March 18 vs. Detroit Red Wings at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7
Detroit Red Wings (32-29-6)
Washington Capitals (44-15-8)
Back from a weeklong, three-game tour of California, the Caps open their final multi-game homestand of 2024-25 on Tuesday against Detroit. Tuesday’s tilt with the Red Wings is the first of a three-game homestand this week. Once this homestand is finished, the Caps will have four remaining home games, all of them single games.
Washington took two of three games in the Golden State, prevailing in the opener in Anaheim and the finale in San Jose, and getting blanked in the middle match in Los Angeles. This week’s homestand sends the Caps into their final 15 regular season games of ’24-25; they’ll play their final regular season game a month from now – on April 17 in Pittsburgh – and the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs open two days later.
The Caps returned from California in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and enjoyed the rest of the day off before reconvening for Monday’s practice session at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. Forwards Dylan Strome and Ethen Frank were absent because of illness; Strome’s streak of 186 consecutive games played is the longest active run among all Washington skaters.
The Caps head into the final month of the season with a 10-point lead in the Metro Division standings, a vastly different place from where they were last season at this time. Without any serious backpressure on them in the standings, they’re aiming to maintain a consistently high level of playing and competing, shift in and shift out over the season's. And the three opponents coming in on the homestand should help keep the compete levels elevated; Philadelphia and Florida follow the Wings into the District later in the week.
“I think our goal is to continue to build on the consistency of our team night in and night out,” says Caps center Nic Dowd, “so when we get to playoffs, we have faced every situation we could think of, we're playing our best hockey, our special teams are dialed in, our goalies are feeling good about themselves. And I think we continue to work towards getting to be a better team every day.
“It’s such a long season, and I think we have a veteran enough group to understand this. Even if you just take baby steps every day – every day – and whether it's a practice or a game, by the end of the year, you're going to be light years ahead of where you were at the start of the year, and you're going to give yourself the best chance to succeed. And I think that's what we're looking for on a nightly basis.”
Even with a recent three-game hiccup – their only one of the campaign to date – the Caps are 8-4-1 since returning from the NHL’s midseason break for the 4 Nations Face-Off. Those three losses came in the middle of a recent five-game homestand. As they head into the season’s final month and this homestand, the Caps are mindful of shoring up some areas of their home game that may have sagged a bit lately.
“I think we're just approaching it trying to stay as short-term focused as we can,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We're looking at this little block as a good opportunity to play three home games. We've got seven left, so it’s the largest chunk that we'll play, and a good opportunity for us to get back on home ice, build on some things we did on the road, but also fix some things that haven't been necessarily great at home of late. And that's something that's going to be really important coming down the stretch.
“We've been a good home team, so that hasn't been an issue all year long. But as of late, it just leaves a little bit to be desired from starts and games. Just the overall body of work at home, of being a difficult place to play and our team making sure that visiting teams, no matter the team, no matter what situation that team is in, the opponent walks out of that game and gets on the bus and feels like they just played a really, really difficult opponent that made it really hard in every area of the game.
And so that's, I think, what we're looking at right here. We play three good teams, so we’re trying to build on some of those things and be a hard team to play against.”
Detroit is making its second trip into town this month; the Wings were here for a Friday night battle with the Caps on March 7. Detroit led that game 2-1 heading into the third period and the Wings went into the final frame of that contest on a carryover power play, but the Caps erupted for four goals – two of them shorthanded – in the front side of the final period to skate off with a 5-2 victory.
Tuesday’s game is the rubber match of the three-game season’s series for the long ago – think mid-1970s – Norris Division rivals. The Wings won the only game played in Motown this season, taking a 4-2 victory over the Capitals on Dec. 29.
The Wings arrive in DC with just four wins in a dozen games (4-7-1) since returning from the 4 Nations break. The Caps handed the Wings their fifth consecutive setback here on March 7, and that slide stretched to six when the Wings fell in Ottawa in their next game. The Wings were outscored by a combined 23-11 during the life of their six-game losing streak.
With newly reacquired netminder Petr Mrazek taking over the crease chores, Detroit has won two of its last three games to snap that prolonged slide. Most recently, Mrazek stopped all 18 shots he faced on Sunday afternoon in authoring his first shutout of the season, a 3-0 whitewash of the Vegas Golden Knights in Motown.
Seeking to avoid what would be a ninth straight season outside the playoff picture, the Wings arrive in DC in 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings. Although they trail the eighth-place Rangers by two points, the Wings are one of half a dozen teams clustered within four points of the Blueshirts going into Monday night's slate of NHL activity.
