For the Washington Capitals, Week 9 was equal parts historic with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom hitting milestones for goals and points, and stomach-churning with Capitals Nation awaiting the fate of Tom Wilson after a questionable hit on an opponent. Week 10 gives the Caps a chance to do that whole team-bonding thing that road trips are for with a three-game out-of-town slate on the schedule. One hopes that the Caps don’t come up “short” on this trip.
The Opponents
Vegas Golden Knights. The Caps start their week’s work with a trip to the desert southwest to the scene of the greatest triumph in franchise history. On Tuesday the Caps visit T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada to take on the Vegas Golden Knights. The last time the Caps played in this arena was “paradise,” indeed, the Caps beating the Golden Knights, 4-3, to clinch their first Stanley Cup in team history.
It is a new season, though, but both teams are playing in a way consistent with how they did for much of last season. The Caps went into Sunday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks on a seven-game winning streak, while the Golden Knights were waiting on the Caps as winners of five of their previous six games, losing to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday to end a five-game winning streak of their own. This contest will end the regular season series between the teams, the Caps winning the first game in Washington, 5-2, on October 10th.
Apparently, a 7-2 pasting at the hands of the Calgary Flames on November 19th was a wake-up call for the Golden Knights. That loss left Vegas with a 9-12-1 record, seventh in the Pacific Division at the time and in 13th place in the Western Conference, well off a playoff pace. They started turning things around with a 3-2 overtime win over the Arizona Coyotes and then turned things over to goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who got getting the call in both ends of back-to-back games, pitching shutouts in a rematch against the Flames and against the San Jose Sharks to put the Knights back on a winning path. As it is, Vegas has outscored opponents, 24-10, on their 5-1-0 run of late and have killed 14 of 15 shorthanded situations (93.3 percent). That penalty kill has been especially adept at scoring shorthanded, the Golden Knights ranking third overall in shorthanded goals scored through Saturday’s games (five).
Arizona Coyotes. And that brings us to the Caps’ second opponent for the week. They visit the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday to wrap up that season series (Arizona won in Washington, 4-1, on November 11th). The Coyotes are once more struggling to be competitive in the standings, sixth in the Pacific Division and 11th in the Western Conference heading into Week 10. However, there are two hopeful signs for the Coyotes. First, they are winners of three in a row heading into the new week, their longest winning streak since they put together a five-game winning streak to close October and open November. Second, this is the most dangerous team in the league when shorthanded. The Coyotes lead the league in shorthanded goals (10). Only one team in the league has fewer power play goals than shorthanded goals, and that is the bad news for this club. Arizona has only eight power play goals this season, leaving them as the only club in the league with a positive shorthanded-to-power play goal differential (plus-2). Two of those eight power play goals came against the Caps in their first meeting this season.
Columbus Blue Jackets. The Caps close the week with a visit to Columbus on Saturday to face the Blue Jackets. This will be the Caps’ first visit to Ohio since they clinched the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the Blue Jackets, 6-3, winning the series in six games after dropping the first two at Capital One Arena. Columbus, the team that seems to have a knack for hanging around in the standings (one point behind the Caps for the division lead as the week opens), has not been a particularly successful club on home ice overall. The 12 games they played on home ice through nine weeks is fewer than any club in the Eastern Conference and fewer than any club except Colorado and Vegas (each with 11 after nine weeks), but they have only 15 standings points earned on home ice with a 7-4-1 record, tied for 20th in home standings points earned. That seems to be changing, though. After going 2-3-0 in their first five games on home ice this season, Columbus is 5-1-1 in their last seven games at Nationwide Arena. They have done it by pounding their opponents with goals. In all six games in which they earned points, the Blue Jackets scored four or more goals. The odd part of the offensive barrage is how little of it reflects power play production. Columbus is only 3-for-18 in those seven games on home ice (16.7 percent). The odd part of the power play is that the goals scored (three) equal the number of shorthanded goals scored by the Blue Jackets in those seven home games.
Hot Caps…
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Potential Milestones to Reach This Week…