs, and Anaheim and San Jose each recorded 100 or more points.
The Caps’ white-knuckle victory in that trip finale seven years ago was their first regulation victory in San Jose in almost a quarter of a century, since Oct. 30, 1993. And the win sparked the Caps to finish the season with a flourish; they came home and defeated Winnipeg two days later, with Alex Ovechkin scoring twice to reach the 600-goal mark for his NHL career.
Starting with that win in San Jose, the Caps closed out 2017-18 with a 12-3-0 finishing kick in the regular season, followed by a 16-8 sprint to their first-ever Stanley Cup championship just under three months later.
The Caps found their way after San Jose in March of 2018.
In The Nets – Seeking his 29th victory of the season, Logan Thompson will be in net for Washington this afternoon in San Jose. Thompson is 16-2-2 in his last 20 starts and he is coming off a 7-4 victory over Anaheim in the opener of this trip on Tuesday, a game in which he made 25 saves.
Lifetime against the Sharks, Thompson is 3-1-2 in six appearances – all starts – with a shutout, a 1.81 GAA and a .937 save pct. In his last three starts against the Sharks, Thompson is 2-0-1 with a shutout, a 0.997 GAA and a .964 save pct. (h/t Carter Myers).
For the Sharks we are expecting to see Alexandar Georgiev in goal today. Georgiev began the season with Colorado; he came to the Sharks in a Dec. 9 deal with the Avalanche. On the season, Georgiev is 13-22-1 with a 3.59 GAA and an .876 save pct. Since joining the Sharks, he is 5-15-1 in 22 appearances – 21 starts – with a 3.75 GAA and an .877 save pct.
While still with the Avalanche, Georgiev defeated the Caps in Washington on Nov. 21 of last year, stopping 28 of 29 shots in a 2-1 Colorado victory. Lifetime against the Capitals, he is 7-5-1 in 13 appearances (all starts) with a shutout, a 2.79 GAA and a .909 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we believe the Capitals and the Sharks might look on Saturday afternoon in San Jose:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 21-Protas
88-Mangiapane, 20-Eller, 16-Raddysh
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 72-Beauvillier
Defensemen
38-Sandin, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
42-Fehervary, 3-Roy
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Extras
27-Alexeyev
52-McIlrath
53-Frank
Out/Injured
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
SAN JOSE
Forwards
72-Eklund, 71-Celebrini, 73-Toffoli
51-Graf, 21-Wennberg, 2-Smith
9-Gregor, 54-Giles, 53-Dellandrea
91-Grundstrom, 63-Ostapchuk, 23-Goodrow
Defensemen
38-Ferraro, 85-Mukhamadullin
44-Vlasic, 37-Liljegren
59-Schuldt, 5-Desharnais
Goaltenders
40-Georgiev
31-Romanov
Extras
3-Thrun
10-Kostin
15-Kovalenko
Out/Injured
39-Couture (lower body)
84-Rutta (lower body)
