Caps Back to Work vs. Isles
After a rare four-day break at the end of the season's first quarter, the Caps are back to work when they host the New York Islanders on Thursday.
© Patrick McDermott
By
Mike Vogel
WashingtonCaps.com
After a rare four-day break at the end of November, the Capitals are back in action on Thursday night when they host the New York Islanders at Verizon Center. The game against the Isles starts a stretch in which Washington will play three of its next four contests at home.
Washington's most recent game was a 4-2 loss to the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday night, a game in which the score did not accurately reflect the degree to which the Capitals were outplayed. While schedule effects were a factor - the Caps were playing for the second time in as many nights, the third time in four nights and the ninth time in 16 nights - Washington turned in one of its poorest overall performances of the first quarter of the season, and yet it was still only a goal down after one and two goals down heading into the third period.
"After the first, we said that," says Caps forward Marcus Johansson. "We were just down one goal [after one]. It could have been worse, and we didn't play well at all, but we were still just down one goal, and to try to go out and get back to our own game and not fall into the game that they play. But [the Maple Leafs] were good, and we weren't. That's the bottom line, I think.
"We've just got to be better from the start. We didn't come out and play our own game from the start, and it took us too long to do that and that's not good enough."
With a 13-6-2 mark after 21 games, the Caps own the league's fourth-best record (in terms of points pct.) heading into Thursday's slate of NHL activity. That puts them on a firm early season pace, but the Caps believe they can and must be better.
"We're not happy with the way we've played," says Caps center Jay Beagle. "But in another sense, it's a work in progress, and we are working. There have been games that we've let go of, and it's something we're aware of and we're not happy with and we're not complacent with being where we are in the standings.
"We have a sense of urgency in this room already, and we're saying we need to be better and we need to start putting games together, a full 60 minutes at a good pace. We had two hard days of practice here on Monday and Wednesday, so we're just building our game and we're not going to be complacent with where we're at."
Saturday's loss to the Maple Leafs could have been worse. The Caps lost Matt Niskanen to an upper body injury in the third period in Toronto, and the defenseman did not practice with the team on Monday. He was back on the ice Wednesday, looking none the worse for wear.
"It was really good to get back out there," Niskanen says of Wednesday's practice. I don't really like missing time away from the team when the guys are on the ice, so it felt good to get back out there, and the body felt pretty good, too."
Niskanen seems likely to play on Thursday against the Isles. If he does, it will be his 186th consecutive game since joining the Capitals.
"I have to see him and talk to the trainers," says Caps coach Barry Trotz, referring to Niskanen. "But we didn't have any setbacks. So if everything continues on the path that it was [Wednesday], I would think there is a very good chance that he will play [Thursday]."
The Caps also made a trio of roster moves on Wednesday afternoon. The Caps sent rookie forward Zach Sanford to AHL Hershey and recalled forwards Paul Carey and Jakub Vrana from the same team. Carey has been up previously with the Caps this season, skating in one game with Washington. He has five goals and 14 points in 16 games with Hershey this season, and he has collected a point in 12 straight games.
Vrana, the Caps' first-round choice (13th overall) in the 2014 NHL Draft, is likely to make his NHL debut on Thursday against New York. He turned pro last season and helped Hershey to the Calder Cup final last spring.
During his AHL career, the 20-year-old Prague native has totaled 25 goals and 55 points in 57 games and he has added 10 goals and 20 points in 31 playoff contests. Vrana has nine goals and 16 points in 18 games with the Bears this season. In the equivalent of three-quarters of an AHL season, he has displayed a high level of AHL production relative to his age.
Vrana is tied for third in the AHL in goals and he leads the Bears in that department. Of the dozen players drafted ahead of him in the 2014 draft, nine have previously made their NHL debuts.
Washington faced the Isles in its home opener on Oct. 15, skating off with a 2-1 win. That victory is one of only two the Caps have earned in seven games (2-3-2) against Metropolitan Division foes this season.
"It's a good test for us," says Caps defenseman Nate Schmidt of the Islanders. "They're a team that's pretty desperate right now with the way that their game is going. Anytime you get a divisional rival and a big game such as this, it helps you get out of the last game we played where we weren't as sharp. It gets you mentally into it a lot faster than maybe a non-divisional game."
After a 5-2-1 October, the Capitals followed with an 8-4-1 mark in November. They'll play 14 games in December, and they're now early into a stretch in which they'll play only two sets of back-to-back games in 49 days. Washington just came out of a stretch in which it played three sets of back-to-back games over just 16 days.
"It's going to be a good test for us in this next segment here," says Schmidt. "This month of December is a big month for us. It's busy, but we've got to play a lot of our divisional opponents and a lot of the teams in the east, so we've got to make sure that we buckle down here."
New York comes to the District on the heels of Wednesday's uneven 5-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Brooklyn. In that contest, the Isles took a 3-0 lead for the first time this season, and they carried that advantage into the third period. The Pens scored three times in 13 minutes to tie it, but the Isles pulled it out with two goals - the second was an empty-netter - that came three seconds apart in the final half minute of regulation. Anders Lee's deflection from the top of the paint - his fourth goal in his last four games - proved to be the game-winner.
Back on Oct. 21-23, the Islanders won consecutive games. Those wins gave the Isles three wins in their last four at the time, and moved them to 3-3 on the season. Since then, New York has been unable to string together as many as two straight victories, something they'll have a chance to do on Thursday against the Capitals. The Islanders have won five of their last 16 games (5-7-4), tumbling to the Metro Division and Eastern Conference basements in the process.
The Isles have won only one of their first eight road games (1-6-1), eking out a shootout win over the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 22 in the opening game of a three-game California trip. The Isles went on to lose in Los Angeles and San Jose, respectively, before returning home and taking a 2-1 overtime decision from Calgary on Monday.
With Wednesday's win over the Pens, New York is 1-3-2 against Metropolitan Division opponents this season and they're 2-7-3 against fellow occupants of the Eastern Conference.
Back To Work - The Caps played nine games in 16 nights to close out the month of November, and they had the last four nights of that month off. On Thursday, the Caps are back to work when they host the New York Islanders at Verizon Center.
The Capitals will only have three days off for the holidays later this month, and the four-day break they just enjoyed will be as long as the league's All-Star break at the end of January.
"It's been great," says Caps defenseman Nate Schmidt. "You get to mentally relax yourself for a couple of days here and you get to be away from the rink a little bit. It helps, and I think it's going to help rejuvenate us a little bit more than usual. It's just one of those things where you get a couple of good practice days in here, and I think it will be really helpful."
Washington took Sunday and Tuesday off, and it practiced on Monday and Wednesday.
"We kind of needed this," says Schmidt, "to have a day off and have a couple of good practices and that way you can out there and get back to some of the roots that we have and things we can build on moving forward here."
Debut On Deck - Washington announced a trio of roster moves on Wednesday afternoon, sending forward Zach Sanford to AHL Hershey and recalling both Jakub Vrana and Paul Carey from the same club.
Sanford has played well in his first 19 NHL games, but had just a single assist to show for it. With Hershey playing three games in as many nights this weekend, there is an opportunity to get Sanford more ice time in more situations, and perhaps to get him some "stats," something Caps coach Barry Trotz believes might boost his confidence.
Vrana is Washington's first choice (13th overall) in the 2014 NHL Draft, and the 20-year-old Prague native will make his NHL debut tonight, skating on a line with Andre Burakovsky and Evgeny Kuznetsov. That means each of Washington's top six forwards is a Capitals' first-round draft choice (Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Marcus Johansson comprise the top line) and nine Washington first-rounders (including forward Tom Wilson and defensemen Karl Alzner and John Carlson) will account for half of the team's 18 skaters tonight against the Islanders.
Vrana has 25 goals and 55 points in 57 career AHL games, a prolific rate of production in that league at that age. He learned of his recall on Wednesday afternoon, when he was awakened from a post-practice nap with the good news.
"With [T.J. Oshie] out, I think putting Vrana in a situation where we can evaluate him [makes sense]," says Trotz. "He has played very well down there. He's obviously a high draft choice who has put up numbers down there, so it's a good time to look at him."
Trotz noted on Thursday that he wants to inject some speed into Washington's lineup, and that he may have inserted Carey into Thursday's lineup as well. But Carey fell ill on his way from Hershey to Washington and seems unlikely to play tonight.
"I was thinking about putting [Carey] in the lineup tonight as well," says Trotz of Carey. "He's been probably their most consistent player. They both have speed and I want to get quicker with our team, so all that being said, I think it was the right time to call both of those guys up."
Of the dozen players chosen ahead of Vrana in the 2014 draft, nine have already made their NHL debuts.
Back In The Saddle Again -After leaving Saturday's game against the Maple Leafs in Toronto because of a lower body injury, Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen also missed Monday's practice session. But he practiced with teammates on Wednesday and participated in Thursday's morning skate, so he should be good to go on Thursday against the Islanders.
Niskanen has played in 185 consecutive games since joining the Capitals at the start of the 2014-15 season, an notable run that is still less than half of defense partner Karl Alzner's current streak of 479 straight games.
"It takes a little bit of luck, and there are some other factors that go into it," notes Niskanen. "But it's not nearly as impressive as Karl's. I think it shows some durability in your ability to fight through some things and be in the lineup all the time. I do take pride in it. You're player, you want to play and make a difference and be on the ice with your team. Hopefully, I'll be good to go [Thursday]."
Find The Power - A quarter of the way into the season, Washington's power play ranks 19th in the NHL with a success rate of 15.6%. That's well south of what the Caps have been accustomed to getting from their extra-man unit over the last four seasons, and Washington's total of just seven goals at five-on-four is second fewest in the league (Arizona has six).
While Washington's power play came through with a critical "killer instinct" type of goal late in Friday's 3-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres, the same unit was unable to convert when needed a night later in Toronto. The Caps were down two goals to the Leafs in the second period, and three Washington power play chances - including 24 seconds worth of five-on-three time - failed to put a dent in the deficit. The Caps ultimately lost, 4-2.
"We need production from both of our power plays - they need to produce," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "To me, I keep going back to the same thing. It's a little bit of finish, a little bit of hunger. We're entering [the offensive zone] as well as we have. We have the possession time. We need to get the back of the net. How do you get to the back of the net? We've got to hit the net. We've got to be hungry when there is a second rebound.
"[Brett] Connolly scored one the other day [against Buffalo] because he was right there. But we need to create a little more traffic when the puck is coming in and we need to find those seconds."
After leading the NHL in power play prowess for three straight seasons, the Caps dipped to fifth in 2015-16, but still forged an impressive 21.9% rate on the season.
"I think where our power play has been outstanding in the past is it sets up and it executes and it does all that," says Trotz. "But when it's going really good, we score a lot of goals off those second and third quick strikes after that initial bomb at the net or a shot, and we haven't been able to do that as well I don't think. And some of that is we're not getting any seconds because we're not forcing the goalie to make any saves. Once we get the goalie to make some saves, then he gets scrambling round. As a defender around the net, when there are pucks bouncing around, it gets you on your heels and it gets you scrambling. And we make great scramble plays.
"[Oshie] is one of the best at retrievals and making that secondary play. We don't have him, but he's been part of the power play here since day one here. But our power play numbers have been inching up."
Trotz is right about the "inching up." Before going 0-for-4 against the Leafs with the extra man, the Caps had scored a power-play goal in three straight games for the first time this season. Heading into tonight's game, the Caps are 5-for-22 (22.7%) with the extra man in their last six games, a rate more in line with what they've achieved on the power play over the last four seasons.
In The Nets - Braden Holtby gets the net tonight for Washington as he takes a second crack at earning his 11th win of the season. Holtby is 8-3-0 in his last 11 starts with a shutout, a 2.09 GAA and a .925 save pct.
Lifetime against the Islanders, Holtby is 11-1-3 with a 2.15 GAA and a .930 save pct.
The Islanders played at home on Wednesday night, taking a 5-3 win from the Pittsburgh Penguins. New York has been carrying three goaltenders - Jaroslav Halak, Thomas Greiss and J-F Berube - all season. Greiss started and went the distance against the Penguins, so ex-Cap Halak would make sense as the likely starter on Thursday in Washington, but there has been no confirmation either way as of yet.
Halak has won only three of his 13 starts (3-6-4) on the season, and he has a 3.08 GAA and a .904 save pct. Lifetime against the Capitals in the regular season, he is 6-6-0 with a 2.73 GAA and an .897 save pct.
All Lined Up - Here's how we expect the Capitals to look when they take the ice tonight against the Islanders at Verizon Center and how the Isles looked on Wednesday night when they hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins in Brooklyn:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 19-Backstrom, 90-Johansson
65-Burakovsky, 92-Kuznetsov, 13-Vrana
10-Connolly, 20-Eller, 14-Williams
26-Winnik, 83-Beagle, 43-Wilson
Defensemen
9-Orlov, 74-Carlson
27-Alzner, 2-Niskanen
44-Orpik, 88-Schmidt
Goaltenders
70-Holtby
31-Grubauer
Injured
77-Oshie (upper body, week-to-week)
Scratches
4-Chorney
28-Carey
NEW YORK
Forwards
29-Nelson, 91-Tavares, 12-Bailey
16-Ladd, 18-Strome, 11-Prince
27-Lee, 53-Cizikas, 15-Clutterbuck
86-Kulemin, 72-Beauvillier 25-Chimera
Defensemen
2-Leddy, 55-Boychuck
14-Hickey, 3-Hamonic
44-deHaan, 42-Mayfield
Goaltenders
1-Greiss
30-Berube
Injured
4-Seidenberg (broken jaw)
84-Grabovski (concussion)
Scratches
10-Quine
41-Halak
50-Pelech
