Veteran hasn’t gotten a point in nine games Twice in the last five games, Capitals veteran winger Mike Knuble thought he had scored a goal that likely would have sealed a win for his team. Instead, both times he was left shaking his head in frustration.
The 39-year-old has just two goals and five assists, so this stretch has been representative of his season so far. Knuble has spent significant time over the last month playing on the fourth line — a tough position for a player who has scored at least 21 goals in each of the last eight seasons.
But in recent games Knuble has had his chances. Late in a game against Nashville on Nov. 15, he drove to the front of the net after a Jason Chimera shot and tried to swat the puck home to break a 1-1 tie with 35 seconds left. Knuble was knocked to the ice but forced goalie Pekka Rinne to make a fine pad save. Unfortunately, Knuble was left helpless as Nashville pushed up ice for what proved to be the winning goal.
| Notes |
| » Washington (12-7-1, 25 points) hosts the New York Rangers (10-5-3, 23 points) in a 4 p.m. game at Verizon Center on Friday. |
| » The Caps and Rangers have yet to face each other this season. Washington defeated New York in five games in a first-round Stanley Cup playoff series last spring. |
| » Star free agent center Brad Richards, signed away from Dallas in the offseason, has six goals and seven assists for the Rangers through 18 games. |
And on Wednesday against the Winnipeg Jets, Knuble banged home a loose puck in the crease midway through the third period and began celebrating his first goal in November. But behind him the referee waved off the goal, saying Caps forward Matt Hendricks had interfered with goalie Ondrej Pavelec. It would have made the score 4-2 Washington with 8:07 remaining. Instead, Winnipeg tied the game at 3-3 just 43 seconds later.
“You just get hammered twice by the hockey gods,” Knuble said of the non-goal vs. the Jets. “But you keep doing those things. Take the positive out of it that I did make the right play.”
Knuble hasn’t recorded a point in nine games. It’s reminiscent of last year’s barren stretch in which he had just one goal and four assists in the Caps’ first 14 games. Yet over the next 65 games Knuble scored 23 times and had another 12 assists.
His ice time is picking up again, too. The last two games Knuble played 20:47 against Phoenix and 17:18 vs. Winnipeg. Before this week, Washington coach Bruce Boudreau had played Knuble less than 16 minutes in 10 straight games dating to Oct. 29. This for a player who averaged 16:53 in his first season with the Caps and 17:53 last season.
“I really was hoping that [Knuble] would score [against the Jets] because he deserved to score,” Boudreau said. “He played almost 21 minutes the game before for a reason — not just because I like him but because he’s deserved to play. He’s been strong on the puck, he’s been skating as well as I’ve seen him skate and he’s been leading by example, especially when we were in a little bit of a rut.”
