Caps Host Habs on Saturday Night
Fresh from a successful two-game road trip, the Caps return home and put their six-game winning streak on the line against the Canadiens.
© Patrick McDermott
By
Mike Vogel
WashingtonCaps.com
A night after earning its sixth straight victory with a 4-3 shootout win over the Hurricanes in Raleigh, Washington returns home to host the Montreal Canadiens in the back end of a set of back-to-back games. The Canadiens are making their lone visit to Verizon Center this season, and the Caps are facing the Habs for the first of three times in 2016-17.
On Friday in Carolina, the Caps prevailed in a fast-paced, entertaining and back-and-forth affair that featured a trio of lead changes. During their two-game road trip to face the New York Islanders and the Hurricanes this week, the Caps trailed both games by identical 1-0 scores after the first period, and they were all even 2-2 after 40 minutes in both contests.
But while the Caps scored early in the third to take a 3-2 lead en route to a 4-2 win over the Islanders in Brooklyn on Tuesday, Washington surrendered a goal in the first minute of the third period to fall down 3-2 on Friday against the Canes.
T.J. Oshie tied the game for Washington with 6:04 remaining in the third period, deflecting a Dmitry Orlov point shot past Carolina goaltender Cam Ward to make it a 3-3 game. Caps goaltender Philipp Grubauer was at his best in overtime, and he was flawless in the shootout. Grubauer made 27 saves - including five in the extra session - to earn his third straight victory and his fifth of the season.
As has been the case during the life of Washington's current winning streak, special teams played a big part in Friday's win. The Caps scored one power-play goal, and they gave one up, but they had just two extra-man opportunities compared to half a dozen for the Hurricanes. The Capitals' penalty killing outfit has faced five or more power plays in six of 30 games this season, but they've done so in three of their last four games, and in three of Grubauer's last five starts.
"We started really good, I thought," says Grubauer of Friday's game. "And then we ran into some penalty trouble. That's not how we want to play; we don't want to spend the whole game basically in the box.
"We did a good job of fighting back and tying it up, and then we got some great chances there [in overtime]. But it was really good. We've got to stay out of the box. We can't keep playing games with the box here."
Washington is 4-2 this season in games in which it faces five or more penalty killing situations. Included in Friday's six shorthanded situations was a two-man disadvantage of 38 seconds in length. Although they lost both face-offs to the Canes during that stretch, the Caps got a huge Grubauer save on a Justin Faulk one-timer, and they were more aggressive than you'd expect from a team down two men. Washington was able to kill off its first two-man disadvantage of the season.
The Capitals' six-game winning streak is their longest since a nine-game streak from Dec. 12-30 of last year. Unfortunately for Washington, their current streak is merely the third longest in the Metropolitan Division. Philadelphia owns a 10-game winning streak, and Columbus earned its eight straight win on Friday in Calgary.
"I think more important than the six games - we want the points," says Oshie of the team's winning run. "We can see the standings; they're posted up in the [locker] room. But we're working on our game right now. We had a tough start, and we're building our identity each night. I think the points are following because we're playing some good hockey. We want to continue that and the points I think will follow."
Despite owning the NHL's third-best record in terms of points pct. (.707), the Caps are tied for fourth place in the Metro heading into Saturday's busy slate of NHL activity.
For the second straight season in 2016-17, the Canadiens roared out to a colossally good start. The Habs earned at least a point in each of their first 10 games this season (9-0-1) and have only gone consecutive games without a point once thus far in 2016-17. Coming off a 4-2 loss on home ice on Friday against the San Jose Sharks, the Canadiens will be seeking to avoid that fate again on Saturday when they visit the District.
Montreal started last season with nine straight victories, and the Habs were 17-4-2 when they lost goaltender Carey Price to a knee injury that kept him out for the remainder of the season. The Habs went into a tailspin thereafter, and they ended up missing the playoffs.
Price started Friday's game against the Sharks, and the Capitals were expected to face backup goaltender Al Montoya on Saturday night in Washington. But the Sharks reached Price for four goals on 18 shots, leading Montreal coach Michel Therrien to pull Price in favor of Montoya, who shut the door the rest of the way in a losing effort.
After the game, Therrien told reporters that Price would get the start on Saturday against the Capitals.
Montreal has been bothered by a spate of injuries lately. Within the last two weeks, the Canadiens have lost forwards Alex Galchenyuk (knee), David Desharnais (knee) and Andrew Shaw (concussion-like symptoms) and defenseman Greg Pateryn (fractured ankle). The Habs are still holding their own in light of the injury woes; they've picked up points in five of six games (3-1-2) with Friday's loss to the Sharks being the lone exception.
