Aside from Fleischmann, secondary scorers are not finding the back of the net
With their injury woes unlikely to improve much over the coming days, the Capitals are looking for internal solutions when they return to the ice tonight at Verizon Center against the New York Islanders.
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Of the seven players currently out of the lineup with various ailments, only forward Sergei Fedorov (ankle sprain) has a chance to play against New York. With so much inexperience amongst the defensive corps call-ups, probably the best way to take some pressure off that group is for Washington to improve its offense — which is averaging just 2.6 goals per game over the last seven contests.
“There has not been enough secondary scoring,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters after practice on Wednesday. “It’s too easy in this league to check one line.”
That would be the combination of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Viktor Kozlov, which has scored 10 of Washington’s 18 goals over those seven games. Add in second-line winger Tomas Fleischmann’s three goals and the Caps have clearly lacked scoring balance. No other player has more than one goal during that 2-5 stretch, which included a 3-0 shutout loss at Columbus last weekend.
Several players were publicly critical of the team’s effort during Tuesday’s disappointing 5-3 home loss to Florida. The Caps allowed three second-period goals in that game and a late rally fell short.
They can’t afford a slow start against an Islanders team that seems to defy low expectations every season. New York (10-12-2) has won six of its last nine games, including wins at Montreal and Buffalo. All that without star goalie Rick DiPietro, who underwent knee surgery on Oct. 25. In his stead, goalie Joey MacDonald (2.89 GAA, .907 save percentage) has posted 10 wins and will make his 15th start in a row tonight. Right wing Trent Hunter leads the Islanders with 10 goals. Center Doug Weight has a team-high 22 points.
Capitals vs. New York Islanders
WHEN » Tonight, 7 p.m.
WHERE » Verizon Center
TV » Comcast SportsNet (HD)
RADIO » 1500 AM
