Caps 4, Predators 1
Nice way to earn some revenge from that heartbreaking 3-1 loss to Nashville in Music City on Nov. 17. Caps coach Dale Hunter broke up his lines, separating Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. They move worked as both men scored a goal along with Alex Semin. Last time those three connected in the same game? Oct. 30, 2010 at Calgary.
“It’s tough when you hear that stat,” Backstrom said.
Nashville has been splitting up its own elite defensive pairing – Shea Weber and Ryan Suter – in recent weeks and did so again on Tuesday night in a 4-1 loss to Washington. Read the details in our game story here. Not a huge surprise that coach Barry Trotz did it again. But the Caps got the last laugh and improved to 17-14-1 with 35 standings points and are now ninth in the Eastern Conference. Not perfect. And they are just 5-5 under Hunter, who was hired on Nov. 28. But Washington has also won five of its last eight – a step in the right direction at least.
“[The Caps] have two lines with Backstrom and Semin and obviously the Ovechkin line, so we’re pretty young on the back end and we had to split [Suter and Weber] up tonight,” Trotz said.
It didn’t hurt that Washington took a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period on goals by Ovechkin and Backstrom. Even after a sweet goal from Sergei Kostitsyn at 4 minutes, 40 seconds of the third period, the Predators couldn’t push across the equalizer. Instead, Semin matched him with a ridiculous shot of his own to beat goalie Anders Lindback and push the lead back to 3-1. Interesting note from The Tennessean’s Josh Cooper – Kostitsyn has taken just 27 shots this season yet has converted on 19.2% of them. That’s an almost willful attempt NOT to shoot the puck. Semin has never been known as a gunslinger (career-best 278 shots), but I’m pretty sure his teammates would riot if a player with that kind of skill took one shot on goal per game.
“Nashville’s a team that’s very defensive, they play their systems very well,” said Washington forward Troy Brouwer, who capped the night by tipping home a power play goal with little more than six minutes left. “But if you can get out to a good lead on them it gets them out of their comfort zone and makes them take chances.”
Mission accomplished. It was a fine all around night for the Caps. The power-play roller coaster continued after a 5-for-10 spell against Toronto and Ottawa in wins earlier this month, Washington put up an 0-for-9 drought the last three games. It bounced back with Brouwer’s goal on Tuesday against Nashville, though it was one of just two man-advantage chances. Meanwhile, the penalty kill has succeeded in 40 of its last 45 tries (88.9%) dating to Nov. 21 against Phoenix. Overall, the PK is slowly climbing the charts at 82.5%. That’s good for 14th in the NHL – far above the team’s status entering December.
And Hunter’s line changes worked – for now. Ovechkin was centered by Brooks Laich with Browuer on the right wing. Marcus Johansson was on the second line with Backstrom and Semin. That hunched work. Got any more up your sleeve, Dale?
“I think we’re three of the biggest guys on the team. And two of the guys can skate. I’m a little slow. But we move well. We cycled the puck real well, we interchanged real well,” Brouwer said. “We were filling each other’s places on the ice and that just gives us a chance to get hits and make it so that they’re d-men don’t want to go back and get the puck. Especially when they got to pick and choose which line they’re going to cover. They split up Weber and Suter for the most part of the game. But we can kind of isolate one of them, put it in their corner, finish our checks on them and just make it no fun for them to go back for the puck.”
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