Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7
Anaheim Ducks (18-20-5)
Washington Capitals (28-10-5)
The Caps host the Anaheim Ducks’ lone visit to the District this season on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena. The Capitals will be seeking to extend their home point streak of 10 games (7-0-3).
Washington played a weekend set of back-to-back games, falling to the Canadiens in overtime on Friday at home and then breezing past the Predators in Nashville on the strength of a three-goal third period in a 4-1 win on Saturday.
Charlie Lindgren left the Montreal game with an upper body injury, and he was placed on injured reserve on Saturday. According to Caps coach Spencer Carbery, Lindgren is “progressing well,” but the Caps don’t yet know whether he will be able to come off of IR this Saturday, when he is eligible to do so. In the meantime, Hunter Shepard – recalled from AHL Hershey on Saturday – is here and able to play if needed.
Sunday was scheduled off day for the Caps, who reconvened at MedStar Capitals Iceplex for a Monday practice session in preparation for Tuesday’s tilt with the Ducks. When they did, they found a tweak in the team’s top six forward group; Dylan Strome and P-L Dubois have shifted places, with Dubois moving to the middle of a line with Alex Ovechkin and Aliaksei Protas on his wings. Strome is the middleman for Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson, while the Caps’ bottom six remains as it was over the weekend.
“We’re just looking to change that top six and try to find a spark there,” says Carbery. “We haven’t used it all year, so we’ll see if that helps balance out our top six.”
To this point of the season, Ovechkin and Dubois have played just 26 minutes and 19 seconds together at 5-on-5 in the 27 games in which they’ve both been in the Washington lineup. Adding Protas to the mix, that exact trio has spent just 4 minutes and 48 seconds together at 5-on-5 to this point of the campaign.
Despite scuffling on the puck possession front for the better part of the last month or so, the Caps have been able to maintain their lofty perch in the Eastern Conference standings largely via consistently strong special teams, goaltending and defense. Only twice in their last dozen games (7-2-3) have the Capitals not been able to collect at least a point from the contest.
According to naturalstattrick.com, the Caps have controlled just 46.45 percent of shot attempts over those last dozen games, ranking 27th in the NHL over that span. Despite those possession struggles, Washington’s .708 points pct. over that stretch is tied for seventh best in the NHL.
More recently, the Caps have gone three straight games without registering as many as 20 shots on net, yet they’ve managed a 2-0-1 record in those games. Since the League began tracking shots on goal in 1959-60, there have been only 60 instances of a team going three straight games without recording as many as 20 shots on net, and it ties a dubious franchise record that was first established in the team’s first month of existence, from Oct. 23-31, 1974.
This current run of three straight games without as many as 20 shots in a contest is the seventh such instance in franchise history; the first four of them came in the Caps’ first two seasons in the League. Prior to the current occurrence, the most recent one was nearly 21 years ago, from Jan. 29-Feb. 3, 2004, during Washington’s fire sale season of 2003-04.
Seven times since 1959-60, a team has gone four straight games – the League record – without as many as 20 shots on net. New Jersey is the most recent club to do so, from Jan. 30-Feb. 6, 2015; the Devils went 3-0-1 during that stretch, an anomaly among all occurrences.
Washington has gone a dozen straight periods without reaching the double-digit level in shots on net, and it has outshot the opposition only once in its last 13 games. Shots on net are obviously not the primary driver of success in the game of hockey, but it’s next-to-impossible to score without them. Over its last three games, Washington has scored eight goals – one of them an empty-netter and two of them on the power play – on just 52 shots. That’s a 15.38% shooting rate, higher even than the Caps’ gaudy rate of 13.24% on the season, which is tops in the NHL.
On the plus side of the ledger, the Caps won’t have to worry about back-to-back games until after the Four Nations break next month; they’ve had 10 sets of back-to-backs in their first 43 games, and they will have only three over the final 39 contests. That will allow for more practice time, which can only help as they seek to re-establish their possession game. Washington played nine games in 15 nights coming out of the NHL’s holiday break, which left precious little time for full team practices over that stretch.
“We’ve looked at that,” says Carbery, “and it’s very welcomed, to be able to work on our game, both as a team, and then also individually, to just try to keep getting better and try to develop some of our skills and develop some of our team game.”
In addition to acclimating Dubois and Strome with their newest linemates, the Caps will also be able to get their newly cobbled – since the recall of Ethen Frank from AHL Hershey on Friday – bottom six acclimated to each other as well.
“That’s one area practice-wise that will hopefully help us, is our play with the puck, and our execution with the puck,” says Carbery. “We’ve seen it dip significantly with whatever it might be, whether it’s in the offensive zone, through the neutral zone, entry plays, tape-to-tape passes, execution off of 2-on-1s, passes in people’s feet. Practice time can help with that.”
Anaheim is heading into the back half of a six-game road trip on Tuesday night. The Ducks’ journey began last Thursday with a 6-2 setback in St. Louis. Over the weekend, Anaheim also played a set of back-to-backs, facing the Flyers in Philly on Saturday and taking on the Hurricanes in Carolina on Sunday. The Ducks came up empty in a 6-0 whitewashing at the hands of Sam Ersson and the Flyers on Saturday, but they picked up the first win of the trip on Sunday in Raleigh, taking a 3-2 overtime decision on Cutter Gauthier’s second goal of the game in the extra session.
After they depart the District, the Ducks will fly south to Florida, where they’ll finish the trip against Tampa Bay and Florida, respectively.
The Ducks won five straight division titles beginning in 2012-13, and they advanced to the Western Conference final in the fifth of those seasons, in 2016-17. This season, they’re seeking to end a sting of six straight seasons on the outside of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Although they’re currently closer to the playoff cutline (seven points) than they are to the cellar of the Pacific Division (nine points), they’re facing another uphill climb. The Ducks’ longest winning streak to this point of the season is three games, achieved twice.
