Things are starting to come together for the Capitals.
Just over five weeks after firing former coach Bruce Boudreau, Washington is making strides under new coach Dale Hunter. On Tuesday night at Verizon Center, Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring 71 seconds into the contest and Nicklas Backstrom finished with three assists in a 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames.
That suddenly gives the Caps (21-15-2, 44 points) four wins in a row as they head on a difficult two-game road trip to California this upcoming weekend. They are also 9-4-1 over the last 14 games and are now in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Washington is just two points behind No. 5 Pittsburgh.
But the victory may have come at a cost. Backstrom, in the midst of one of his best games of the season, took a direct elbow to the head from Calgary forward Rene Bourque at the 10 minutes, 6 second mark of the third period. He remained on the ice for that power play and took two more shifts later in the period. But Backstrom did not play the final 3:19 as Washington nursed its two-goal advantage. He was also not made available to the media after the game while being evaluated for an undisclosed injury.
“We just removed him from the game there as a precautionary [measure],” Hunter said. “And he’s getting evaluated right now. We’ll know more [on Wednesday].”
That’s not a good sign for a team that just got defenseman Mike Green back from injury Tuesday night. He had missed 29 of the previous 30 games with ankle and groin injuries. Green struggled as expected given the time away, taking two penalties in 15:43 of ice time. Washington dressed seven defensemen as a precaution instead of the usual six and played the game with 11 forwards instead of 12.
Ovechkin opened the scoring after some fine passing on the power play by Backstrom and Marcus Johansson to get him a one-timer on the left wing. His blast beat Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff cleanly for a 1-0 lead. Backstrom and Ovechkin also assisted on Troy Brouwer’s power-play goal in the second period.
Curtis Glencross cut the lead to 2-1 at 13:51 of the second. But the Caps answered just over three minutes later when Johansson drove the middle of the ice and Backstrom corralled a loose puck, cutting around the net. Defenseman Dennis Wideman was waiting all alone with his stick ready and fired home his seventh goal of the year for a bit of insurance.
“It’s unbelievable. He’s got such a good eye for the game,” Johansson said of Backstrom’s vision on the ice. “It’s very fun to play with him because you can get the puck anytime.”
