The Washington Capitals close out the January portion of their schedule with a three-game slate against teams visiting out of the west, each of them holding an edge in their respective all-time regular season series against the Caps.
The Opponents
Vegas Golden Knights (Monday/7:00pm — Capital One Arena)
The Caps and Golden Knights will forever be linked by their meeting in the Stanley Cup finals in 2018. The Caps won that series in five games, but they are just 2-4-0 against the Golden Knights in their all-time regular season series as the Golden Knights prepare to arrive in Washington for a Monday night matchup.
As for the current edition of the Golden Knights, they followed up a 10-3-0 December by going just 2-3-2 in January thus far, all of those games played on home ice, part of what was an eight-game home stand. Their visit to Washington on Monday will be their first road contest of the month, the first of a four-game road trip to close January.
Vegas has not been on the road much this season –16 games (tied for fewest in the league with Boston) – but they have been successful when traveling. With an 11-5-0 road record, their .688 points percentage ranks third in the league, behind only Carolina (14-5-1/.725) and Pittsburgh (14-5-3/.705). Vegas has done it with overpowering offense, their 3.69 goals per game ranked second in the league in road games. And a big part of that is their third-ranked road power play (27.8 percent).
The Golden Knights penalty kill is among the stranger creatures in the NHL this season. Their overall penalty kill on the road is poor – 73.8 percent (28th in the league) – but their net penalty kill of 85.7 percent is sixth-best in the league. The difference is accounted for by a league-leading five shorthanded goals scored on the road, made more remarkable by the fact that they have done it playing in just those 16 road games to date. If there is an odd aspect to this, it is that Vegas does have a two-shorthanded goal game this season, a game that they lost to Anaheim, 6-5, on December 1st, the only game they lost this season when scoring one or more shorthanded goals.
San Jose Sharks (Wednesday/7:00pm – Capital One Arena)
In the middle game of the week, the Caps host the San Jose Sharks, who have been meandering around winning streaks that don’t amount to much and losing streaks that, well, do the same. Since November 22nd, when the Sharks were 8-8-1, they are 13-11-1, but embedded in that record is a pair of three-game winning streaks and five instances of losing a pair of games in succession. It has not been so cut-and-dried for the Sharks on the road, either. They are not very good, but neither are they very bad. They are 10-10-0 in 20 road games, that .500 points percentage tied for 16th in the league.
As one might expect with that record, their scoring offense on the road is rather ordinary (2.80 goals per game/17th in the league), but their scoring defense of 2.90 goals allowed per game is ninth-best in the league. That difference in rankings extends to special teams, where the Sharks’ road power play is unremarkable (15.6 percent/24th), while their penalty kill is quite good (83.7 percent/sixth). But another word about that Sharks power play on the road. They have seven goals (fifth fewest in the league) in 45 chances (sixth fewest) to date. But they have also allowed three shorthanded goals on their road power play, their power play goals scored to shorthanded goals allowed of 2.33:1 is fourth worst in the league. And, as far as the penalty kill is concerned, the best thing about it is the Sharks seldom having to endure it. Their 2.45 shorthanded situations faced per game on the road is second fewest in the league.
Scoring first in road games is another in those middle-of-the-road stats for San Jose. They have scored first ten times in 20 road games with a 7-3-0 record and allowed the first goal ten times with a 3-7-0 record. But they do hold late leads well. San Jose is 7-0-0 on the road when taking a lead into the third period.
Washington is 17-24-4 (one tie) in their all-time regular season series with the Sharks, 8-11-4 at home.
Dallas Stars (Friday/9:00pm (Eastern) – American Airlines Center)
The Caps close the week with the possibility of facing one of their playoff heroes for the first time. Braden Holtby, he of the 282 regular season wins with the Caps (second in team history), the 35 shutouts (tied with Olaf Kolzig for most in team history), the 50 playoff game wins (most in team history), the seven postseason shutouts (again, most in team history), and of course, a Stanley Cup. If he gets the call, it will be a chance for the Caps to face a once and perhaps future teammate, should the team follow through on their search for goaltending help.
But let’s hold off on that. As for the Stars, they have been pretty good of late, going 7-4-0 in their last 11 games overall, but more than that, they are almost unbeatable at home. Since opening the season with a 1-2-1 record at American Airlines Arena, they are 13-2-0 on home ice. Over that same span of games, since November 13th, only Colorado has a better winning percentage on home ice (13-0-0/1.000) than the Stars (13-2-0/,867). And it is not as if the Stars are playing on the margin, either. Nine of their 13 wins have come by multi-goal margins, eight of them by three or more goals.
Dallas is doing the right things right in assembling that home record. Over their 13-2-0 record at home since November 13th they have scored first 12 times, most in the league, and won on 11 occasions, also most in the league. They took a lead into the third period ten times, most in the league over that span, and were undefeated when doing so. Their power play at home during this stretch – 26.5 percent – ranks sixth in this span. All 18 skaters to appear in at least five home games in that stretch have at least one point, six are in double digits, and three have more than 20 (Joe Pavelski, Roope Hintz, and Jason Robertson).
If the Stars have a vulnerability at home (and this might not be the best news for Caps fans), it is their penalty kill. Even with their 13-2-0 record at home over their last 15 games, their 77.8 percent penalty kill ranks 20th in the league over that span. And for what it is worth, the Stars’ two losses in this stretch at home were punctuated by power play goals allowed.
This will be a tough matchup, but perhaps the Caps will benefit from this being the first home game for the Stars coming off a four-game road trip. The Caps are 33-48-4 (16 ties) in their all-time series against the Stars, including their years as the Minnesota North Stars, 16-26-1 (eight ties) in Dallas. The Caps are 4-3-3 in their last ten games against Dallas overall.
Hot Caps:
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Potential Milestones to Reach This Week (or soon):
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Nicklas Backstrom
John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov
Evgeny Kuznetsov
Tom Wilson
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T.J. Oshie
Nick Jensen
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