March 7 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 (30-26-6)
Washington Capitals (40-14-8)
Following a swift and successful journey to Manhattan where they earned a 3-2 overtime victory over the Rangers, the Caps are back at home on Friday night, opening a quick two-game homestand against the Detroit Red Wings. Friday’s visit from the Wings is the first of two from the Detroiters this month; they’ll be back at Capital One Arena on March 18 to close out the season’s series between the two clubs.
Friday’s game against the Wings and Sunday’s homestand finale against Seattle finishes up a home heavy stretch in which Washington plays seven of eight games on home ice. The Caps depart the District after facing Seattle; they’ll be on the road in California all next week.
Wednesday’s visit to Manhattan to face the Rangers turned out to be a honey of a hockey game before a lively sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden and a national television audience. The Caps took an early lead on a P-L Dubois goal at 1:04 of the first, but they found themselves down 2-1 before the midpoint of the second period.
Not to worry, kid. During a Washington power play midway through the third period, Alex Ovechkin pounced on and buried a loose puck in a spirited post-faceoff battle for possession. Ovechkin’s 32nd goal of the season tied the game at 2-2, shrinking the distance between himself (885 career NHL goals) and Wayne Gretzky (894) to single digits with 20 games remaining in the season.
“Our bench,” begins Caps winger Tom Wilson, “everyone kind of jumps through the roof whenever he finds the back of the net, which is fitting, because he is always the most excited guy on the ice when anybody else scores.
“It’s a lot of fun, what he’s doing right now. He’s a special leader; he’s a special guy. You can hear him in [the showers] all excited; he makes it a lot of fun to come to the rink. Whenever he scores, obviously everybody in the hockey world is pretty excited right now. And I’m pretty happy for him, proud of how he’s carrying himself and doing such a great job.”
Washington thoroughly stymied the Rangers’ attack in the third period, and in the final minute of overtime, Wilson won it for Washington with a back door tap in of a patient and sublime feed from Dylan Strome.
“[Strome] is a big-time player in those moments,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “And the play he makes today, Willie deserves credit for driving the net there, but Stromer creates that goal there, and he’s a big-time player. He loves those moments – loves the shootout, loves overtime, loves power play situations; he’s like, ‘Give me the puck.’ That’s the type of guy he is, and that was a big play. To have that poise in that moment – a lot of guys go down and shoot that or try to pass early – to hold onto that thing, and to make [New York defenseman Zac] Jones bite on that toe drag there, that’s a big, big play.”
The Caps seemed to recover some of their dormant swagger in Wednesday’s game which was their 40th victory of the season, matching last season’s total (40-31-11) in 20 fewer games (40-14-8). Charlie Lindgren made key stops at key moments, the penalty killing outfit was flawless, both Brandon Duhaime and Matt Roy partook in second-period fisticuffs, and the Caps absolutely throttled the Rangers’ attack in the third period.
The last battle of the regular season between two divisional rivals – who could conceivably meet in the playoffs for a second straight spring – was a compelling hockey game, replete with everything that makes the game great.
“It was tense on the bench; you could just feel,” said Carbery after Wednesday’s win. “And that’s what it’s going to be like. I caught myself a couple times having a little bit of déjà vu from last spring in this building, and of it just being tight. Things are happening, and now all of a sudden there’s adversity and guys are yelling at the refs and all that stuff.
“Those are moments, you’re going to see a lot of those if you expect to play deep into the playoffs. And you’ve got to manage your emotions in those situations. You’re going to face adversity, you’re going to get a bad call. Someone is going to get hi-sticked in the face and be bleeding everywhere, and nothing is called. And then you’ve got to go out and you’ve got to fight your way through it. You’ve got to continue to play. And so building off that tonight, hopefully we can carry that into Detroit at home.”
The Caps took Thursday off, but there was some player movement during the day. Left wing Jakub Vrana – placed on waivers on Wednesday afternoon – was claimed by the Nashville Predators on Thursday. Preds GM Barry Trotz was Washington’s bench boss when Vrana broke into the NHL with Washington in 2016 and when the Caps won the Stanley Cup in 2018. The two will now be reunited in Music City.
Vrana made the most of a limited opportunity with the Caps this season, totaling seven goals – three of them on the power play and 11 points while playing in only 26 of Washington’s first 62 games this season. His average nightly ice time of 9:50 is the lowest of his nine-year NHL career, and he scored his seven goals on just 28 shots for a shooting pct. of 25.0.
Additionally, defenseman Alex Alexeyev was recalled from his short conditioning stint at AHL where he got into three games with the Bears, recording an assist and a plus-5 rating. Alexeyev had been on the Washington roster all season but has not seen live NHL game action since Nov. 8 and has appeared in only five games this season. The Caps’ top six defensemen have remained intact and effective over the last four months, a span of 49 games in which Washington has rolled up a 31-10-8 record, tops in the League over that span.
Detroit – the only Eastern Conference team the Capitals have yet to defeat this season – entered Thursday’s home game with Utah a single point behind the Rangers and Ottawa – the Caps’ last two opponents – in the chase for wild card playoff positioning. The Caps slipped past the Senators in the shootout on Monday and prevailed over the Rangers in overtime on Wednesday; those two teams are tied – with 67 points, heading into Thursday’s slate of NHL activity – for the second wild card slot, with the Sens holding a game in hand over the Rangers.
The Wings also hold a game in hand on the Blueshirts, but like the teams ahead of it, Detroit is feeling some standings backpressure of its own. Only six points separate the eight teams vying for those two Eastern Conference wild card berths.
In the only prior meeting between the Caps and the Wings this season – on Dec. 29 in Motown – Detroit jumped all over Washington in the first, scoring four times in a 4-2 victory. The Caps were playing for the second time in as many nights in that game; they defeated the Leafs in Toronto in the night before.
Circumstances will be reversed in Friday’s rematch. The Wings fly in to face the Caps on the heels of Thursday’s 4-2 home ice loss to the Utah Hockey Club. Detroit held a 2-1 lead midway through that game, but Utah tied it up on a power play in the second and struck twice early in the third for the win. The Wings have lost four straight games (0-4-0); they had a seven-game winning streak just ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off pause.
