Caps turn for Nightly NHL Incompetence - In Ottawa Tonight (NHL)

NHL

Caps turn for Nightly NHL Incompetence - In Ottawa Tonight

By Marcus Boutilier

Dec 22, 2018 • 2:19 pm

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The 21-10-3 Metro division-leading Washington Capitals will look to go into the Christmas break on a winning streak as they face the 15-17-4 Ottawa Senators tonight in the Canadian capital in an Eastern Conference showdown. Caps coach Todd Reirden’s club will head into the game coming off a tight 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres last night and will look to backup goalie Pheonix Copley tonight to send them off on the break with a win. Last year the Caps beat Ottawa in all three contests with one decided in a shootout. Both teams will be off for Christmas after the game.

Washington brings a solid 10-5-1 road record into the game as they seem comfortable no matter where they play. Including the playoffs last spring, the Capitals are an impressive 27-9-1 in their last 37 games away from Capital One Arena. Talk about Rocking The Red.

Last night’s game was a fast-paced defensive battle that Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby looked like his old Vezina form only beaten on a deflection goal and making many huge saves to help the Caps escape with two points. He even played defenseman for a play.

Holtby did suffer what looked to be a slight pull of something as he made a save late in last night’s game. After the play, the trainer would come out to talk with him but he remained in the game. Maybe just as well the break is here for him now.

The game featured another goal controversy as it seems to be the nightly occurrence across the NHL. Evgeny Kuznetsov had made a nice move and tucked the puck past Sabres goalie Carter Hutton but the call made on the ice was that the ref had blown the whistle before the puck crossed the line. Why did he blow the whistle then is my question?? Replays clearly show the puck in the net and likely would have been reversed to a Kuznetsov goal had the referee not stated he blew the whistle blew the play dead, which wiped out the play being reviewable.

The Caps will go into Ottawa tonight with a struggling power play as it went 0-4 last night vs Buffalo and 0-5 in the previous game vs Pittsburgh. While the Capitals have been scoring 5 on 5 to compensate it would be nice to get the man-advantage working again. The Capitals were on top of the NHL power play standings for much of the start of the season, but have since fallen off and currently sit in 8th place with a 24.1% efficiency rate. It may be the game to do so as the Senators penalty kill sits last in the NHL at 73.6%. However, in the last month, basically since Uber-Gate, the Sens have improved on the PK with an NHL 9th best kill percentage of 86.1% and since November 22nd, the Capitals “deadly… power play has clicked for only 14.6% and is 24th in the NHL over that span.

Washington’s penalty kill units are also not in sync, though unlike the power play, these squads have been up and down all year long. Chandler Stephenson did score a short-handed goal last night vs Buffalo marking the second time in a month the Caps scored a short-handed goal, but the power play has also given up 2 shorty’s in that span.

Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot continues to help ease the loss of Erik Karlsson and maybe even has helped put the Sens into better shape as he is effectively providing the offense Karlsson did at a much cheaper $1.22M over this season and next. Expect to see a lot of him tonight as he plays over 24 minutes a night. Chabot’s 37 points are 2nd in NHL defense scoring and give him two more than Caps rearguard John Carlson’s 35. Carlson is tied with Brent Burns of San Jose for the NHL lead for defensemen in assists with 30.

Ottawa enters the game with Matt Duchene back in the line-up and although they lost 5-2 last night to New Jersey, Duchene made a successful return (out since December 6th) scoring both Senators goals in the loss. Mark Stone leads the team in goals (16) and points (40) as he is having another solid campaign with a healthy +13 rating and is riding a four-game point streak with one goal and four assists over those games.

Rookie Brady Tkachuk has proven he is a tough player to play against already in his first year after being drafted 4th overall last summer. He has 10 goals and 18 points in 25 games and will look to get the Caps off their game with his “effective… antics. Over his last 11 games, however, Tkachuk has only a goal and an assist.

Did I mention Tom Wilson scored? Again. He did. And we are all happy over here! Wilson is a dominating force in the NHL right now.

Washington will return to the ice after the Christmas break on the 27th for a date with the Hurricanes at Capital One Arena in DC. Game time is 7 PM EST.

Capital Gain:

Andre Burakovsky returned to the lineup last night vs Buffalo. One play can sum up what is needed from him night in and out.

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