Courtesy: Zimbio.com
WASHINGTON — After snapping their four-game losing skid last night in Tampa with a 4-3 victory over the Lightning, the Washington Capitals are looking to continue their winning ways against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the friendly confines of Verizon Center.
The Capitals started Thursday’s game against the Lightning guns blazing as they jumped out to a two-goal lead and played quite well for the first 20 minutes of play. However, like most two-goal leads with Washington, it was vanquished, but Adam Oates’ troops pulled through late in a game they needed to have against the third best team in the Eastern Conference.
This weekend features a docket where the Capitals should give the folks in D.C. two easy victories as the Toronto Maple Leafs come to town Friday night and the Buffalo Sabres make their way to Verizon Center for a Sunday afternoon matinee. Toronto has been struggling as of late as they have lost their last three contests by a combined score of 18-5. Washington just rebounded from their most recent slide as they hope to continue their winning ways with a dominating win over the Maple Leafs.
Both teams played Thursday night so look for a different guy between the pipes for both teams than the previous outing. Jonathan Bernier (13-13-4, 2.58 GAA, .926 SV %) is who could get the call for Toronto and Washington will see Michal Neuvirth (2-3-1, 2.83 GAA, .912 SV%) for the first time in game action since Nov. 22. He was last slated to make a start Nov. 29 before suffering a freak lower-body injury that caused the three-goalie shuffle between Philipp Grubauer, Braden Holtby and himself. Oates has been going with the guy who has provided the team the best chance to win and has instilled the most confidence in his mates — Grubauer has seen action in 12 games since Neuvirth’s injury. Holtby has been suspect to say the least and with a six-save performance against the Minnesota Wild that resulted in a 5-3 loss in his last start, Oates may look to build the 24-year-old’s confidence against the lesser Sabres Sunday.
It’s also no secret that Neuvirth wants out of D.C. and wants to play hockey period to hone his skills, but he can’t get that opportunity if Oates doesn’t allow it. Washington finds themselves in an interesting predicament and it’s one that they need to figure out soon before too many parties involved become frustrated and/or play between the pipes suffers because of it.
While Sherlock Holmes would likely have trouble solving the mystery that is the Capitals’ starting goalie night in and night out, offensively they seemed to have found their stride with adjustments being made on the forward lines to spur some excitement. Brooks Laich played on the top offensive line with Nicklas Backstrom and Troy Brouwer and skated well as he seemed virtually 100%. The second tandem of Eric Fehr-Mikhail Grabovski-Alexander Ovechkin netted two goals last night and has continued to bring forth solid high-intensity shifts since Oates made the switch a few games ago. Marcus Johansson centered the third line and netted a power play goal as he played fairly well in his new role.
It will be interesting to see if Oates keeps the lines the same because even though the boys in red were able to net four goals past Anders Lindback Thursday night, just 20 shots on net isn’t an impressive total for a team that flirts with 30 on average each game.
Both of these teams come in with solid power play units as the Leafs are fifth in the NHL (21.4%) and the Capitals are first (26.1%). Washington’s penalty kill has been struggling over the last 20 games in comparison to the beginning of the season where they were in the top ten in both special teams categories as they have regressed to 18th in the league (80.6%). Toronto has been abysmal in keeping pucks out of their net in man-down situations as they are 27th in the NHL (76.9%) in doing so. This could be where the Capitals take advantage of this team as the Leafs have been 6/10 over their last three games on the PK.
Washington will not only be looking for back-to-back wins but they will also be looking to avenge their 2-1 shootout loss in Toronto back on Nov. 23. Bot sides played a great hockey game that night and expect a similar effort tonight on both sides. The Capitals need all of the points they can get as they have moved to third in the Metropolitan Division for the time being. Even though it’s just past the midway point of the 2013-14 season, it has to be noted that the top three teams of each division make the postseason and then it goes to at-large bids.
