Caps Clash and Canucks | NHL.com

Oct. 17 vs. Vancouver Canucks at Capital One Arena

time: 7 pm

tv set: NBCSW

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Vancouver Canucks (1-1-0)

Washington Capitals (1-2-0)

The Caps will host the Vancouver Canucks at Capital One Arena on Monday night to wrap up their two-game homestand. Following Monday night’s game, the Capitals will be busy for the rest of his October. They will close out the month by playing five of his next six games away.

After dropping a string of back-to-back games to start the season, the Caps were on the winning line with a 3–1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night. In three games in a row, the Caps scored his first goal against Montreal. However, Washington gave enough offense midway through the second period as he scored his three goals in six minutes and 18 seconds. Darcy Kemper (21 saves) First win in a Capitals sweater.

For the first time this season, the Caps won a special teams fight in Saturday’s game. And for the first time this season, he managed to score more than two goals in one game.

“It helped that they were back-to-back on the second night,” he said. TJ Oshie After winning Montreal. “But we were playing a little bit faster. Power tonight I think he was better at his kills in penalties than he was in plays, which is a good sign. [of power-play goals], they’ve worked hard and done a good job, but we’ve let some go. And tonight I thought they did a great job for us.

“But you’re going to want to win a special teams fight that can win a series every night, whether it’s the regular season or especially the postseason. That’s why you need those two units.”

The Caps still have a lot of advantages, especially offensively, but a win over the Hubs gives them four games in the first six nights of the season — a point against the Canucks on Monday.

Washington has scored two goals in its first three games this season, going 5-5, and Oshie’s power-play goal against the Habs on Saturday was the Caps’ first extra-man strike of the season. The Capitals had a total of 194 shots in his first three games, though he had 90 total shots into the opposing team’s net. They also blocked 57 shots and missed the net 47. Opponents put his 91 shots into Washington’s net, but only his 37 bids were blocked, and he missed the net 47 times. He missed 34 times.

The Caps have had a fair amount of offensive zone time in a small sample of three games so far this season, but they haven’t been as efficient as their opponents.

“We are working to generate and we are working hard to generate,” says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. And we’re working on that right now, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing because it keeps you focused on the specifics of when you’re not good on defense.And we’re on defense. I think it was pretty good. [Saturday] We were able to get good goaltending at night when we needed it. But when we’re not doing well defensively, we focus on the defensive details and how we can do better and what we can do better.

“Very offensively, we have such conversations, and while this team can score goals by the bunch, sometimes – throughout the year – it may not be so easy. And I think we’re pushing it, but that’s a good thing. It gets everyone working.

Vancouver will play the middle match of its season-opening five-game road trip on Monday night. The Canucks are still chasing their first win of the season. They lost 5-3 to Edmonton’s Oilers before a 3-2 decision to Philadelphia’s Flyers on Saturday afternoon.

After starting 8-15-2 last season, the Canucks made a coaching change. Travis Green was dismissed from his duties and replaced by former Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. Vancouver then benefited from a “boo low bump” the rest of the way, finishing 32-15-10 and hanging in the playoff chase until the final week of the season.

Boudreau coached 1,045 regular-season games in the minors before eventually being promoted to Washington, where he made his first NHL coaching gig in the fall of 2015. Boudreau has coached him in his 1,043 games in the NHL, ranking 24th all-time. He comes into Monday’s game with his all-time record of 599-319-125.

During the offseason, the Canucks made some modest additions to their roster. Most importantly, Vancouver has signed former Maple Leafs winger Ilya Mikheyev as a free agent. He is currently out due to an injury during preseason. The Canucks also signed former Bruins’ fourth-liner Curtis Lazar to finish in the bottom six.

Vancouver also ventured outside of North America for two acquisitions and brought in center Nils Aman, a former Avs draftee who skated in his native Sweden last season. He has been in Vancouver’s fourth row center for the first two games of the season. The Canucks have also acquired 26-year-old Russian winger Andrei Kuzmenko. Andrej Zmenko scored his first NHL goal in Wednesday’s first game against Edmonton. Kuzmenko signed a one-year deal with the Canucks after leading SKA St. Petersburg in scoring last season.