Nov. 28 vs. Toronto Maple Leafs at Capital One Arena
Time: 5:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
Toronto Maple Leafs (10-10-3)
Washington Capitals (13-9-2)
Late Friday afternoon in DC, the Caps will host the Toronto Maple Leafs in Washington’s traditional Black Friday matinee. The Caps will also be finishing up a four-game homestand and a home heavy patch of scheduling in which they’ve played seven of eight games at Capital One Arena.
As this lengthy stretch of mostly home games got underway nearly two weeks ago, the Caps were scuffling; they had just returned from a 1-3-0 road trip and hadn’t been able to string together consecutive victories for three weeks. Although they fell in overtime to New Jersey in the first game of the stretch on Nov. 15, the Caps head into Friday’s homestand finale feeling better about themselves.
Washington enters Friday’s game with five wins in its last six games, and with an impressive 5-1-1 mark through the first seven games of the eight-game stretch.
Most recently, the Caps held off the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night, winning 4-3 behind an 18-save performance from Charlie Lindgren, who recorded his third straight win and the 62nd of his Capital career, tying him with Jose Theodore for eighth place on the franchise’s all-time wins ledger.
Lindgren’s workload might have seemed light numerically, but the quality of the chances and shots he faced – especially from the Jets’ top forward trio – was high, and he never permitted a goal that would put his team behind on the scoreboard.
“It’s big time,” says Lindgren of the team’s warm spell. “Obviously, wins were tougher to come by at the start of the year, and now, as a team, I think we’re just finding our identity. And we’re putting together a lot of good 60-minute games here. Winning is what matters, and it feels good when you do it.”
Honored in a stirring pregame ceremony by the Capitals for his recent achievements of 1,500 NHL games and 900 NHL goals, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin authored a wild goal early in the second period that snapped a 2-2 tie and gave Washington the lead the rest of the way.
Since netting goal No. 900 here against St. Louis three weeks ago, Ovechkin has nine goals and 15 points in his last dozen games, tied for the team scoring lead over that span with blueliners Jakob Chychrun (six goals, nine assists) and John Carlson (four goals, 11 assists) each of whom also scored on Wednesday against Winnipeg to keep their own heaters hopping.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’re winning games, and he is scoring at a high clip,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “I think if you look back to last year, at the beginning of the year, he was red hot out of the gate, and so was our team, right? So, I think there’s some correlation there. When he gets hot like this and pucks are going in for him, I just feel like it gives our group a lot of confidence that we’re going to score tonight; we’re going to get three or four.
“And this stretch that we’ve been on, where that middle stretch we were getting one or two [goals] a night, [and were] shut out a few times in that stretch, and now it feels like, ‘Well, O is getting one for sure, at least. And the rest of us can chip in with two or three or four, and that’s the way it’s been going. So, I think it gives our group a lot of confidence, when he’s playing at the level or finishing the level he is right now.”
Chychrun scored for the fourth straight game, joining Calle Johansson, Al Iafrate, Sergei Gonchar and Mike Green as the fifth defenseman in franchise history to author a four-game goal streak. Chychrun also carries a nine-game point streak (six goals, six assists) – a career high and the longest by an NHL defenseman this season – into Friday’s game.
Both Chychrun and Carlson have 22 points in 24 games on the season, tied for third among all NHL defensemen.
And finally, with both P-L Dubois and Nic Dowd out of the lineup, the Caps are trying to navigate their way through a stretch of daunting opponents without their two top defensive centers. It’s taking a committee to get it done, and Connor McMichael came to the fore on Wednesday.
Most noticeably, he scored what proved to be the game-winning goal when he executed a swipe and snipe breakaway goal in the third period. McMichael also won nine of his 16 face-offs, and logged 21:04 in ice time, just a few ticks shy of his single-game career best, achieved last Nov. 27 in Tampa, a day shy of a year ago.
McMichael was assertive on the breakaway, he cruised in at high speed, deked, and tucked a backhander inside the far post.
“Actually, I was debating shooting it, because I’ve deked a few times this year and hasn’t worked out,” says McMichael. “But I just noticed that [Jets goalie Eric Comrie] was pretty far out and I had so much speed, so just tried beating him to that post.”
It all added up to another win for Washington. In the tightly packed Eastern Conference and Metropolitan Division standings, the Caps need to keep them coming.
“Sometimes you’ve got to find ways to win when you don’t have your best, and I thought tonight was a good example of that,” says Carbery. “I think that’s what we’re doing a better job of, is now managing games to win this hockey game and hold on to a win, as opposed to I can think of a couple games off the top of my head where we’re tied going into the third and we lose that game. So we’re just managing games better and finding ways to win, as opposed to the flip side of that.”
Toronto comes to town for the first of two visits this season; the Leafs will be back here on Dec. 18. The Leafs are in the middle of a six-game road stretch, and Friday’s stop in the District is the third city on the tour. After dropping the first game in Montreal last Saturday, the Leafs eked out a 2-1 overtime win over the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Wednesday night, earning just their second road win of the season (2-6-0).
The game with the Jackets was scoreless into the back half of the third period. After Zach Werenski opened the scoring for Columbus, the Leafs pulled even and forced overtime on Easton Cowan’s goal with 3:17 left in the third. William Nylander’s goal with 20 seconds remaining in overtime made a winner of Joseph Woll, who made 35 saves to improve to 2-2-1 on the season.
After departing the District, the Leafs move on to Pittsburgh, where they will finish up a set of back-to-back games on Saturday night. Then they’ll head south to conclude the trip with visits to Carolina and Florida, respectively.
