Under The Weather – As they get set to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs at Capital One Arena tonight, the Caps are dealing with some woes off the ice as well.
“We’ve got a bunch of things we’re working through injury-wise, and personal,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “So it will be a true game-time decision for a lot of these guys.”
Later in his pregame media availability, Carbery was asked about specifics with his lineup, and he offered that “some guys are feeling a little bit under the weather.”
As a follow-up, he was asked whether Washington has enough bodies for tonight.
“We will have enough bodies,” replies Carbery. “I’m not sure we’ll have 12 forwards, but we’ll have enough bodies.”
Trying To Find A World That’s Been And Gone – For just the fourth time since the start of last season – a span of 115 games – the Capitals find themselves sitting with a modest winless streak of at least three games. It happened twice last season – both times after the NHL’s February pause for the Four Nations tournament, and it happened earlier this season from Oct. 25-Nov. 1, the only occurrence of the quartet in which it stretched beyond three games (0-3-1).
Even before the Caps dropped their last three games (0-2-1), their 5-on-5 game and some other aspects of their overall game had begun to slip. As Bruce Boudreau used to say during his days behind the Washington bench, “There’s a fine line between a groove and a rut.”
“I just feel like we're not doing a good enough job with the puck,” says Carbery. “And when you think about that – when I say that – you think just offensively or off the rush. And I think it goes even further back than that, from our breakouts to getting out of our defensive zone through the neutral zone, and then once we get into the offensive zone, our ability to stay there. I just don't think we're doing as good a job as we were.
“And look, it's hard. It's not easy to consistently outplay, out shoot, out chance, out [do in terms of offensive] zone time teams in the National Hockey League; that's not an easy thing. But we had a good stretch where we were doing that consistently, and sometimes you don't win games. I felt in that middle section [in early November] where we really struggled, or the second portion of the season, in majority of those games we were doing all those things I just mentioned, and we were losing.
“And so you're like, ‘Geez, this isn't working. What the heck? Why aren't we getting points in these games where we're playing really well, and our process and all the things that we're trying to do as a team, five on five [are strong]?’ And then you can go in, and this is what I attribute a little bit. We started to win some games, and then you feel good, and then the 5-on-5 game starts slipping a little bit, and now you’re getting outshot, and now you’re getting out-chanced, but we still won because your special teams came through or your goaltender played great.
“And now, it’s started to nip us a little bit, of not doing enough to control play, focus on winning our shift, doing enough to make sure that we’re ending up on the right side of all the things I just mentioned: shots, [offensive] zone time, chances for, all the different stuff that usually if you check all those boxes, you’re going to win 80 percent of your games.”
Over their last five games (1-2-2), the Caps have scored just six goals at 5-on-5, and they’ve netted none in their last two games. They don’t appear to be as connected as a unit of five as they were when they were humming along, just a couple of weeks back.
“I thought the California trip was good,” says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. “You're playing tough teams, and you're right in it, and you're on the road and you're battling. We come home and the last couple teams we’ve played, there's not a lot of time and space, and the games are going to be really tight. And I just thought it wasn't our game to start, and it wasn't our game as a whole, it was kind of when we got down couple goals that I just found we got away from what had been making us successful over the past month.
“You get down one or two, you’ve got to find a way to claw back into it and stick to your structure and chip away. I think Winnipeg probably just wasn't a good game. It's probably a burn-the-video type of game. And then Minnesota, we're playing probably good enough to be in the game and then we let it get away from us, and it becomes 5-0. It probably wasn't indicative of the score or the play, but that’s on us to make sure that when you get behind, you're still in it, especially nowadays. You’ve just got to stick to your structure and stay the course and get your balance and get back into the game.
“So, there's just moments that we need to control a little better to prevent those tight games from getting away from us.”
Getting Better – Just under two weeks after suffering a shoulder injury in Anaheim on Dec. 5, Caps winger Ryan Leonard was on the ice with his teammates at Thursday’s morning skate, albeit in a powder blue non-contact sweater.
Expected to miss 3-4 weeks with the injury, Leonard is seemingly a bit ahead of that schedule. While the team was away over the last five days or so, Leonard did some skating on his own, but today was his first opportunity to skate with teammates; he did not travel with the team to Winnipeg and Minnesota.
“It’s a positive step for sure, him being out there skating with the guys, doing some stuff before, and then taking part in the morning skate,” says Carbery. “Definitely, that’s a significant step.”
Leonard has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in his last 10 games.
In The Nets – Logan Thompson’s run of four straight starts – and seven of the previous eight – ended Tuesday night in Minnesota when Charlie Lindgren started against the Wild. Thompson is expected to be back between the pipes for Washington tonight.
With 13 wins (13-7-3) on the season, Thompson is tied for sixth in the NHL and he is only two victories off the League-leading pace currently being set by Utah’s Karel Vejmelka (15).
Lifetime against the Maple Leafs, Thompson is 4-1-1 in six appearances (five starts) with a 2.74 GAA and a .905 save pct.
For the Leafs, Dennis Hildeby is the likely starter tonight. The 6-foot-7, 231-pound Swede was the Leafs’ fourth-round choice (122nd overall) in the 2022 NHL Draft, and he debuted with Toronto last season, splitting six decisions (3-3-0). Now in his third season as a North American pro, Hildeby has seen more action this season with injuries to both Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll in the early part of the campaign.
In 11 appearances – only seven of which were starts – this season, Hildeby is 2-3-3 with a shutout, a 2.72 GAA and a .923 save pct.
He will be making his first career appearance against Washington.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Capitals and the Maple Leafs might look on Thursday night in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
72-Beauvillier, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
21-Protas, 34-Sourdif, 43-Wilson
24-McMichael, 29-Lapierre, 53-Frank
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 15-Milano
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
47-Chisholm, 38-Sandin
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
52-McIlrath
57-van Riemsdyk
87-Trineyev
Injured/Out
9-Leonard (upper body)
80-Dubois (lower body)
TORONTO
Forwards
23-Knies, 34-Matthews, 88-Nylander
89-Robertson, 91-Tavares, 53-Cowan
81-Joshua, 55-Roy, 74-McMann
18-Lorentz, 24-Laughton, 11-Domi
Defensemen
44-Rielly, 95-Ekman-Larsson
22-McCabe, 28-Stecher
2-Benoit, 3-Thrun
Goalies
35-Hildeby
60-Woll
Healthy Extras
19-Jarnkrok
51-Myers
63-Maccelli
Injured/Out
8-Tanev (upper body)
25-Carlo (lower body)
36-Mermis (lower body)
41-Stolarz (upper body)
