The Washington Capitals host another Western Conference team as the Colorado Avalanche pay a visit to DC tonight as both teams are trying to catch some consistency heading into the stretch run before the playoffs.
The Caps are 2-1 on a current 6 game homestand coming off a 3-2 win over Vancouver on Tuesday night. While a couple of wins coming off the All-Star break is good, the team is still looking for consistency in their two-way game. The most noticeable improvement from pre-All-Star game has been Braden Holtby’s play. He has faced 101 shots in his last 3 starts and has saved 95 of them for a .941 SV%. Quite the difference from a stretch of games that saw his GAA balloon as the Caps endured a stretch where he and Copley were burned for an average of 4.31 GAA over a 13-game span.
Alex Ovechkin became the highest scoring Russian player in NHL history with an assist in the game against Vancouver.
HISTORY MADE https://t.co/9n7QPWgYET
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) February 6, 2019
The Avalanche come into tonight looking like a shadow of themselves from earlier in the season when the Caps faced them in a 3-2 OT win on a Nicklas Backstrom goal. At the time the Avs were one of the top teams in the west and leading the NHL in goals. Jump ahead to now and the Avs have fallen completely out of a playoff spot. I mean who would have thought the St. Louis Blues would catch the Avs back in December? Nobody would have. They have only won 5 of their last 25 (5-15-3) making them the worse team in the NHL in that stretch.
The Avs top line is still dangerous with Nathan McKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog as they continue to put up points but can’t find help with depth scoring. They have scored 31 goals in the last 23 games while the rest of the squad as a whole have only 35. So clearly the Caps have to contain the top line which they did well back in November.
Washington coach Todd Reirden is starting to be more aggressive n his coaching with the players. He was concerned with penalties taken and giveaways and has begun to bench players when he feels they aren’t “buying… in. The Capitals are near the league lead with minors taken and the coach has to address it. We’ll see if the benching of those that don’t have an effect. Kuznetsov seemed to be better after his 10-minute benching but only time will tell. It’s not something the coach can use out of the toolbox every game. And he needs to be consistent.
Pheonix Copley will get the net today in place of a resting Holtby. Fresh off a newly signed 3-year contract he signed just days ago, Copley will look to maintain the status of goaltending they have received from Holtby recently. He’s had some ups and downs to be sure, but he hasn’t been a concern for the Caps and I expect a good game out of him tonight.
Former Capital Semyon Varlamov will face his ex-team tonight. Be nice to see Varly again as he was well like in his time here. Just hope he doesn’t have too good an evening.
Varlamov is in the starter’s net for Avalanche morning skate in DC
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) February 7, 2019
The lines remain relatively the same with Madison Bowey drawing back in. He is possibly being shopped in a deadline deal in my opinion along with Andre Burakovsky. A smooth skating right-handed defenseman, Bowey just seems to be not as aggressive as he needs to be to transition his game to the NHL. At 23 and only a $1M cap hit, he has some limited time to make it work in DC.
Caps at morning skate:
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) February 7, 2019
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Vrana-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Burakovsky-Eller-Connolly
Stephenson-Boyd-DSP
Kempny-Carlson
Orlov-Niskanen
Orpik-Bowey
Game time is 7PM EST from Capital One Arena in DC.
Capital Gain:
Defenseman Christian Djoos is almost ready to return
Reirden said Djoos will return to Washington sometime today, and he's "an option" to play on Saturday vs. Florida.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) February 7, 2019