Back to back – Washington is coming off the ninth set of a back-to-back against the Oilers tonight in Edmonton, entering the midway point of an eight-game homestand. Earlier this week, the Oilers lost to two Metro Division teams, New Jersey and Pittsburgh, and were in the same situation tonight as the Caps won back-to-back games after defeating the Flames in Calgary the night before.
But it’s doubtful the Devils or Penguins would have arrived at their Edmonton hotel at 3:30 a.m. on game day, like the Caps, who had trouble traveling Friday night.
“Once we get to the rink and start preparing for the Edmonton Oilers game, it’s another game, back-to-back games,” Caps coach Spencer Carberry said. “So it’s all the same thing that we stress back to back on the road.
“Will the travel cause any personal disruption to preparation or change in meeting times? That’s certainly what we experienced today. But once the players get to the rink, once the staff gets to the rink, it’s business as usual.”
Professional sports teams are at the mercy of weather and many other factors as they travel across continents during the season, which can cause problems, delays, and problems.
But as the Caps look to win back-to-back games for the first time since Dec. 2 and 3, they may take some solace in the fact that their last win came in back-to-back road games with travel issues the night before.
They did so on Dec. 3, when the Caps beat the Sharks 7-1 in San Jose, after arriving at their hotel at 3 a.m. for a 7 p.m. start that night.
Playing two games in as many nights as this is never easy, even without travel troubles, but playing against the high-octane Oilers inside their building certainly won’t be a picnic, especially considering they’re coming off two losses in their last two games here.
“When it was released in July, you probably went through our schedule and circled some of the toughest games in that 82-game schedule,” Carberry says. “Circle this game here. We know everything about them and how talented their team is and how successful their team was. And we put it together like this. [the knowledge that] It’s a big challenge to come here every year and play on the street in their building. And when you play them continuously with them resting, add one more step.
“And one last thing. They haven’t been doing very well lately and are very dissatisfied with how the last few games have played out. I’m sure Leon agrees.” [Draisaitl] Maybe tonight I’ll feel a little better than I did when traveling and hearing [Oilers coach] chris [Knoblauch] Please talk about that this morning.
“So, we understand the challenges, but at the same time, there’s no reason we can’t come here and play well and give them problems and play against the Edmonton Oilers in back-to-back games. So there will be no excuses for our group as to why we can’t play at a high level tonight. We’ve been in situations and we went to Montreal and played well, and in the exact same scenario, we’ve played in this building and played well before.”So our group has absolute optimism and positivity about how we’re going to play today and that’s what should be expected. ”
Pillar – The Caps, looking to get back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture in the final 30 games of the season, hope to rely on some of the elements that helped them so much in Friday night’s 3-1 win over the Flames in Calgary.
After the Flames doubled up on the Caps with shots on net in the first period and held Washington without a shot for more than 10 minutes, the Caps closed within 40 points in the final minutes of the game. Three factors emerged that helped the Caps earn the two points. Forecheck, power play and 5-on-5 defense.
All will be needed repeatedly and consistently over the remaining 30 games of the season.
First, do a forecheck. The winning goal came off a forecheck in the aftermath of Calgary’s icing violation. What made this match so special was that although Justin Sourdiff lost on the right dot draw, he and Tom Wilson greedily forechecked and won the ball, and within a dozen seconds they combined to set up Aliaksey Protas for the winning goal.
The play was similar to Sourdiff’s play in Washington’s 8-4 victory in Montreal on Nov. 20, and the flow of the game was varied. Sourdiff lost the game on a dot draw to the right after landing, but then chased down and recovered the puck, starting a long series of forechecks that led to a goal by Jakob Chychrun late in the second period, a much-needed turnaround for Washington.
“The hard thing about forechecking in this league and doing it consistently at a high level is every team is a good forecheck team, you’re talking about putting the puck in and putting it in, putting the puck back in. Consistency in doing that is important because you just do it over and over and over again.”
“The reality is you’re going to fail a lot on the forecheck. Teams are going to break your pressure. Good teams are going to break against you. So even if you fail, can you have the resilience to do it over and over again? And we know that over time, even if we do this 50 times in a row, we might only get 35 points back, but we’re going to control the play and play in the opponent’s half,” Linc said. ”
No points were scored on Washington’s power play in Friday’s game. However, the Caps were able to dominate in the offensive zone, moving the puck quickly and making several successful retrieves.
Throughout the extra man unit’s struggles early in the season, Carberry constantly pointed out how the unit needed to be net positive, whether scoring or not. It doesn’t take away from the team’s momentum and ideally helps promote 5-on-5 success. That’s what Friday night was like.
“I thought we did a good job early on of breaking down pressure and then attacking,” Carberry said. “So, [Ryan] Leonard walks downhill maybe three or four times. He’s a great looking place. It’s hard to score in a scenario like this, but it usually leads to a second or third puck off a rebound or spray. So I thought we did a good job of basically breaking their pressure and attacking right away. sieve from [Chychrun];bring it to the top. He had a lane and sifted it there and it went off the post. There are great opportunities out there. So I thought I had broken the pressure and didn’t wait. We attacked immediately. ”
Calgary’s only goal in Friday’s game came on a power play in the first period. After the first period, Washington limited the Flames to just eight shots on net at 5-on-5, and none in the 16-plus minutes leading up to the start of the second period.
When the Caps are stingy on defense, they usually succeed. Fifty-two games into the season, Washington has held opponents to two or fewer goals in 23 games this season, and when they do, they have an impressive 19-1-3 record.
But lately, the Caps have struggled to do so. They have only had five such games in their past 18 games (3-0-2), leaving them with an overall record of 6-10-2.
“[We were] “When you get the puck out of the zone, sometimes you want to use the middle, and other times you want to make a play and potentially get the puck back,” Carberry said. But sometimes the best secret to success is to move the puck as quickly as possible and not overcomplicate it. and that’s what you often saw [Friday] night. And that allows us to establish a forecheck. ”
In the Nets – Charlie Lindgren scored Washington’s goal for the eighth time in a nine-set stretch to reach the milestone this season. Lindgren has started the last five games and is aiming for his eighth win of the season with a record of 2 wins, 2 losses, and 1 draw.
His overall record against the Oilers is 3 wins, 1 loss, and 0 draws, with a GAA of 3.51 and a save percentage of 0.882. Appeared 4 times, started 4 times.
For the Oilers, Connor Ingram gets the nod in net. Edmonton currently has three goaltenders, and Ingram has been the most consistently effective member of that trio this season, posting a 5-3-1 record, 2.22 GAA, and .917 scoring average. It all starts with nine appearances.
Ingram has a 1-1-0 record against the Capitals with a 3.68 GAA and .878 save percentage. It all starts with three appearances.
It all comes down to – Here’s what the Caps and Oilers look like on Saturday night in Edmonton.
washington
forward
24-McMichael, 17-Strom, 9-Leonard
21-Protas, 34-Surdiv, 43-Wilson
8-Ovechkin, 26-Dowd, 53-Frank
22-Duhame, 29-Lapierre, 72-Beauvilliers
defense personnel
42-Fehevary, 74-Carlson
6-Chichurun, 3-Roy
38- Sandin, 57- van Riemsdyk
goaltender
48-Thompson
79-Lindgrain
healthy additions
15-Milan
47-Chisholm
52-Maquilas
injured/out
80-Dubois (abdomen)
edmonton
forward
93-Nugent-Hopkins, 97-McDavid, 18-Hyman
92-Podkolzin, 29-Dreisaitl, 28-Roslović
53-Howard, 10-Frederick, 22-Savoy
88-Mangiapane, 20-Lazar, 13-Jean Marc
defense personnel
14-Ekholm, 2-Bouchard
25-Nurse, 49-Emberson
96-Wollman, 24- Stastny
goalkeeper
35- Jarry
30-Picard
healthy additions
75-Regular
injured/out
19-Enrique (unreleased)
42-Kapanen (unpublished)