Caps Finish Trip in Ottawa

30 January against Ottawa Senators in Canadian Tire Center

Time: 19:00

TV: Mnmt

Radio: 106.7 The fan, Caps Radio 24/7

The capitals reach the end of their five-game road trip and the end of their 14-game January slate on Thursday night in Ottawa as they face the senators for the second of three times this season. The first meeting between the two country’s capital cities took place here in Ottawa two weeks ago when Washington Eked out of a 1-0 overtime victory on the strength of another consecutive Logan Thompson shutout (24 savings) and Alex Ovechkin’s game winning Overtime Goal, the 27th of his NHL career.

As they return to the eastern time zone for the first time in over a week to Thursday’s trip final, Caps has a 3-1-0 record for the trip to date. Their lonely mistaken mistake on the journey was a 2-1 setback to Canucks in Vancouver on Saturday night, a loss that ended a six-match winning row, the team’s longest season. Washington is 9-1-3 in January, and its total 21 points this month match output from the best previous month of the season to date; Caps also rolled 21 points in November (10-4-1).

Most recently, Caps won a 3-1 win over the flames in Calgary on Tuesday. Thompson won his 11th start in a row in this game and won in his hometown of Calgary with a 32-saving excursion that lifted his record to 23-2-3 of the season. Thompson has allowed two or fewer goals against 19 of its last 23 starts dating back to November 2nd.

Tuesday’s win over the flames in Calgary was also satisfying for Washington -Vingen Andrew Mangiapane, who played the first seven seasons and 417 games of his NHL in a flame uniform.

“It’s a great feeling,” Mangiapan said after the victory. “Obviously, I know a lot of guys on that team, and I think half of them might be at my wedding, so there are good relationships there. It’s definitely nice to get the two points, and I’m really impressed with the way our team fought tonight and really dug deeply; Power Play, (criminal murder), everything was huge for us and it’s a really good feeling to get away by two points. “

Calgary made the night special with an overlying video tribute to Mangiapane’s many exploits in a Calgary sweater, shown on Scotiabank Saddledome Video Board on the first TV hourout in the first period.

“It was great, it was a fantastic video tribute,” says Mangiapan. “It was great to see all these plays, goals and everything similar. I had a lot of fond memories here, scored a lot of big goals and just saw a big fanbase and the audience who always had my back here and every time I stepped out on the ice they would nothing but the best for me.

“I’m glad to be back and happy to get away with two points. But it was a good video tribute that I will remember forever. “

For just the sixth time in their story, Washington has merged eight straight matches where it has surrendered two or fewer goals against. The franchise post is nine consecutive matches, achieved only once, and the performance was at this time 27 years ago.

From 9-31 January 1998 month after moving from suburbs Landover, MD. For downtown DC-GIK CAPS nine straight matches without allowing as many as three goals against in any of them. They went 6-1-2 in the nine games in 1997-98. This year’s model is 7-1-0 up to and including eight matches.

The hoods are NHL’s unstable defensive teams, giving an average of 2.34 goals against per. Match. Washington has allowed only 11 goals against in his last 10 games, and it has only given five goals against 5-to-5 in its last eight competitions.

“You can see that the system works,” says Caps captain Alex Ovechkin. “Obviously, our Goaltending has played very solidly. We block the shots and we play smartly in our (defensive) zone. “

When Washington last visited here two weeks ago, the senators went into the game just a point shy for eighth place and the last Stanley Cup playing game in the eastern conference position. Included their overtime loss to the capitals that night, Sens 4-2-1 has been since, and it has been enough to lift them from ninth place in the eastern conference to the sixth.

Ottawa has also moved in front of both Tampa Bay and Boston and into third place in the Atlantic Division position as it is looking for its first postal season edge since 2017 when it fell to Pittsburgh in double overtime in Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Last Series. Sens’ current point percentage of .560 is the team’s highest in any season since the last playoff performance after the 2016-17 season, with Sens ending with 98 points, a .598 point percentage.

Sens has been parked at idle since last Sunday as they won a 3-1 win over visitor Utah Hockey Club here. Ottawa is 7-2-1 in its last 10 games, and it’s 4-0-1 in its last five home matches, with overtime losses to Washington on January 16 The lonely spot on their home post during this span.

Sens has won each of the first two matches in their four-game home, which ends on Saturday when Minnesota visits.