Courtesy: Capitals.NHL.com
WASHINGTON — For the first time all season, the Washington Capitals will head into a matchup above the .500 mark as they are 8-7-0 and are set to face a tough 9-4-3 Minnesota Wild team Thursday night.
Washington currently finds themselves in second place in the Metropolitan Division behind only the Pittsburgh Penguins who have 22 points. Those two teams will face off at Verizon Center Nov. 20 for the first meeting between the two rivals, but the Capitals will have their hands full tonight with the Wild, who sit at third place in the tough Central Division which includes the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks.
This will be a battle between the top two power plays in hockey as Minnesota enters with a 25% success rate, good for second in the NHL, while Washington leads the league with a 27.9% conversion rate on the power play. Both teams are also lead by high-caliber stars in Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin and Wild captain Zach Parise.
Both players are high-energy fireballs, who could light the lamp from all over the ice, but play with somewhat contrasting styles. While both Ovechkin and Parise like to grind out shifts at times and get physical, Ovechkin feels more comfortable in the sniper role, where he can shoot pucks from anywhere he so pleases on a given shift. Parise is more inclined to crash the net and look to set up his mates more, but that doesn’t take away from his shooting ability. Luckily for both guys, they have their fair share of weapons like center Nicklas Backstrom on the Washington side of things and forward Jason Pominville for Minnesota respectively to wreak havoc on the opposition’s defensive zone and create scoring chances.
One of the main reasons this is a quality litmus test for the Capitals is the way Minnesota plays defense. Yes, Washington has one of the better penalty kills in the league — Washington has killed 91.5% of their penalties, good for 1st in the NHL — but defensively, they struggle allowing too many shots at their netminder between the pipes whether’s it’s Braden Holtby or Michael Neuvirth. The Wild are the opposite of that as they are lead by Ryan Suter on the back end as he remains one of the better free agent signings for any one tem in recent memory.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find one single defenseman who has made a bigger impact on his respective team than Suter. He isn’t the best offensively, but he can hit, he can block shots, doesn’t take foolish penalties and most importantly, he is on the ice more than anyone else and gets the most productive shifts possible. It has made starting goalie Josh Harding’s job significantly easier this season as he transitions into his first year as the full-time starter for Minnesota.
Starting in net for the Capitals will be Braden Holtby. The 24-year-old is 6-5-0 this season with a 2.67 GAA and a .923 save percentage. For the Wild, Josh Harding will be trying to keep the lamp from lighting up for Washington and he has done just that with regularity versus opposing offenses. The 29-year-old is 8-2-1 with a staggering 1.09 GAA and a .951 save percentage.
For Washington to win this game, they have to build off of what they were able to establish over their last three victories: Lots of effort every shift and keeping the foot on the gas by looking to create offensive opportunities and scoring chances with regularity. Backstrom has been stellar for the Capitals and has taken more of an assertive role in the offense. This has been something lots of people have wanted to see from Nicklas and now that he is showing it with Ovechkin in the lineup, the offense is exploding with a barrage of great chances. Defensively, if Washington can keep contain on Parise and Pominville, they should have success as they are the main two offensive options Minnesota brings to the table. Obviously, that is easier said than done, but if Washington can backcheck and and cycle with great regularity as they can dictate the pace of this hockey game, they could sneak two by Harding and come away with a win.
