Better That We Break – For a month now – since an early morning flight to New Jersey on Dec. 27 -- the Caps have played at maximum velocity. Starting that evening in Newark, the Caps have played 16 games, tied with several other clubs in the League for the most across that span.
Tonight in Seattle, they will take the ice with the benefit of more than one day between games for the first time since that game against the Devils.
“It’s been good,” says Caps center Hendrix Lapierre of the brief break. “Obviously, it’s been a while since we’ve had two days between games, and it’s a luxury this year for sure with the schedule. So I think it’s been good to reset mentally, physically,”
Washington is 6-8-2 in those 16 contests, and beginning tonight in the great northwest, the Caps begin a finishing kick of six games in 10 nights that will take them up to the Olympic break, and a three-week respite from NHL game action.
“I think it was the first time we’ve had two days in almost a month,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “Good to be able to rest, recharge a little bit physically and mentally, and now hopefully we get some bodies back and we’ll be good to go for tonight.”
Several players did not take the ice in Monday’s practice here in the Emerald City, and we will need to wait for pregame warmups to determine who’s in and who’s out tonight as the Caps head into the final two games of their season-long six-game road journey.
With a couple of wins in the final two games, the Caps could head home with a winning record for a long trip that has been replete with adversity both on and off the ice. Prior to the two-day respite in Seattle, the Caps took three out of four possible points in two very different games in Calgary and Edmonton, respectively, over the weekend.
Washington played well over large swaths of both games, showing signs of returning to a more consistent brand of hockey it had displayed more frequently earlier in the season.
“One of our biggest attributes on this team is how we can adapt to other teams’ playing styles,” says Caps forward Connor McMichael. “If you want to play physical, if you want to slow it down, if you want to play fast, I think we have a lot of guys in here that can play with speed. And you saw that in Calgary and Edmonton. Two different play styles, and we’re comfortable in any situation. That’s something we pride ourselves on and want to keep working on as well, though.”
“Now, we have to finish this road trip,” says Lapierre. “We’ve got two really important games coming up, so we’re excited to play tonight. But it was good to have that extra day off.”
The break is a brief one in the scheme of things, and tonight’s game with the Kraken kicks off another grueling stretch leading up to the Olympic break. The Caps are hoping that rare extra day gives them the juice to endure the rest of the trip and the last half dozen games ahead of the midseason pause.
“That's ideally the way that you would hope that it works out,” says Carbery. “Now, sometimes it works the other way, where you want to keep playing as quickly as you can. But I think I would say the priority being just getting our game in a little bit better spot, we would be the benefactor from that. And so hopefully we can carry that over, just playing a little bit better, a little bit more soundly in all three zones, with and without the puck, and that's what we've been trying to work at extensively with our with our group and individually.”
Sometime To Return – Caps center P-L Dubois accompanied the team on its current trip and he has been skating with scratches and with the team during morning skates. Dubois had been skating at morning skates and on his own for a while before this trip, too.
Dubois has been limited to just six games thus far this season; he suffered an abdominal injury on Oct. 31 against the Islanders, and subsequent surgery kept him out of the lineup ever since. But the center has gradually ramped up his rehab and he is drawing closer to a return to live game action.
Including tonight’s game in Seattle, the Caps have six games remaining between now and the Olympic break. At Monday’s practice session, Dubois participated in a regular jersey for the first time, which is typically an indication of the player becoming quite close to returning. But whether Dubois returns before or after the Olympic break remains to be seen.
In recent seasons in Washington, we’ve witnessed the likes of Nicklas Backstrom, Max Pacioretty and Tom Wilson coming back from lengthy injury absences around this time of the season, with varying degrees of success. It’s an arduous task – and ask – for a player to come back midseason and to be able to hit the ground running after months on the sideline and without the benefit of a full training camp.
But Dubois’ situation might be a bit different than those of the other three players. At 27, Dubois is younger than each of the other three were during their own midseason comebacks, and he went through an entire training camp and had his surgery and rehab in season rather than during the offseason.
Finally, with the impending Olympic break, teams will have a sort of “mini training camp” for a week or so before the season resumes in late February. Much of the rest of the League will be coming out of a three-week break, which may help put Dubois on more equal footing over the final quarter of the campaign.
“I think it's a great point,” says Carbery. “And I think that's an added bonus of the Olympic break, and now everybody taking a pause – other than the guys that are playing in the Olympics for the two and a half to three weeks – and him being able to utilize that time, because he does have a plan to be able to use those three weeks to his benefit to continue to get himself up to speed and ready to return. So guys will be a little bit rusty coming out of the break. We do have some practices, but I think it'll be more of him being on equal footing with the rest of the league and the rest of the players.”
Caps GM Chris Patrick has other concerns – mirroring those of his peers around the League – with the Olympic break, but also thinks Dubois’ return could put him on more equal footing, given the timing of his return with the Olympic break.
“I hadn't thought of that,” says Patrick. “I've been thinking of the break more as like, I think it's almost going to going to be like a delineation point – potentially – where you might see teams that played great all season up to that break. and then they come back, and maybe someone got hurt at the Olympics, or maybe the first couple games back are a little stale, and the mojo is gone.
“I was at our [League] GM meeting last fall, just kind of sitting and talking to a few GMs casually. And some had played when there was an Olympic break one time, and some were managers when there was one. They all had these horror stories, which made me want to crawl into a dark corner somewhere. They were like, ‘Oh we were in first place, and then this guy got hurt at the Olympics, and we ended up missing the playoffs.’ So that break could have a positive impact for some teams and negative for other teams, and we won't know until we see it.
“And as far as Pierre-Luc's situation, I hadn't thought of that. It definitely gives you reason for optimism, because there's always concerns about a guy that misses a lot of time in season and comes back mid- to late-season, and their ability to play the way they want to play. We'll just kind of have to see, and hopefully it works out in his favor.”
In The Nets – Logan Thompson is back between the pipes for Washington tonight in Seattle, on the one-year anniversary of his six-year contract extension. In his most recent start this past Friday in his hometown of Calgary, he made 25 saves to earn his 18th win of the season.
For the Kraken, old friend Phillip Grubauer is expected to make the start against Washington tonight. Originally the Caps’ fourth round pick (112th overall) in the 2010 NHL Draft, Grubauer spent eight years in the Washington organization and was a member of its Stanley Cup championship team in 2017-18.
In his career against Seattle, Thompson is 4-1-0 with a shutout, a 1.41 GAA and a .941 save pct. in five appearances, all starts.
Now in his fifth season in Seattle as an original member of the Kraken, Grubauer is 3-2-1 lifetime against the Caps, with a 2.53 GAA and a .924 save pct. in six appearances, all starts.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and the Kraken might look on Tuesday night in Seattle:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 26-Dowd, 53-Frank
24-McMichael, 17-Strome, 9-Leonard
21-Protas, 34-Sourdif, 43-Wilson
22-Duhaime, 29-Lapierre, 72-Beauvillier
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
15-Milano
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
Injured/Out
80-Dubois (abdomen)
SEATTLE
Forwards
19-McCann, 10-Beniers, 7-Eberle
27-Catton, 9-Stephenson, 20-Tolvanen
17-Schwartz, 51-Wright, 84-Kakko
26-Winterson, 89-Gaudreau, 63-Melanson
Defensemen
29-Dunn, 6-Larsson
24-Oleksiak, 62-Montour
41-Evans, 55-R. Lindgren
Goalies
31-Grubauer
35-Daccord
Healthy Extras
8-Fleury
12-Kartye
28-Mahura
Injured/Out
30-Murray (lower body)
59-Meyers (lower body)
