The Vancouver Canucks will strive to right the ship against the host Washington Capitals on Wednesday.
The matchup represents the second of a five-game road trip for the Canucks, with all four of the remaining contests coming against teams with winning records.
The Canucks enter the game with just one win over their past five (1-2-2), including a 5-4 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night.
Vancouver let a 3-1 lead slip away from them before eventually falling in the extra frame.
J.T. Miller led the way offensively for the Canucks with two goals and two assists in the losing effort.
“It’s nice to see a couple go in, but as a team I think it just needs to be a bit more (consistent),” Miller said following the tough loss.
“We have these spurts in games where the other team takes control a little bit and we have a hard time of stopping that momentum and flipping it quickly.”
It wasn’t all bad for the Canucks, as Quinn Hughes collected a pair of assists in his return to action after missing Vancouver’s previous four games with an undisclosed injury.
The pair of Elias Pettersson (undisclosed) and Thatcher Demko (back spasms) were still unavailable for Monday’s contest, despite returning to practice. The status of both Vancouver’s superstar center and top goaltender is up in the air for Wednesday.
A return to action for Demko, who has manned the crease just seven times this season, would be beneficial for a Canucks squad that is struggling to keep the puck out of their net. Vancouver has allowed three or more goals in nine straight contests and could see more of the same against the Capitals, who are averaging 3.7 goals per game, tied for the most in the league entering Tuesday.
Just like the Canucks, the Capitals will be looking for a rebound performance after dropping a point in Monday’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
Aliaksei Protas scored a third-period goal to extend the contest past regulation and give the Capitals at least a point in their fourth straight game (2-0-2).
Tom Wilson found the back of the net twice, extending his goal-scoring streak to three games.
Despite that, Wilson was disappointed with his team’s overall effort.
“At the end of the day we found a way late to get it tied up, give ourselves a chance in overtime and shootout, obviously, but I think we started a bit late,” Wilson said.
“I mean, the third period, we started to tilt the ice, play better. We’ve just got to … try and take advantage of the full 60, not just kind of the third period, when we’re down one.”
The Capitals have had no trouble finding reliable scorers, with all four of Alex Ovechkin (19), Wilson (18), Protas (18) and Connor McMichael (17) nearing the 20-goal plateau.
Even with their recent string of losses, the Canucks still possess an impressive 11-4-3 record on the road, while the Capitals are 13-4-3 at home so far this season.
The Capitals have gotten the better of the Canucks of late, winning four of the past five meetings (4-0-1), and collecting at least a point in 10 of the previous 11 clashes (8-1-2).
–Field Level Media
