Come On And Save Me – Tonight’s game with the New York Islanders is the biggest of the season to this point for the Capitals. New York sits in third place in the Metropolitan Division, four points ahead of Washington and with a game in hand. Tonight’s Metro Division tilt between the Caps and the Islanders is the proverbial four-point game, and it’s also the last of the four meetings between the two division rivals this season.
And for the second straight game, the Capitals will be without both of their top two netminders, Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren. The Caps are hopeful of having Thompson start a game prior to the impending Olympic break, but Lindgren will not return to action until after the break.
“Logan will not play tonight, will not back up,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “He’s real close. We’re going to still call him day-to-day. And just for the purposes of clarity for his situation, the target is for him to come back before the break. The target is for him to play against Nashville [Thursday].
“Matt Roy is questionable; he’s a game-time decision. If Matt Roy ends up playing, we will IR Logan Thompson retroactive to the Seattle [game], so we can activate him then to play against Nashville, just for the purposes of clarity on his situation.”
Carbery further stated that although Thompson will travel with the team tonight to Philadelphia for Tuesday’s game against the Flyers, he will not play in Philly, either. So, would Garin Bjorklund then be in line to make his NHL debut against the Flyers on Tuesday?
“Potentially,” says Carbery.
Sounds like Tuesday’s goaltender will either be Clay Stevenson starting both ends of a back-to-back or Bjorklund getting his NHL baptism.
Stevenson was solid on Saturday, stopping 19 shots to earn his first NHL victory as the Caps came back from a 3-0 deficit to claim a 4-3 overtime victory over the Hurricanes.
The 6-foot-4, 195-pound native of Drayton Valley, Alberta wasn’t happy about the third goal he yielded – a short side shot from Shayne Gostisbehere from above the left circle and along the left half wall – but he closed the door on the Canes over the final 35-plus minutes of Saturday’s game, giving the Caps an opportunity to make a successful comeback and to snare a critical two points.
“I thought he did a great job,” says Carbery of Stevenson’s game on Saturday. “The first two goals, not much you can do on either of those. I would agree with the third goal and his assessment, but I also thought there were some big saves that we needed in key moments that kept that game at a certain score and kept us within striking distance.
“And even some of the plays, I know maybe they don’t hit the net or the one hits the post, [but] sometimes when you’re in good position as a goalie, you force that puck to go wider, or you force it to go off the post.”
Carolina ended up missing the mark 22 times on its 55 shot attempts Saturday, and 10 of those misses came in the second period when the Canes might have been able to salt the game away with just one more goal. Instead, the Caps struck twice in the middle frame to climb back into the contest.
Jakob Chychrun tied it for the Caps in the third period and Justin Sourdif won it in overtime.
“He didn’t have a ton of work,” says Carbery, “but I thought when we needed him in key moments of that game, he did a real nice job. And his demeanor and calmness through that game I thought looked real good.”
Deep Blue – For most of this season, the Capitals have rotated a trio of defensemen – Declan Chisholm, Dylan McIlrath and Trevor van Riemsdyk in their six slot on the back end. But for the first time this season, the Caps needed all three of those blueliners to suit up for them in Seattle last Tuesday, because they were missing both Matt Roy and Rasmus Sandin for that contest.
The game against the Kraken didn’t go well; the Caps fell 5-1. But with Chisholm, McIlrath and van Riemsdyk again in the lineup together on Saturday against Carolina, the Caps were able to spark a comeback from a three-goal deficit in a 4-3 overtime victory.
“I think they deserve credit for giving us really solid, strong minutes in both of those performances in those games,” says Carbery, “because there's a real challenge to coming in and out, not getting a consistent string of games, having to come in and perform at your highest level when you maybe haven't been in the lineup for two or three games or even longer. That's not easy, and we've needed every bit of quality performances from our group, so we've needed them to step in and give us really good minutes. And I think they've done that.
“I think Chis and Mac and Reimer has even stepped his game up, I think, to another level over the over the past few [games]. That's where you have to rely on your depth, and that's why you go out and make a trade to acquire Declan Chisholm, and why you continue to have Mac inside of our team. Because inevitably, injuries and things are going to happen through the season, and you have to be able to rely on seven, eight defensemen, and the American Hockey League. And so, when you have guys that can perform at a high level, it's needed.”
Chisholm scored his first goal as a Capital last Thursday in Detroit, and it proved to be a big one in a 4-3 shootout victory. And van Riemsdyk has exceeded 18 minutes in two of his last three games, accounting for two of the five games in which he has exceeded the 18-minute mark this season.
Kudos as well to both of Washington’s big horses on the back end. John Carlson has logged upwards of 25 minutes in seven of the Caps’ last 11 games, including a contest in Edmonton on the recent road trip in which he skated 7:03 in shorthanded ice time, accounting for more than 80 percent of the Oilers’ time with the extra man that night.
And Jakob Chychrun has skated 24 or more minutes in each of the last four games while collecting a point in each (one goal, six assists) as well.
In The Nets – Two nights after notching his first career NHL victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, Stevenson gets a second straight starting assignment against the Islanders tonight. Neither Thompson nor Lindgren is ready to return to action quite yet, though the former is getting close and will be traveling with the team to Philadelphia after tonight’s game; the Caps face the Flyers in Philly on Tuesday night.
Stevenson will obviously be making his first career start against the Islanders.
Like the Caps, the Isles are starting a set of back-to-back games tonight. New York heads back home where it will host Pittsburgh on Tuesday, and the Isles are apparently saving No. 1 netminder Ilya Sorokin for the Penguins tomorrow, because veteran journeyman David Rittich is the starter for the Isles tonight.
The 33-year-old Rittich is in his first season with the Islanders, who are the sixth NHL team for which he has toiled across his 10-year career in the circuit. On the season, he is 12-7-3 – his third straight season with a double-digit win total – with a pair of shutouts, a 2.54 GAA and a .901 save pct.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Rittich is 0-2-0 in two appearances – both starts – with a 2.57 GAA and an .891 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and the Islanders might look on Monday night in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
72-Beauvillier, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
21-Protas, 34-Sourdif, 43-Wilson
9-Leonard, 26-Dowd, 53-Frank
22-Duhaime, 29-Lapierre, 15-Milano
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
47-Chisholm, 38-Sandin
Goaltenders
33-Stevenson
68-Bjorklund
Healthy Extras
52-McIlrath
87-Trineyev
Injured/Out
3-Roy (lower body)
24-McMichael (upper body)
48-Thompson (upper body)
79-Lindgren (undisclosed)
80-Dubois (abdomen)
NEW YORK
Forwards
29-Drouin, 13-Barzal, 11-Duclair
81-Palat, 14-Horvat, 51-Heineman
27-Lee, 44-Pageau, 10-Holmstrom
32-MacLean, 53-Cizikas, 16-Gatcomb
Defensemen
48-Schaefer, 6-Pulock
3-Pelech, 77-DeAngelo
4-Soucy, 24-Mayfield
Goalies
33-Rittich
30-Sorokin
Healthy Extras
34-A. Boqvist
49-Shabanov
Injured/Out
18-Engvall (ankle)
21-Palmieri (knee)
28-Romanov (upper body)
40-Varlamov (Knee)
64-Ritchie (lower body)
