Game #19
Caps (11-3-4, 26 points) vs. Minnesota Wild (7-10-1, 15 points)
The season is starting to fly by here. Just about a quarter of the way through already and the Caps are on top of the Eastern Conference – though tied with the New Jersey Devils (13-4), who have actually beatem them twice. I mentioned this in a post last week but that club is the Jason Voorhees of the NHL at this point. If GM Lou Lamoriello wants to write a book about how to be awesome at life I’m buying that thing.
Well, the Caps won’t have to worry about the Devils until tomorrow night when they hit The Rock (Prudential Center). For now, they get a Minnesota Wild club that struggled early this season under new coach Todd Richards. Having said that – Minnesota is 4-1-1 in its last six games so maybe it’s just taking a while to get used to a system far different from the one run by former coach Jacques Lamaire. Caps do catch a break because the Wild played last night in Tampa Bay – a 4-3 shootout loss. We’ll see if that makes a difference late in this one.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting that the Caps may also miss Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom – the Finn, not D.C.’s playmaking Swede – who has started the last 12 games. That workload isn’t sustainable and with another game Sunday at Carolina Richards needed to find his star a day off. Backstrom’s numbers actually aren’t all that great so far – .910 save percentage and a 2.60 goals-against average. But he’s still one of the league’s best when he’s on.
No Milan Jurcina for the Caps (hamstring) and he’s questionable for the Jersey game, too. Defenseman Jeff Schultz is the other scratch. He has been dealing with a lower-body injury since last Friday. Either Boyd Gordon (back) or David Steckel (family funeral) will play. Alex Ovechkin is out. But he took the morning skate and says he has at least a shot at playing Saturday against the Devils. Will check back from Verizon Center later.
