Go To School – With the NHL’s three-day holiday break looming just beyond tonight’s home game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, it may serve the Caps well to remember a lesson learned around this time last month.
Just over four weeks ago, the Caps hosted the Edmonton Oilers in a Black Friday matinee match, Washington’s last game of a home-heavy stretch of schedule. Ahead on the horizon at that time was a cross-country flight and a Saturday off in sunny California, as well as the start of the team’s longest road trip of the season.
The Caps came out flat and were flattened by the Oilers, falling 5-0 before they went wheels up and departed the District for the next 11 nights. Tonight’s game against Tampa Bay feels like a similar situation, and one the Caps can learn from if they look back just over four weeks to that Edmonton game.
“Anytime there is a break or there’s a holiday with family that’s in town, you’ve got to be a little extra more prepared,” says Caps’ center Dylan Strome. “Whatever it may be, whether it’s your routine or your pregame things. You’ve got to find a way to stick with what you do, stick with what you know.
“A lot of the guys in here think I’m a little bit superstitious, and maybe I am when it comes to that stuff. But it’s important to dial it in and be ready for the last game before break. You don’t want to go into break on three days off with a bad performance.”
Unsurprisingly, Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery is of a similar mind. The Caps have won three straight games, they’ve claimed points in seven of their last eight games (5-1-2), and they enter tonight’s game with a .633 points percentage, their best mark of the season to date, and tied for the third best mark in the Eastern Conference.
“Do not let off the gas,” he says. “Do not let off the gas. This is a spot in the schedule where the break is upon us in about 10 hours. Families, rest, friends, able to get away from the rink – and those are all positive things – and our players and staff should be looking forward to that. But we’ve got 60 minutes of work to put in against the best team in the National Hockey League over the last five years. And it’s a team that a lot of players – including myself – have a lot of history against.
“I just think it’s a reminder of we’re not letting off the gas, we’ve got 60 minutes against one of the best teams in the NHL over the last five years, and they’re littered with talent. We know exactly what their personnel looks like and what their strengths are, so it’s important that we finish this the right way here, heading into the break.”
Got My Mojo Working – Caps’ winger Anthony Mantha has had a tough couple of seasons here in Washington. Obtained from Detroit in an April 12, 2021 trade, Mantha initially burst onto the scene here in the District, scoring in each of his first four games in a Caps’ sweater to become the first player in Washington’s franchise history to claim that distinction.
But it’s been mostly a struggle for Mantha since. Early the following season, he suffered a serious shoulder injury in a game against the Panthers in Florida, and the subsequent surgery and rehab limited him to just 37 games in that 2021-22 season. He totaled nine goals and 23 points, and going into last season, he remarked on how much he was looking forward to a season in which he could be healthy enough to play all 82 games.
“It would be awesome to get 82, I won’t lie,” said Mantha in mid-September of 2022. “I’m just excited. Obviously, every camp you’re just excited for a couple of exhibition games to get back into it, and then the season is going to start real quick. My goal is to be healthy this year and try to help this team win, and for me personally, it’s just to bounce back and have a great season.”
As we all know, things didn’t go the way Mantha or the Caps hoped last season. He scored two goals in the season’s first three games, but he finished the campaign with just 11 goals and 27 points in 67 games, well below his previously established levels in the League. Although he stayed healthy all season, he suffered the ignominy of being scratched on 15 occasions – including each of the last five games of the season – and his average nightly ice time dipped to 14:13, the lowest of any full season in his career.
While enduring those struggles last season, Mantha reached out to a sports psychologist for some assistance in dealing with what he was enduring, his worst season in the League at the age of 28.
“It’s hard,” Mantha admitted to us in March of 2023. “I won’t lie; it gets you mentally. This has been a tough year mentally. I just work on it with my guy and spend time trying to focus on what I need to do properly with a game coming. Today is my chance, and I need to have my best game of the year. That’s the focus I have right now, just playing my game and having my best game.”
It's been about a year now that Mantha has been working with “his guy,” a sports psychologist. The work Mantha has put in with his psychologist combined with what he has done on the ice has him playing at a high level once again this season. Although he has been scratched on four occasions – including three straight games from Nov. 10-14 – Mantha has nine goals in 26 games to rank third on the team this season.
About a year after reaching out for help, Mantha once again looks like the top six player the Caps acquired from Detroit almost three years ago. His G/60 rate of 1.6 is the highest of his nine-year NHL career, and his other offensive rates are also commensurate with those posted in his best seasons.
“It’s been huge,” says Mantha of the decision to seek some mental assistance. “I can’t deny it. I still work with him; I had a call with him yesterday – just maintenance and goals, and keeping the head in the right space. Even though it’s going well right now, there is always something extra you can do mentally. That’s what I’ve been trying to stay on top of, and it’s been really good. It’s been helpful just to get my head to the right place, and I’m having way more fun playing hockey this year than I was last year.”
And it shows.
Since being placed on a line with Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas – a trio that had never been deployed together before this season – Mantha and his linemates have all found solid footing, delivering the night-to-night consistency that the coaching staff is seeking from every player. In the dozen games they’ve played together – they’ll be reunited tonight after McMichael missed the last two games with illness – they’ve combined for seven goals and 18 points. And Mantha and Protas combined for two goals and five points while McMichael was out.
Last season, Mantha was constantly on the move when he was in the lineup. He played more than 50 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey with seven different players who played center with Washington last season, drawing most of his 5-on-5 ice time on a line with Evgeny Kuznetsov (278:37). Mantha didn’t seem to thrive offensively with any of the six, but the fit with McMichael and Protas has been a good one thus far.
“The chemistry [of that line] has helped a lot, and he’s a big part of that chemistry,” says Carbery. “He’s part of that line, and Mikey and Pro are obviously big parts of it as well. He is playing at a really high level. He’s doing a lot of little things away from the puck that are helping to give him opportunities offensively, and giving him opportunities to play with the puck, as opposed to having to defend, whether it’s in the neutral zone or defensive zone.”
With Detroit, Mantha was a power play fixture, and just under 30 percent of his goals with the Red Wings were scored on the man advantage. Mantha has not had nearly as much power play ice time in Washington, where an established unit stacked with veteran performers has proven difficult to crack. When Mantha scored on the power play on Thursday night in Columbus, it was his first power-play goal in over a year – since Oct. 20, 2022 – and just the third he has scored on the man advantage in 144 games with Washington. Less than 10 percent of Mantha's goals with the Caps have come on the power play.
That means Mantha is getting it done at even strength, and he is doing it with even less nightly ice time (13:16) than he had last season. Only Dylan Strome (nine) has more even-strength goals than Mantha (eight) this season, and Mantha’s 12 even-strength points is tied for fourth on the team, and just two points off the team leader, Protas.
“You can just tell the confidence is building,” says Carbery. “He is smiling, he is happy, he is enjoying practicing and coming to the rink. He is a confident player right now, and we look for that to continue, and for that line to continue to have success.”
That smile to which Carbery refers is everything to Mantha. Hockey is a game he has loved since he was a little kid, and he is finally having fun playing the game once again.
“Some people would say it’s stupid, but for me it’s actually a big part of the game,” says Mantha. “I’m having fun out there again. You’ll see me laugh, and you’ll see me talk to the refs. For me, talking to the refs is a normal thing. I have a ton of respect for them and they have respect for me, and for me, it just kind of gets me through a game, and that’s how it is.”
In The Nets – Two nights after delivering a strong 34-save performance to help the Caps nail down their third straight victory – a 3-2 overtime triumph over the Blue Jackets in Columbus – Charlie Lindgren gets the net again tonight for Washington against the Lightning. Lindgren will be seeking his eighth win of the season tonight; he won a career high 13 games last season, his first with the Capitals.
Lifetime against the Lightning, Lindgren has been limited to a single relief appearance, during which he stopped 24 of 25 shots in 43:32 of work, leading to a 1.38 GAA and a .960 save pct., but no decision.
We are expecting to see Andrei Vasilveskiy in goal for the Lightning tonight. Since he came off injured reserve following offseason microdisectomy to address a lumbar disc herniation, Vasilevskiy has started 12 of Tampa Bay’s last 14 games. He has limited the opposition to two or fewer goals in four of those dozen starts, and he enters tonight’s game with a 7-5-0 mark on the season, a 2.93 GAA and a .901 save pct.
While those numbers are off his career numbers to date, Vasilevskiy missed training camp and the first 20 games of the season. He is still capable of delivering a dazzling outing any night he is in the nets, and we have little doubt that he’ll return to form as the season wears on.
Lifetime against Washington, Vasilevskiy is 8-8-1 with a 3.32 GAA and a .900 save pct. in 17 appearances, all starts.
All Lined Up – Here is how we believe the Capitals and Lightning might look when they take the ice on Saturday night in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
21-Protas, 24-McMichael, 39-Mantha
29-Lapierre, 92-Kuznetsov, 63-Miroshnichenko
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 96-Aube-Kubel
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
6-Edmundson, 3-Jensen
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
35-Kuemper
Injured
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (lower body)
67-Pacioretty (torn Achilles’ tendon)
77-Oshie (lower body)
Scratches
27-Alexeyev
45-Phillips
TAMPA BAY
Forwards
20-Paul, 21-Point, 86-Kucherov
38-Hagel, 71-Cirelli, 91-Stamkos
84-Jeannot, 11-Glendening, 23-Eyssimont
73-Sheary, 64-Motte, 12-Barré-Boulet
Defensemen
77-Hedman, 81-Cernak
44-de Haan, 43-Raddysh
7-Fleury, 48-Perbix
Goaltenders
88-Vasilevskiy
31-Johansson
Injured
98-Sergachev (lower body)
Scratches
51-Watson
74-Day
20-Paul, 21-Point, 86-Kucherov
38-Hagel, 71-Cirelli, 91-Stamkos
84-Jeannot, 11-Glendening, 23-Eyssimont
73-Sheary, 64-Motte, 12-Barré-Boulet
Defensemen
77-Hedman, 81-Cernak
44-de Haan, 43-Raddysh
7-Fleury, 48-Perbix
Goaltenders
88-Vasilevskiy
31-Johansson
Injured
98-Sergachev (lower body)
Scratches
51-Watson
74-Day
