"The first period, they had some really good looks. And then after that, I thought our team game settled in over the last two periods and I didn't think they had a whole heck of a lot."
For both Holtby and Trotz, it was their first game with Washington during the preseason. Both just returned to the District after helping Team Canada finish off Team Europe in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey on Thursday in Toronto.
The Islanders dressed a group of young players, most of whom are almost certain to start the season playing in Bridgeport, home of the Isles' AHL affiliate. The Isles took three minor penalties in each of the three periods, and Washington was able to get power-play goals from Nate Schmidt and Lars Eller, going 2-for-9 with the extra man on the evening.
A turnover deep in the Washington zone put Holtby in position to make a tough stop before the game was even 10 seconds old, but he did so, thwarting New York's Anthony Beauvillier from point blank range.
Washington went on the power play in the game's first minute, but the Caps' extra-man unit wasn't able to get an early jump on the Isles.
The Caps lost two players to injury in the first. Forward Marcus Johansson departed with a lower body injury, followed soon after by defenseman Madison Bowey, who left with an upper body ailment. Neither injury is believed to be serious, but Trotz said he would know more after the team returns home and the players are examined by team doctors.
The Capitals ran into some penalty trouble of their own later on in the frame when Riley Barber was sent off for boarding and Tyler Lewington was jailed for hooking just 26 seconds later. Caps goaltender Braden Holtby was solid, making a few key stops during New York's two-man advantage, and a timely Brad Malone blocked shot also helped Washington navigate its way through those choppy waters.
Just before the Caps were able to complete that kill, New York's Tanner Fritz committed an offensive-zone crosschecking offense on Washington defenseman Christian Djoos. The Capitals took advantage of the opportunity to take their first lead of the preseason.
A give-and-go between Justin Williams and Chandler Stephenson nearly broke the seal on the scoresheet, but the latter didn't get enough on his shot to beat Isles' goalie JF Berube. Seconds later, Schmidt's center point blast was plenty hard enough to get behind Berube, staking the Caps to a 1-0 lead at 13:54 of the first.
Schmidt hasn't seen much power play time in the NHL, but he was a staple on the extra-man unit in college and in the minors.
"It's good to get out there," he says, of netting a power-play goal. "I've had a lot of opportunities to watch and see that unit first-hand for a long time, so it's fun when you get to go out there and execute things that we practice on or things that I kill a lot during practice. But it's just fun being back out there and doing things I haven't done in a while. It's just what [associate coach] Todd [Reirden] says, building the brand and knowing the importance of being well-rounded and having an opportunity to get that back in my game."
The second period featured more power play chances on both sides. The Caps had a stretch of sustained offensive-zone dominance in the middle of the period, but Berube stopped everything sent in his direction. The Isles turned the tables on Washington late in the middle period, but Holtby was the equal of every New York shot.
New York drew even at 3:50 of the third when Anders Lee chipped the rebound of a Ryan Pulock right point shot over Holtby. But the Isles kept getting in their own way by taking penalties, and the Caps soon regained the lead.
Eller scored what proved to be the winning goal at 10:34 of the third, one-timing a cross-ice feed from Williams past Berube from the right circle.
Holtby made one of his better stops of the game on Matthew Barzal's deft mid-air deflection bid with 5:12 left, and Washington was able to finish off the win from there.
"It was different, obviously," says Holtby of his first action in three weeks. "It was a good challenge off the start, a lot of power play time for us. Usually those are the toughest mental games for goaltenders, so it was good. There were a couple of times I was not quite sharp and had to bring myself back in, but it went pretty well."
Back In The Saddle - With goaltender Braden Holtby and coach Barry Trotz both back in the fold after helping Team Canada to a championship in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, the Capitals earned their first win in three preseason games on Saturday night over the New York Islanders in Bridgeport, Conn.
Holtby made 24 saves and Washington scored a pair of power-play goals to down the Islanders, 2-1.
Nate Schmidt's power-play goal in the first staked Washington to its first lead of the preseason, and Lars Eller's extra-man tally in the third put the Caps back on top to stay.
Seeing his first live action in three weeks, Holtby was strong in goal. He was able to wall off the Islanders during a five-on-three power play of 94 seconds in duration in the first period.
"The first period they got some good looks and some shots from in tight, which is good," says Holtby. "That's what you want, coming back into the season is to get some plays like that, five-on-three especially. Your movement and everything has to be good, and a couple of times I was a little sloppy, but better than expected I guess."
Holtby might have seemed sloppy to his own exacting standards, but that's not the view others had of his performance.
Playing in front of Holtby for the first time, newly acquired Caps center Eller offered this postgame assessment:
"I knew he was good, but I didn't know he was that good. He was really good tonight. We couldn't have asked more from him, he looked very sharp."
Schmidt was also effusive in his postgame praise of Holtby.
"I think we had some guys step up and play really well tonight," says Schmidt. "Holts - it's great to have Holts back. Especially on the five-on-three, he makes a couple of big saves and that's the reason why he was where he was last year, and the reason why we were where we were last year. He's our guy who has been the backstop for us. We had kind of a young group on [defense] besides Brooksy, and we had a lot of guys who were seeing a team that was pressing pretty hard, and I thought we handled it pretty well tonight."
Upon finishing his tour of duty with Team Canada, Holtby could have taken as many as three days off. Instead, he was back on the ice and playing in a road preseason game in a minor league building.
"I think in his situation, it tells you a lot about Braden Holtby," says Trotz. "He was in the same position I was, coming in [from the World Cup] and he wanted to play. He didn't get in a lot of games at the World Cup.
"I thought he was outstanding, especially early."
Short Bench - Washington suffered a pair of first period injuries that left it with 11 forwards and five defensemen for most of the game. Forward Marcus Johansson left the game with a lower body injury very early in the first period, and defenseman Madison Bowey departed for the night with an upper body injury soon afterwards.
Paul Carey moved up to play in Johansson's spot on the top line alongside Eller and Justin Williams, and Carey acquitted himself nicely in his second preseason game this fall.
Rookie defensemen Tyler Lewington and Christian Djoos played more minutes, and the blueline pairs were jumbled for most of the night, giving players a chance to play with a variety of partners.
"I thought they were really good," says Trotz of the two young defensemen. "The development of those two young players - especially from last year to where they are right now - has been tremendous.
"Lewie is sort of a meat and potatoes [player]. You love him because he's a hard-nosed kid who's not afraid of anything. And young Djoos is maybe a little bit undersized, and he has continued to put on some weight and strength, but his hockey IQ is exceptional and I really love the way he plays.
"Both of those kids getting high minutes tonight and I thought Brooks Orpik back there, he is always great with the kids. He was really good. I thought we had some guys step up. I got a first chance to see a guy like Lars Eller on our bench rather than looking across and [seeing him], and Brett Connolly. I thought Paul Carey, coming back from the surgery he had last year, I thought he has played very, very well. A lot of guys showed well. Liam O'Brien, Brad Malone - who I knew from across another bench - I thought all those guys dug in. I'm missing a few guys that played quite well, but I thought our team game came around in the second and third [periods]."
The injuries to Johansson and Bowey are not believed to be serious.
"We had a couple guys get nicked up," says Trotz, "and at this time of training camp if a guy gets nicked up, you don't force the issue. Both guys that went out pretty early - one's an upper body [injury] and one's a lower body - are [for] precautionary [reasons]. We'll see where they are [Sunday] when we get back and our doctors look at them. I'll probably have a better update or a better idea for you."
Powering Up -Washington went 2-for-9 on the power play in Saturday's game, and the Caps are now 4-for-21 (19%) on the power play in the preseason. They've had at least half a dozen extra man chances in each of their three exhibition contests to date.
"There were definitely a lot of penalties," says Eller. "We got to work on our power play a lot, which was really good. I think we were happy with what we got out of the game tonight."
Washington's four power-play goals this fall have come from four different players, Zach Sanford, Bowey, Schmidt and Eller.
