Courtesy: CBS – Washington
After dropping the first two contests in 2013-14 to their former Southeast Division foe, the Washington Capitals will look to return to their winning ways as they travel to Raleigh, North Carolina for a Friday evening soiree with the Carolina Hurricanes.
Carolina has gotten the better of the two contests with a 3-2 victory on Oct. 10 and a 4-1 win Dec. 3 both of which occurred at the Verizon Center. With this contest taking place on the Hurricanes’ home turf at PNC Arena, Washington will look to play spoiler as they play the first of a back-to-back series against Carolina and the New Jersey Devils Saturday night in D.C.
Washington will put Philipp Grubauer between the pipes despite bringing all three goaltenders — Braden Holtby and Michal Neuvirth made the trip — to Raleigh. The 22-year-old is 3-0-1 this season with a 2.06 goals against average and a .937 save percentage. Carolina will put Cam Ward in the net as he is 5-5-5 with a 3.04 GAA and a .901 save percentage.
The Capitals will also be seeing a return to the lineup for second-line center Mikhail Grabovski as he has missed his team’s last two games with the flu. Brooks Laich continues to sit out with a groin injury as he is eligible to return from long-term injured reserve Dec. 22, but skated for the fifth consecutive day at the morning skate. This means that AHL call-up Casey Wellman will not be used in the lineup tonight as Jay Beagle will center the fourth line and Martin Erat continue to be the man in the middle for the third line.
Tom Wilson will play tonight after receiving no disciplinary action from the NHL for his hit on Brayden Schenn late in the third period of his team’s Tuesday night contest against the Philadelphia Flyers. Given the status of Schenn, the overall nature of the hit and the repercussions that followed, the league made the right call in not punishing Wilson for being who he is — an aggressive hockey player that made a big hit on a puck carrier.
As far as the game goes, Carolina is not an offensive juggernaut as they are 23rd in the NHL in goals scored per game (2.3) and are 28th on the man-advantage (12.4%). Washington finds themselves giving up an average of 2.9 goals per game (23rd in the NHL) as well as scoring 2.9 a game (7th in the league) as their defense appears to be catching up to their hot-and-cold offensive play. The second-ranked power play in the league (24.8%) appears to still be too heavily relied on as Washington must get more productive minutes at even strength.
How does a club do that?
The Capitals have been guilty of puck-watching far too much in both zones of the ice and have also been careless in the neutral zone for most of the season. As talented as the club is offensively, no team can have consistent success without maintaining puck possession and playing to the their own pace rather than the opposition’s. A revolving door of young, inexperienced blueliners has left the door open to a barrage of shots being thrown at whoever is putting on the goalie mask for Washington and in turn has given opponents more opportunities to light the lamps.
With Carolina (14-13-7, 35 points) sitting just four points away from Washington (18-13-3, 39 points) in the Metropolitan Division in fourth place, every win is crucial even at the early stages of the season. First-place Pittsburgh (26-10-1, 53 points) has built a 14-point cushion over the Capitals and is pulling away with the division title early. It’s December, but the importance of home-ice advantage for the Capitals is crucial as they are just 6-6-3 on the road this season.
Every team that has aspirations of the playoffs must play like they’re in the playoffs now. Given that Washington has eight shootout wins, eight regulation wins and two overtime wins, it’s clear that they have to work on being a more consistent hockey team in the first sixty minutes of play and not always have a love for the dramatic in bonus hockey.
