Washington plays Detroit, Pittsburgh
During the course of a long NHL season certain weeks act as barometers. They show a team exactly how it is playing and demonstrate what it still needs to reach the ultimate goal.
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The Capitals began such a stretch on Sunday afternoon when they handled the surging Philadelphia Flyers, 5-3. Once again Washington (30-12-6, 66 points) finds itself on top of the Eastern Conference after that victory.
Whether the Caps stay there will be determined by their performance the rest of this week against last year’s two Stanley Cup finalists and an upstart team that ranks as the NHL’s most surprising so far.
Washington hosts the Detroit Red Wings — last year’s Western Conference champion — tonight at Verizon Center. That game is followed by a showdown with the Pittsburgh Penguins — the defending champs who eliminated the Caps from the playoffs last spring. The final test is back home Saturday against the Phoenix Coyotes, a team that spent the summer embroiled in a damaging bankruptcy case that brought into question its existence in Arizona. Instead, the Coyotes shook off the distractions and matured into a playoff contender. They entered play Monday tied for fourth in the Western Conference.
“I think every week is a measuring stick,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau pointed out before Sunday’s win over Philadelphia.
That’s true. But it’s not often a team plays the previous year’s finalists back-to-back, either. The Red Wings (24-16-8, 54 points) don’t yet resemble the team that won the title in 2008 and pushed Pittsburgh to seven games last June. They currently sit ninth in the Western Conference and a point out of playoff position. That’s unknown territory for a franchise that hasn’t missed the postseason since 1990.
But injuries have crippled Detroit, which is only now regaining its health. Forward Dan Cleary and star center Henrik Zetterberg both returned from separated shoulders on Jan. 7 after missing a month and three weeks respectively. Forward Valtteri Filppula missed two months with a broken arm and defenseman Jonathan Ericsson (bruised knee) came back from injured reserve Jan. 14. Defenseman Niklas Kronwall (sprained knee) has been out since Nov. 21 and forward Johan Franzen (ACL tear) won’t return until March at the earliest.
