It’s been a tale of four games. The Capitals dominated the Tampa Bay Lightning twice in November, outscoring their Southeast Division rivals 9-3.
But the tables have turned this month. Washington lost at home to Tampa Bay on Jan. 4 in overtime 1-0. That was a shutout by new Lightning goalie Dwayne Roloson, acquired via trade last month. Things only got worse eight days later in Florida when Roloson again blanked the Caps 3-0. That leaves them five points behind the Lightning in the Southeast Division. The last time Washington played a division team it trailed in the standings? That hasn’t happened since Nov. 6, 2008, when it faced the Carolina Hurricanes. That makes the stakes higher than normal for a regular-season NHL game.
“It’s important to us to win the division, but at the same time there’s 30 games left and we’re even in games [played],” Caps forward David Steckel said. “This could put us within three instead of falling back to seven. If you look at it like that, it’s pretty big. We don’t want to place the entire season on this game, but you still have to put a lot of emphasis on getting two points.”
Washington hopes forward Alexander Semin can return from a groin injury. His status remains uncertain — Caps coach Bruce Boudreau wouldn’t acknowledge that Semin would even make the flight — but there’s no question a team struggling for goals could use his scoring ability back in the lineup as soon as possible.
“We need [Semin]. I don’t know if he’s going to play or not,” forward Alex Ovechkin said. “But if he’s not we have to play without him. If he does he’s going to help us a lot.”
| Caps notes |
| » Both goalies — Michal Neuvirth and Semyon Varlamov — were on the ice for practice Thursday. |
| » Caps coach Bruce Boudreau put Jason Chimera back on the top line Thursday. Mike Knuble skated on the third line. |
| » Tampa Bay has won six games in a row and has not allowed a goal vs. the Caps in the last 130:13 of game action. |
The results didn’t show Tuesday against Montreal, but the Caps put together a pretty intense week of practice at Kettler Iceplex, starting with a long one Monday night. And Boudreau put his charges through much more work Thursday than during a regular travel day.
“I thought [Wednesday’s] practice was fairly difficult and [Thursday’s] was a good upbeat practice,” Boudreau said. “And we had two real long video sessions [Thursday morning], which is really not as normal as what we normally do. But I think we were in there for 45 minutes today watching video. Hopefully we’re getting it.”
