The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!
The annual western Canada trip comes to an end for the
Washington Capitals on Friday night when they visit Rogers Arena in Vancouver
to face the Canucks. The Caps will be
skating in the back half of a back-to-back set of games after taking on the
Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Thursday night. Vancouver will be returning home after a
four-game road trip, but they will be well-rested after last playing on Tuesday
night in a 5-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
Then and Now
This will be the 98th regular season meetings of
the Caps and Canucks, the Caps holding a 47-40-1 record (with nine ties) in the
97 meetings to date. In Vancouver, the
Caps are 19-23-1 (five ties) in 48 meetings.
Since 2005-2006, Washington Is 9-8-1 against the Canucks overall and 3-5-1
in Vancouver. The Caps beat the Canucks,
5-2, in their last trip to Vancouver on October 22, 2018.
Active Leaders vs. Opponent
Caps vs. Canucks:
Goals: Ovechkin (9)
Assists: Backstrom
(12)
Points: Ovechkin (17)
Plus-minus: Kuznetsov
(plus-12)
Penalty minutes: Wilson
(23)
Power play goals: Ovechkin
(5)
Power play points:
Ovechkin (8)
Shorthanded goals:
none
Game-winning
goals: Ovechkin (3)
Overtime goals: none
Shots on goal: Ovechkin
(65)
Canucks vs. Caps:
Goals: Edler (4)
Assists: Tanev,
Boeser, Horvat, Edler (4)
Points: Edler (8)
Plus-minus: Gaudette,
Tanev (plus-1)
Penalty minutes: Edler
(12)
Power play goals: Baertschi
(3)
Power play points:
Baertschi, Boeser, Horvat, Edler (4)
Shorthanded goals:
none
Game-winning
goals: none
Overtime goals: none
Shots on goal: Edler
(39)
Noteworthy Opponents
From ninth overall draft pick to team captain in six
years. That has been the hockey journey
of Vancouver forward Bo Horvat, who was taken with that ninth overall pick in
the 2013 Entry Draft. His progress and
promotion are no flukes. After spending
a season in Canadian junior (London Knights) and a sliver of the 2014-2015
season in the AHL (Utica Comets), he joined the Canucks and has been a fixture
ever since, his 103 goals in five-plus seasons one short of jumping into the
top-25 in team history (Jim Sandlak has 104) and ranking fourth in his 2013
draft class, behind Sean Monahan (174), Nathan MacKinnon (160), and Aleksander
Barkov (135). Horvat was named the 14th captain in team history at the team’s home opener of the season on October 9th, at 24 years old the third-youngest first-time captain in team history (Trevor
Linden was 20 years old in 1990-1991, and Kevin McCarthy was 22 in 1979-1980 when
first named captain). Horvat got off to
a bit of a sluggish start this season, recording only one assist in his first
five games. However, he has five goals
in his last four games, including a hat trick in the Canucks’ 5-2 win over
Detroit on Tuesday. He is 2-4-6,
minus-3, in eight career games against the Caps.
Vancouver has had the luxury to date of dressing only six
defensemen this season, going with the same blue line lineup in each of their
nine games going into this contest. Quinn
Hughes is tied for the lead in points among defensemen (1-5-6) in his first
full year with the club after being taken with the seventh overall pick, and second
defenseman behind top overall pick Rasmus Dahlin, in the 2018 Entry Draft. He was not even the top draft pick in his family,
though, his younger brother Jack being taken first overall by the New Jersey
Devils in las summer’s draft. Hughes got
a taste of the NHL last season, recording three assists in five games at the
end of the season with the parent club.
He posted his first, and to date only NHL goal against the Los Angeles
Kings in the team’s home opener, a power play goal that opened the scoring in an
8-2 win. This will be Hughes’ first
appearance against Washington.
The Caps will be facing their second consecutive goaltending
tandem that is playing well in the early going.
Jacob Markstrom (4-2-0, 2.16, .933 in six starts) and Thatcher Demko
(2-1-0, 1.64, .943 in three starts) have been superb so far. Markstrom is in his tenth NHL season, his
sixth full season with the Canucks since he was traded from the Florida
Panthers with Shawn Matthias for Roberto Luongo in March 2014 and finished the
2013-2014 season in Vancouver. Markstrom
appears to have found a home with the Canucks, appearing in 60 games over each
of the last two seasons after appearing in a total of just 109 games over his
first seven seasons in the NHL. He is
fifth in team history in games played (192) and with 20 more wins this season
would become the fifth goalie in team history with 100 wins.
Markstrom might only be keeping the seat warm for Thatcher
Demko, though. Demko was a second round
pick (36th overall and the second goalie taken) in the 2014 Entry
Draft. After completing his stay with Boston
College in the NCAA in 2015-2016, a season in which he posted six shutouts in
seven games and ten shutouts overall on his way to winning the Mike Richter Award
as the top goalie in NCAA men’s hockey, he spent parts of three seasons with the Utica Comets in the AHL while getting
ten games in with the Canucks over the last two seasons. One cannot help but notice comparisons and
similarities with the path another former Vancouver goalie took. Cory Schneider, like Demko, was among the top
goalies picked in his draft class (first round/26h overall, the fourth goalie
taken in 2004). He, like Demko, is a
product of the Boston College program.
He, like Demko, spent parts of three seasons in the AHL (with the
Manitoba Moose). But Schneider got
caught in a numbers game in Vancouver, stuck behind Roberto Luongo for much of
his five season stay with the Canucks, never getting more than 30 regular
season starts. Demko could find himself
in a similar situation. Markstrom is in
the final year of a contract that pays him $3.67 million per year, and an investment
in Markstrom’s services past this season could force the Canucks to deal with
Demko at some point as they did with Schneider, trading him to the New Jersey Devils
in 2013 for a first round draft pick that became Bo Horvat. Demko has never faced the Caps.
1. No team has played
fewer home games to date than Vancouver (three, tied with Minnesota and Tampa
Bay).
2. The 2.11 goals
allowed per game so far by the Canucks would, if sustained over the entire
season, be the fewest goals allowed per game for a season in team history.
3. Vancouver has yet
to lose a game this season when leading at an intermission. They are 3-0-0 when leading after one period,
4-0-0 when leading after two periods.
4. The Canucks play
against trend in one respect. When
outshooting opponents, they are 3-3-0 so far this season, but they are 3-0-0
when they are out-shot.
5. Vancouver has a
minus-24 shot differential at 5-on-5 so far this season, tied for fifth worst in
the league through Wednesday’s games.
1. The Caps scored
five goals in three consecutive games going into Thursday’s game in Edmonton
against the Oilers, bringing their total of five-plus goal games to four through
11 games, one short of their 11-game total of five-plus goal games to start
last season.
2. Through 11 games
last season, the Caps had allowed five or more goals four times. Through 11 games going into Thursday’s play,
that total was two games, a 6-5 loss to Nashville and a 6-3 loss to Colorado.
3. Hey, it’s not like
John Carlson was a slouch last season to start the year. Through 11 games this year, Carlson has 20
points, but last season he had 14 at the same point (5-9-14) and was fifth in
scoring at the time among defensemen, two points behind Morgan Rielly for the
top spot.
4. Through 11 games
last season, Madison Bowey was the only one of 20 skaters yet to record a
point. Through 11 games this season,
three of 21 have yet to do it: Richard Panik (in eight games), Tyler Lewington
(five games) and Martin Fehervary (three games).
5. Ilya Samsonov has
had three starts as backup to Braden Holtby so far (four appearances), going
3-1-0, 1.84, .933. Through 11 games last
season, Pheonix Copley had two starts (three appearances) and was 1-1-1, 3.55,
.882.
The Peerless’ Players to Ponder
Vancouver: Jay Beagle
He did not play 500 games with the Caps, his 471 games
ranking 30th in team history.
His 51 goals tied Robert Lang (who did it in 326 fewer games) for 63rd
place on the franchise list. His 116
points – 69th on the Caps’ all-time list. But few players commanded the affection and
respect that Jay Beagle did in his ten seasons with the team. It is tribute to his work ethic, an undrafted
player who joined the Capitals as a free agent in March 2008, but one who did
the little things, the things that don’t get a lot of attention from casual
fans, quite well. Well enough to be the
only player to have won championships in the ECHL (Idaho Steelheads), AHL
(Hershey Bears), and NHL (Capitals).
Having won the Stanley Cup with the Caps in 2018, Beagle moved on to
Vancouver as an unrestricted free agent, signing a four-year/$12 million
contract in July 2018.
In his first season with the Canucks, Beagle battled
injuries, losing 24 games to a broken forearm and another to illness. The absences held him to just three goals and
13 points in 57 games. But he is still a
master of the dot. Beagle is in the
midst of his 11th consecutive season winning more than half of his
faceoffs, and his 56.6 winning percentage over that span is third best in the
league among 167 active players with more than 1,000 draws taken, trailing only
Jonathan Toews (57.2 percent) and Patrice Bergeron (58.5 percent). Beagle is without a point and is minus-1 in
one appearance against the Capitals.
Washington: Radko Gudas
Radko Gudas did not come to the
Washington Capitals as the most beloved of players. If you asked 100 fans to list their ten
most-hated opponents, Gudas might have appeared on 95 of those lists. Part of it was his playing the last four
seasons in Philadelphia with the Flyers, a long-despised opponent by Caps
fans. Part of it might have been the
name, which conjures a “Bond villain” image.
Part of it might have been his orneriness and penchant for playing over
the edge, a player who was first among NHL defensemen over his six full seasons
in credited hits (1,397) and who shows up on “dirtiest player” lists.
But the stats mavens like
him. For example, coming into this
season, he was 49.0 percent or better in each of his seven seasons in on-ice
shot attempts-for at 5-on-5 and was 51.88 percent over his career. And, he was cutting his penalty minute time almost
in half, from 116 minutes in 2015-2016 to 63 minutes last season. Gudas also provided consistent and reliable
minutes. Never in his eight seasons,
including this one, has he averaged less than 17 minutes per game. Gudas, who is not a big offensive contributor
(24 career goals in 416 games before this season) is looking for his first goal
as a Capital. He is 0-1-1, minus-3, in
seven career games against Vancouver.
In the end…
It would be easy to attach some deeper meaning to this last
game of the annual western Canada road trip, but it just does not seem to
matter much in a broader context. Last
season, the Caps went 2-1-0 on the trip, but it was in the midst of a broader
slow start (8-7-3 in their first 18 games).
The previous season, the one in which the Caps won the Cup, they went
1-2-0 in western Canada, but then they went 5-1-0 in the six games that followed. The year before that it was 3-1-0 (Winnipeg
was also on the itinerary), but then the Caps went 5-3-1 in the nine games that
followed. Take it for what it is, two
available standings points that are better gained than lost.
Capitals 4 – Canucks 2
