Caps collide with Blue Jackets in battle of NHL’s two stingiest 5-on-5 teams, Strome strong on dot, more
Back In Ohio – Less than a month after they were here for their final road preseason game on Sept. 30, the Caps are back in Ohio’s capital city to face the Blue Jackets Friday night. The game is the first of four meetings between the two Metropolitan Division rivals, and it also starts a weekend set of back-to-back games. The Caps are back home on Saturday night to host the Ottawa Senators.
Tonight’s game pits the two stingiest teams in the NHL at 5-on-5; both teams have been nicked for just a goal a game at even strength to this point of the season.
“I think both goaltenders have been fantastic for them,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of the Blue Jackets. “Both operating at like a .928 [save pct.] for both of them, which is really good. And maybe this is just my own assessment; maybe [Columbus coach] Dean [Evason] disagrees, or their camp disagrees, but it looks like the first few games of the season they were sort of finding their way through that. Then the last two, it seems like they’ve really found their game and played at a real high level against two really, really good hockey teams in Dallas,
“It looks like they’ve sort of found it now, and we’re going to need our best tonight.”
The Caps will be playing without center P-L Dubois (lower body) for the fifth straight game and they’re also without defenseman Rasmus Sandin [upper body] who played in all 82 games last season. Dubois made the trip with the team while Sandin did not. Neither player is expected to be out on a long-term basis.
In addition to being miserly at 5-on-5, Columbus is an offensively stacked team, and one that’s capable of doing damage on the rush.
“I think they’re a very well-balanced team lines one through four,” says Carbery. “And then I think their [defensemen] are a real issue with their ability to skate, all three sets of [defense] pairs. They provide, not only off the rush and your prototypical D being aggressive when you have a great skating D corps, but also their ability to jump into space in the offensive zone, which can cause issues.
“They do a good job with their structure and that, but they’ve got some individual talent over there, guys that have that combination of speed, but it also goes with that poise and patience and ability to get middle ice with Fantilli, and Kent Johnson and Marchenko, and we just go down the list.
“And then you haven’t even touched on the back end. If Werenski gets puck through the neutral zone, look out. A lot of people think about that like, ‘What’s he going to do, get a breakaway? You’ve got three people back.’ He’s not; no, you’re right.
“Nothing’s going to happen off that initial [entry], but he’s going to find something if he wheels the net, if he delays, if he’s finding trailers or he gets in the middle. Now he creates duplication defensively. There’s so much that’s created off of those neutral zone pucks and their speed through the middle of the ice.”
Washington has defended well at 5-on-5 this season, but keeping that up through the weekend against the likes of Columbus and Ottawa figures to be a challenge.
“A lot of speed and skill,” says Caps defenseman Matt Roy. “I think for us, it’s a matter of staying aggressive, not backing off, and keeping our good gaps and making them work for their opportunities.
“I said it last game, but it’s more about us and focusing on ourselves and making sure that we’re ready to play our game.”
Draw The Line – Now in his 10th NHL season, Caps center Dylan Strome is off to a strong start offensively; he leads the team with seven assists and is second on the team in scoring with nine points in the early going.
Strome has also won 57.9 percent of his face-offs through Washington’s first seven games of the season, which ranks him 13th in the NHL among players who have taken 75 or more draws this season. Strome’s current success rate on the dot would represent a single-season best if he can maintain it; he has improved his face-off percentage in each of his seasons with Washington. Strome went from 48.8 percent in 2022-23 to 52.8 percent the following season, and he hit a career-best 53.7 percent last season.
“If you lose a draw, the chances that you get a good [scoring] chance in your shift are real low,” he says. “I don’t know the exact numbers, but someone once told me it’s an average of 17 seconds for you to get the puck back if you lose a draw. And you can feel it on the ice if you lose a draw and then you’re chasing it for 17 seconds at a minimum, on average. You’re done.
“I think it’s just knowing my linemates well, and knowing where to put them, so that if I do tie it up or lose it, or if it’s going to go 50/50, knowing which guy to put where, and I think just trying to be smart with it. Also, a lot of the time we get good matchups too, because we started in the [offensive] zone, so I’m really trying to win that to get a [scoring] chance. But they’re all important, and it’s definitely nice to start with a face-off win. When you start with the puck, good things happen.”
As a team, the Caps have won 77 of 157 (49 percent) of their face-offs in the offensive zone this season. Strome has won 49 of 86 (57 percent) of his draws in the offensive zone. Only two players in the League have won more offensive zone draws than Strome to this point of the season, Boston’s Elias Lindholm (51) and Vegas’ Tomas Hertl (50). Lindholm has played two more games than Hertl and Strome.
Carbery gives Strome much of the credit for his improvement on the draws in his four seasons as a Capital.
“He is a great face-off guy in the League,” says Carbery. “He pays attention to it and is a student of draws – which I love – and I think that’s a big part of it. He does not for a second take for granted any face-off that he takes or go into those situations in a casual manner. He knows who he’s up against, he pre-scouts his opponents and has a plan to what he does at every dot. Does it always work out? No, but it’s not going to be from a lack of preparation and a lack of care to win that draw.
“The one thing that Stromer has done a really good job of is, if you look at the technical piece of face-offs, he’s not winning draws with brute force. He’s recognized that, ‘Okay, there’s a lot of centermen that might be physically more dominant than me, whether it’s size or strength,’ but he’s found a way to be a very effective centerman by using technique, by using strategy.
“You notice how he goes to his offside [on draws]; there’s not a lot of guys in the NHL that on power play draws will go to their offside. He does because he has a technique and can pre-scout who he’s up against, and he can win the draw to the wall with timing, and with knowing his opponents. Little things like that have allowed him to thrive in the dot and be as consistently a strong face-off guy as he is.”
Strome did exactly what Carbery described on Tuesday against Seattle, setting up Jakob Chychrun’s power-play goal after a winning a draw on his offside. Chychrun’s goal came just eight seconds into a Washington power play.
Like many things in this game, improvement and excellence comes as a result of repetition, video study and networking.
“It’s tough as a draw guy in the League when you’re younger,” says Strome. “Obviously, you’re going up against men compared to whoever you played against before, and guys take draws for a living; that’s part of their job. You just learn throughout your career, learn to win draws and learn how certain guys and do certain things.
“And before every game, me and [Nic Dowd] talk about the guys on the other team before every game, just trying to help each other out. Dowder will say like, ‘Hey Stromer, watch this draw and let me know what you see,’ because he can get a lefty’s perspective when he is going against a lefty, and I like to do the same thing for Dowder. It’s a good connection we have there.”
In The Nets – We are expecting to see Logan Thompson in the Washington nets tonight against the Blue Jackets. Thompson has limited the opposition to two or fewer goals against in each of his first five starts this season. He is 4-1-0 with a 1.60 GAA and a .927 save pct. on the season to date. Lifetime against the Jackets, Thompson is 2-1-0 in four appearances (three starts), with a 3.02 GAA and a .909 save pct.
Jet Greaves will be in goal for Columbus. He and Elvis Merzlikins have split six starts so far this season, and as Carbery noted, both have been excellent. Greaves is 1-2-0 with a 2.04 GAA and a .928 save pct. in his three starts. Lifetime against Washington, Greaves is 2-0-1 in three starts, with a shutout, a 0.99 GAA and a .967 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how the Capitals and the Blue Jackets might look on Friday night in Columbus:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
72-Beauvillier, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
29-Lapierre, 24-McMichael, 43-Wilson
21-Protas, 34-Sourdif, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 53-Frank
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
47-Chisholm, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
15-Milano
52-McIlrath
Injured/Out
38-Sandin (upper body)
80-Dubois (lower body)
COLUMBUS
Forwards
10-Voronkov, 23-Monahan, 86-Marchenko
38-Jenner, 19-Fantilli, 91-Johnson
4-Sillinger, 3-Coyle, 24-Olivier
27-Aston-Reese, 21-Lundestrom, 59-Chinakhov
Defensemen
8-Werenski, 5-Mateychuk
9-Provorov, 78-Severson
15-Fabbro, 44-Gudbranson
Goalies
73-Greaves
90-Merzlikins
Healthy Extras
2-Christiansen
Injured/Out
11-Wood (upper body)
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