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Snapshots of the Week Ahead for the Capitals

It is “getaway week” for the Washington Capitals, a week of light work that will end on Wednesday night before the team heads into the All-Star Game break and a bye. For a club that seems to be fighting off sluggish play of late, the break comes at a good time, but there remains work to be done before heading out of town.

The Opponents

San Jose Sharks (Tuesday/7:00). A team in a slump might not want to face a team that has given it fits over the year, but this is what the Caps face to open the week. The San Jose Sharks are among the most frustrating teams the Caps have faced over the years in their history. Washington brings a 13-24-3 all-time record (with one tie) against the Sharks into this contest, a 7-11-3 record on home ice.

The Caps do have a bit of momentum going into this game in the all-time series context, though. Washington has won the last two meetings of these teams, a 4-1 win at Capital One Arena in December 2017 and a 2-0 win in San Jose last March. Those are the first consecutive wins for the Caps against the Sharks since the Caps won the first five meetings of the teams in this series from February 1992 to October 1993.

San Jose was one of the hottest clubs in the league since the calendar flipped to 2019. They won their first seven decisions in the new year, outscoring opponents by a 32-14 margin, holding the last six opponents in that streak to two or fewer goals. They were the only team in the league to go undefeated in that two week period, and their special teams were quite special – third in power play efficiency (29.4 percent) and tied for eighth in penalty killing (88.2 percent). However, the Sharks blew a tire in their last two contests, dropping identical 6-3 decisions on the road to the Arizona Coyotes and the Tampa Bay Lightning. San Jose will continue their four-game road trip in Florida against the Panthers on Monday night before visiting Washington the following night to wrap up their road trip.

Toronto Maple Leafs (Wednesday/7:30). The Caps wrap up the pre-All-Star Game portion of their season on Wednesday night with a visit to Scotiabank Arena to face the Toronto Maple Leafs. This will be the first of two regular season visits to Toronto this season, the Caps already having lost the lone contest at Capital One Arena, 4-2, back on October 13th

Washington has had consistent success against this team, going 12-4-1 in their last 17 contests against Toronto dating back to April 2013 and, perhaps most important, avoiding consecutive losses over that span. The Caps will be looking to avoid that fate in this game.

The Leafs have been an inconsistent lot of late. After posting a five-game winning streak in late December, they are 3-7-0 in their last ten games going into the new week. A team that is the latest poster squad of the “run-and-gun” school of offense, scoring has become an issue for this club. In their ten-game skid, Toronto had recorded two or fewer goals five times and been shut out twice. 

For Toronto, it matters. This is a team that has not lost a game in regulation this season when scoring four or more goals, the only blemish on their 25-0-1 record in such games being a 5-4 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings on December 6th. On the other hand, this is not a team that grinds out low scoring games. They have yet to win a game in regulation this season when scoring two or fewer goals. The lone bright spot on their 1-13-0 record in such games is a 2-1 overtime win over the Anaheim Ducks on November 16th.

Hot Caps…

On a club that scored three goals in three games last week (pending the results against Chicago on Sunday afternoon), “hot” is a relative matter. However:

Cold Caps…

Weird Facts…

Potential Milestones to Reach This Week…

Hey… a Caps fan can dream.

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