The Washington Capitals will look to hold the Penguins at bay, who cut the gap in standings down, by taking on the bottom of the Pacific Division. Can the Capitals bounce back against the Kings?
The Washington Capitals got a chance to showcase their ownership of the Metropolitan division with a faceoff against their archrival Pittsburgh Penguins.
Unfortunately for the Capitals they only showed their need to work on some areas of their game before they are considered the best team in the division.
The Capitals fell to the Penguins 4-3, on the back of committing eight penalties. While the PK did it’s job and killed all the penalties they were dealt, but this merely helped wear them down for the 5v5 action.
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The scoring started with the Washington Capitals Lars Eller sniping one from the circles, with Murray not putting up much of a fight. But as has been the case all season the Capitals allowed the tying score about a minute later where Lafferty found the tight pocket in the corner over Samsonov‘s blocker side. Only a minute later Samsonov would play the puck with his stick after a deflection from Hornqvist to give the Penguins a lead which they wouldn’t let go for the rest of the game.
The game continued as you would expect with the Capitals and Penguins, the game was rather evenly played just with a few bad luck plays. The only other goal that could be considered soft was the knuckle puck that Tanev put on net to make it a 2 goal deficit late in the game, where Samsonov appeared to be frozen and just lost the puck for a split second.
Except for those two lapses in play, Samsonov kept the score closer than it could have ended up as the Capitals team defense was wanting and will need to vastly improve going forward. Lars Eller tried bring the Washington Capitals back in it by displaying his best dangle move and sniping another past Murray. The Capitals will need to take advantage of the games that they should win, like the next game on the docket.
The Washington Capitals get to meet the Los Angeles Kings. Their previous meeting the Capitals came out winners by a 3-1 score, on the back of a two goal performance from John Carlson. The game was closer than one would expect when seeing these two play given the last goal was gotten from an empty net.
Over their last five games these two teams have a different trend, the Kings have lost four of their last five while the Capitals have done a few better with only two losses in the same span. The Capitals struggling PP unit will get an opportunity to improve against the 27th ranked PK unit, and the 22nd ranked GA team.
The Washington Capitals might be looking for some infusion of energy and youth as they have recalled Martin Fehervary from the AHL Hershey Bears. Since the Capitals have been splitting the goalie duties look for Braden Holtby to get the start, he has a 1-2-1 record with a 0.911 SV% and 2.51 GAA versus the Kings in his career. Provided the Capitals can gain the lead and keep it for longer than a minute, paired with a better team defense they should be able to make this a win. Will Alex Ovechkin find the back of the net and continue to climb the ranks? Here is how to find out:
Date: Tuesday. February 4th
Time: 7:00 pm EST
Where: Capital One Arena
TV Broadcast: NBC Sports Washington
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Caps Radio 24/7
Live Streaming: ESPN+ has a free 7-day trial that includes live streaming for this game on all your smart devices! Besides NHL games, ESPN+ features a selection of live games from MLB, MLS, Serie A, FA Cup, and EFL. Get in on the action with Live UFC Fight Nights, 30+ Top Rank Boxing cards, Grand Slam tennis from Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open.