Life At The End Of The Road – On Monday night in Calgary, the Caps finish up their last extended road trip of the 2023-24 season, a five-game tour through the western portion of the continent. Monday’s game against the Flames is also the final game the Caps will play outside the Eastern Time Zone this season. With a 2-2-0 mark on tour to date, Washington is also taking aim on forging a winning road trip with a positive result on Monday.
Way back on Oct. 16 in Washington, the Caps and Flames met for the first time this season. The makeup of both teams has changed since that night, when the Caps delivered the first win in Spencer Carbery’s NHL head coaching career, a 3-2 shootout victory over the Flames.
Fast forward five months and Monday’s match between the Caps and Flames is a meaningful one; both teams still harbor hopes of climbing their way into a playoff spot, and both teams will be seeking to extend winning streaks from two to three games.
If they’re able to gain as much as a point from their game with the Flames tonight, the Caps would head home tomorrow in a playoff spot. But that’s not something that’s talked about freely within the walls of the Washington room.
“Do not discuss at all,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “Trying to just stay in the moment and finish this road trip off right, continue the momentum that we have generated the last couple of games with the way that we have played. And that’s really it; just a singular focus on today and doing what we can tonight to play real well against a good team that’s been on a decent run. They’re 8-4-0 in their last 12 [games], and have beaten some real good teams on the road, and in this building.
“So we’re going to have to find a way after a very emotional win in Vancouver, to get that cranked right back up, so that we’re not caught off guard by a highly competitive team in a difficult place to play.”
Capital Youth – Over the course of the last month, the Caps have received some notable contributions from their youth brigade, and that’s helped fuel a 9-4-1 run that has them on the outskirts of a playoff berth. The likes of Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protas, Beck Malenstyn, Hendrix Lapierre and – more recently – Ivan Miroshnichenko have all done excellent work to help spark the team.
Also recently – and more quietly – the Caps have had some solid blueline contributions from Alex Alexeyev, the team’s first-round choice (31st overall) from the 2018 NHL Draft. Like many of his peers, Alexeyev’s development has been impacted by the pandemic – as well as some injuries – and his body of work isn’t as expansive as that of some of his predecessors. During the life of his entry level contract, Alexeyev was able to play just 130 AHL games and one single contest at the NHL level.
Now nearing the end of his third NHL season, he has logged just 56 games in the League. Alexeyev played in each of the last 20 games of the 2022-23 season for Washington, logging upwards of 20 minutes in six of those games. But when the Caps signed veteran rearguard Joel Edmundson as a free agent last summer, Alexeyev slid down the depth chart and out of the top six.
Earlier this season, Alexeyev went nearly two months – a stretch of 24 straight games as a healthy scratch – without playing. During that time, he worked diligently with Caps’ skills coach Kenny McCudden after practice, as many of the Caps’ young players have done this season. With Edmundson traded to Toronto ahead of the trade deadline, Alexeyev has been in the lineup for 10 of the Caps’ last 11 games, accounting for nearly have of his total of 23 games played this season.
“Solid, reliable play,” says Carbery, when asked what he has seen from Alexeyev over the course of his recent extended stretch in the lineup. “And that’s the most important thing for him to be able to do, is to give us solid, reliable play from a defensive standpoint of being able to close, shut down plays, spend as little time in the defensive zone as possible. Then it comes with moving pucks, his breakout touches being clean, finding an option when he’s got it, and potentially just advancing the zone when he doesn’t have anything. And I thought that – at the root of what he needs to do – he’s done it at a real high level.
“And then you’ve seen some of those plays that he’s made, like [Saturday night], he chips in offensively with a great play [on Alex Ovechkin’s goal]. [T.J. Oshie] sets that thing up, but [Alexeyev] makes the next play to [Connor McMichael], and then they go back door to [Ovechkin].
“Foundationally, I think he’s done a real good job and that’s enabled him to stay in the lineup, play consistent minutes, and then add a little bit of something – if you can – at the offensive blueline, or getting into the rush like he did [Saturday] night.”
Alexeyev has made a few sharp offensive plays during his recent stretch in the lineup, including the one that led to the game-winning goal in Vancouver on Saturday night.
“Obviously, I’ve gotten better since the beginning of the season,” says Alexeyev. “I think I’ve improved in all the areas; better at defending well and making plays in the [offensive] zone. I had a lot of sessions with Kenny, and it helped me a lot, to improve my touches and shots and everything. He’s a great coach and he gives us great drills that we can use when we are playing in the games.
“I had a message at the start of the season to work on my touches and passes. Plus, we got a skills coach and I think you have to use that, and just get better every day.
The Caps are 15-6-2 in the 23 games in which Alexeyev has been in the lineup this season, and he can take pride in coming off the ice after a big win like Saturday’s triumph in Vancouver, knowing he had a part in delivering a much-needed pair of points to Washington’s column in the standings.
“That felt great,” he says. “Osh played his 1,000th game and we did it for him, and the whole team was so happy. It’s great to see when everyone is happy on the bus and the after the game. Everyone is just excited for the next challenge, and we will be ready for that.”
Tighten Up – Early in the season, the Caps were engaged in a slew of one-goal games; from opening night until the Christmas break, more than half (16 of 31) of their games were one-goal affairs, and they forged a 10-1-5 mark in those contests. Since Dec. 27 though, only 11 of Washington’s last 35 games have been decided by a single goal, and they’re 6-1-4 in those.
Each of the Caps’ last two games have been decided by a single goal, with Washington winning both by identical 2-1 scores. The last time the Caps won consecutive games in regulation by identical 2-1 scores was more than two decades ago, very early in the 2002-03 season, and very early in Bruce Cassidy’s coaching administration in D.C.
On Oct. 12, 2002, in the second game of the 2002-03 season, the Caps eked out a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Olie Kolzig stopped 35 of 36 shots, and Jaromir Jagr’s power-play goal with 4:36 left in the third snapped a 1-1 tie and delivered the Caps’ second victory of the season; they edged Nashville 5-4 at home in Cassidy’s debut as an NHL head coach the night before.
On Oct. 17, 2002 in Carolina – in the second of eight consecutive road games for Washington after it opened at home – the Caps prevailed by a 2-1 count over the Canes at RBC Center. Once again, it was a Jagr power-play goal that broke a 1-1 tie, but this time the goal came with 3:22 remaining in the second period. Kolzig earned the victory with a 37-save performance.
In The Nets – For the 12th time in Washington’s last 14 games, Charlie Lindgren gets the start tonight for Washington. In seven starts in the month of March, Lindgren is 5-2-0 with a shutout, a 1.72 GAA and a .939 save pct.
Lindgren’s lone previous appearance against Calgary came in a relief effort the last time the Caps were in town; he stopped seven of nine shots in 22:50 worth of work and was saddled with the loss.
Rookie netminder Dustin Wolf gets his third straight starting assignment tonight, and like Lindgren, he is seeking his third straight victory. Wolf was Calgary’s seventh-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, and he has been a dominant netminder at the AHL level for the last three seasons, forging an impressive 97-31-9 record with 11 shutouts, a 2.28 GAA and a .926 save pct. in 140 appearances.
Wolf will be making his first career appearance against the Capitals tonight; he owns a 4-3-1 career mark in the NHL, with a 2.90 GAA and a .905 save pct. in 10 appearances (eight starts).
All Lined Up – Here’s how the Caps and the Flames might look on Monday night in Calgary:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 24-McMichael, 77-Oshie
63-Miroshnichenko, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
67-Pacioretty, 29-Lapierre, 15-Milano
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 21-Protas
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Jensen
27-Alexeyev, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
35-Kuemper
Injured/Out
19-Backstrom (lower body)
Scratches
23-Sgarbossa
25-Bear
96-Aubé-Kubel
CALGARY
Forwards
10-Huberdeau, 91-Kadri, 76-Pospisil
88-Mangiapane, 11-Backlund, 20-Coleman
15-Hunt, 17-Sharangovich, 96-Kuzmenko
18-Greer, 21-Rooney, 27-Coronato
Defensemen
58-Kylington, 4-Andersson
52-Weegar, 62-Miromanov
44-Hanley, 94-Pachal
Goaltenders
32-Wolf
80-Vladar
Injured/Out
25-Markstrom (lower body)
47-Zary (upper body)
Scratches
22-Pelletier
28-Okhotiuk
48-Gilbert
71-Duehr
