#CapsYotes Skate Shavings: Middle Match

Washington plays the second game of its three-game, pre-holiday trip out west on Friday night in Glendale when it takes on the Arizona Coyotes, finishing off the season's series between the two teams. The Caps downed the Desert Dogs 3-2 in overtime on Nov. 6 at Capital One Arena in the first meeting between the two teams this season.

After falling down 2-0 before the first period was even 10 minutes old in that game in Washington last month, the Caps pulled it together and pulled even at 2-2 in the second period. After a scoreless third, Caps defenseman John Carlson scored in the final minute of overtime to lift Washington to its third straight victory.

Desert Doldrums - It's been nearly a dozen years since Caps captain Alex Ovechkin scored "The Goal" here in Glendale. That goal came on Jan. 16, 2006, about halfway through Ovechkin's rookie season in the NHL. Washington won that game by a 6-1 count.

Since then though, the Caps have struggled mightily here in the desert, regardless of the quality of the two teams in any given season. Washington has won only one of its last six visits here (1-4-1), and it needed an overtime goal from Eric Fehr to eke out a 2-1 victory in the extra session in its only win over that span, on Nov. 18, 2014.

Seconds Of Displeasure -Washington has won four straight and eight of its last nine games, but the Caps are seeking to shore up an issue that has been bothersome at times this season, and that is the team's play in the middle period of games.

Washington has spent most of the middle period of the game in its own end of the ice in two of its last three games - at Boston and at Dallas - and only a timely Caps goal in each of those two games prevented the opposition from completely seizing control of the game's momentum.

"We've been having pretty good starts," says Caps right wing T.J. Oshie. "And then it's almost like we play well, we get a lot of momentum, and then we want to make it hard on ourselves. It seems like we play our best hockey when we are either coming from behind or when we have a little bit of adversity.

"That's something that we've got to get out of our game. First and foremost, once we have a good start - whether we're up on the scoreboard or not - we've got to find a way to put a full 60 minutes together and use that momentum, and finish teams early."

Bookend Back-to-Backs - Washington is less than 48 hours away from the start of its three-day holiday break, but it must play two road games just 22 hours apart before it can dial back into rest and relaxation mode.

The Caps - along with the Coyotes and the Montreal Canadiens - are one of only three NHL teams that must play back-to-back games going into and coming out of the holiday break. The Caps will play the Rangers in New York on Dec. 27 and they'll host the Boston Bruins the following night at Capital One Arena.

"The mentality has to be on shift-to-shift basis," says Oshie. "We can't start getting ahead of ourselves. Christmas is a great time, and we've got a lot of guys here with kids - a lot of young kids, and maybe a couple of first Christmases. It's important to not get ahead of ourselves and to take care of business.

"With these four games - these two especially [before the break] to start - we can really make a jump. Whether people win or lose below us or above us, for us as a team, we can make a nice big jump here to try to get two wins here before the break.

The Caps are starting off their seventh set of back-to-back games. They're 5-1-0 on the front half and 2-4-0 on the back half of those contests thus far this season. Washington has swept one set of back-to-backs, doing so late last month with a home ice win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 24 followed by a road victory over the Maple Leafs in Toronto a night later.

"I think we put it on the group," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "We know where we are. You pick up the paper and you look at the standings or whatever, you know where you are every game, with every potential two points that are out there.

"We're going to have to maximize our lineup as much as we can, and do what we did in Dallas, where we went with a four-line approach. In terms of goaltending, we're going to split our goaltending. If someone gets nicked up, we put a fresh guy in and go at it.

"You've got to play structured through the holidays. We'll have one practice in five games, really, so a lot of bad habits can creep in. But hopefully we're in a good place and we can fight through t. I think we understand the importance of every game."

In The Nets -Philipp Grubauer gets the call in goal tonight for Washington against Arizona, and Braden Holtby will be in the net for Saturday's game against Vegas, the Caps ' second game in as many nights.

Grubauer has been idle since Dec. 11 when he spun 35 minutes of shutout hockey, stopping all 17 shots he faced. Grubauer has won each of his last two starts, and they're his only victories of the season to date.

Grubauer has stopped 66 of the 68 shots he has faced in his last three outings, posting a 0.77 GAA and a .971 save pct. over the course of that stretch.

For Arizona, which will also play again on Saturday night when it hosts Colorado in the finale of a five-game homestand, Scott Wedgewood gets the nod in goal tonight against the Capitals. On the season, Wedgewood is 3-6-3 with a shutout, a 2.98 GAA and a .909 save pct. in 13 appearances.

Lifetime against the Caps, Wedgewood is winless at 0-0-2 in two starts, but he played very well in both games, posting a combined 1.90 GAA and a .939 save pct. John Carlson has beaten Wedgewood in overtime of both of his career starts against the Caps, doing so most recently on Nov. 6 in Washington.

All Lined Up -Here's how we expect the Caps to look when they take to the ice on Friday night against the Coyotes at Gila River Arena:

WASHINGTONForwards

8-Ovechkin, 19-Backstrom, 43-Wilson

13-Vrana, 92-Kuznetsov, 77-Oshie

65-Burakovsky, 20-Eller, 10-Connolly

18-Stephenson, 83-Beagle, 39-Chiasson

Defensemen

44-Orpik, 74-Carlson

9-Orlov, 2-Niskanen

29-Djoos, 4-Chorney

Goaltenders

31-Grubauer

70-Holtby

Scratches

22-Bowey

Injured

None

ARIZONAForwards

11-Perlini, 21-Stepan, 8-Rieder

9-Keller, 16-Domi, 36-Fischer

34-Rinaldo, 18-Dvorak, 38-Merkley

45-Archibald, 15-Richardson, 25-Cousins

Defensemen

23-Ekman-Larsson, 55-Demers

6-Chychrun, 33-Goligoski

44-Connauton, 2-Schenn

Goaltenders

31-Wedgewood

32-Raanta

Scratches

10-Duclair

39-Hanley

48-Martinook

Injuries

4-Hjalmarsson (upper body)