Courtesy: o.canada.com
WASHINGTON — Two Metropolitan Division foes will square off at Verizon Center Saturday night as both the Washington Capitals and New Jersey Devils are playing the second game of their respective back-to-back contests.
Washington is coming off of a Friday night 4-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes — the first win for the Capitals in three tries against their former Southeast Division opponent — while New Jersey fell to the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 in overtime in their own building last night. With the Capitals sitting in second place in the Metropolitan Division just six points ahead of the fourth place Devils expect the intensity to be high while fatigue may show throughout the contest.
Whatever team is better conditioned will win likely this contest and it will likely be a close battle as four of the last six contests have been decided by one goal . However, Washington may be without one of their top forwards in Marcus Johansson as he suffered a lower-body injury late in the contest in Raleigh, NC Friday. Head coach Adam Oates ruled him and the starting goaltender a game-time decision, so stay tuned for updates before the puck is dropped (Follow me on Twitter @Jeff_Kryglik).
In all likelihood, Philipp Grubauer will be given the night off after a 39-save performance that propelled the Capitals to victory last night as he earned the game’s first star of the evening, so starting goaltender Braden Holtby or backup goalie Michal Neuvirth will get the call between the pipes. Holtby’s last start was one he’d like to forget as he allowed five goals in a 5-2 defeat to the Philadelphia Flyers Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center. Neuvirth was last slated to play in an NHL game Nov. 29 against the Montreal Canaden, but a freak injury where he stepped on a puck during warm-ups caused him to miss time with the Capitals since then. He has rehabbed in Hershey and is back on the train of good health, but it remains to be seen whether or not Oates will go with Holtby or not given that the team has another home contest before Christmas Monday against the Ducks.
If I had to choose, I would go Neuvirth tonight to see where he’s at physically and to see if he has earned the right to surpass Grubauer who has played well in his absence. While the 22-year-old has had a small sample size, his flashes of Seymon Varlamov give me reason to believe that this isn’t an easy decision for Oates. Plus, the Ducks are a much more talented team than the Devils and have won seven-straight. Throwing Neuvirth into that fire coming off of injury might be asking too much.
Brooks Laich is still out for the Capitals, but the forward is eligible to return to the club from the long-term injured reserve list Sunday. That being said, the forward lines will likely be shaken up a bit if Johansson can’t go. Oates may consider moving left wing Eric Fehr up to the top unit if No. 90 isn’t healthy enough to give it a go. While Fehr’s overall abilities aren’t on the same level of Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, Fehr will provide the effort and intensity needed every shift to dig out pucks from the corners and the walls and allow for the slot to open up for his two linemates as he plays closer to the crease.
This game will likely see the Capitals’ power play challenged much more than Friday night as they tallied three power play goals against the Hurricanes’ penalty kill that kills less than 80% of their man-down situations. New Jersey is a more defensively sound team and always has been since they implemented the trap many moons ago. While their style has been curbed since the early ’90s, their principles remain the same. The Devils are 9th in the NHL in average goals against (2.4) and are 6th on the penalty kill (86.1%). Washington will have to work for this win and not allow New Jersey to lull them to sleep as they aren’t a very good offensive team (24th in the NHL with 2.4 goals per game).
Notes: Washington is 93-71-13-12 all-time versus New Jersey and is 55-28-6-6 at home against the Devils. This is the first of four meetings between the Metropolitan Division teams this season. In 2013-14, Washington is 8-5-0 against their divisional opponents and have won eight of their last 11 in the division. Capitals have won their last two back-to-back pairs of games. Nov. 1991 was the last time the Capitals have won three-straight pairs of back-to-back games. Tonight is the 100th career NHL game for Capitals forward Aaron Volpatti.
