The Washington Capitals will face an unusual challenge against the visiting St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.
They will try to rebound from a regulation loss at home, something they hadn’t suffered since Nov. 23.
The Capitals fell to the Calgary Flames 3-1 on Tuesday night to snap their 16-game point streak at Capital One Arena. They will try to start a new streak when they face the Blues.
Superstar captain Alex Ovechkin scored Washington’s goal on Tuesday, giving him four in two games and 883 in his career. He needs 12 more to break Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky’s career goal-scoring record.
Ovechkin, however, wants to help the Capitals get back on track after their sluggish game against the Flames.
“We don’t have a jump in the first period,” Ovechkin said. “Obviously, they get the lead, and we try to bounce back. I think we played solid second but didn’t score. Their goalie (Dan Vladar) played well, but we tried to make a push.
“We have to get a better start.”
After winning their previous two games by the combined score of 15-6, the Capitals were loose with the puck against Calgary.
“I think maybe we just anticipated it to come a little bit too easy,” defenseman John Carlson said. “I don’t want to call them dumb plays, because they weren’t really dumb, but it just seemed like we weren’t simplified enough.
“I think we just forced too many pucks a little bit instead of just settling for having to go get it and dig it out.”
The Blues took five of a possible six points at home in their first three games back from the 4 Nations Face-Off. They rolled to a 7-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday with 13 different players earning at least one point.
“I think we’re finding a little consistency in our game,” said defenseman Cam Fowler, who had a goal and two assists against Seattle.
“We understand what we’re capable of when we’re doing things the right way, the depth that we have and the goaltending that we have, we feel like we can compete with anybody, but I think we’re just finding a little more consistency throughout the lineup and guys are playing hard and working hard for one another.”
While the Blues were pleased with that offensive outburst against Seattle, they realized they must refocus to face the Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals.
“What we did tonight, we can’t be fooled by this game by winning, scoring seven goals,” said St. Louis forward Oskar Sundqvist, who had his first career three-point game with a goal and two assists.
Blues coach Jim Montgomery said his team must continue to play “hard offensive hockey” to be successful.
“It’s just repetitions, building good habits and the habits are there right now and it’s kind of like it happened a little while back where we went on a heater there, we were scoring a lot of goals,” Montgomery said. “We’ve just got to make sure we maintain our defensive habits.”
–Field Level Media
