Washington to play nine of next 10 games at home
They may be riding high after earning five out of six possible points on a recent road trip. They may have opened a huge 13-point lead in the Southeast Division.
But don’t talk to the Capitals about the Stanley Cup playoffs just yet. There is still much work left to determine if this team is just a very good one or something more. With nine of the next 10 games at Verizon Center, where they have the second-best home record in the NHL, the Caps have a chance to answer that question.
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“Hockey is a game where you have to work for good things to happen,” said Caps forward Sergei Fedorov. “Every game is a challenge for us. But we’ve at least done what we’ve had to do [on the road trip].”
Washington (36-16-5, 77 points) is set tonight to host the struggling Montreal Canadiens (30-21-6, 66 points), who are near the end of a vicious six-game road trip to western Canada and then back to the east coast of the United States. Normally, it’s a good thing when the team coming to town is on a 3-10 skid, right?
“No because we usually play bad against teams that are struggling,” said Caps defenseman Mike Green, who had his NHL-record eight-game goal streak stopped during Sunday’s win at Florida. “Teams like that usually make it tough on us.”
He’s not kidding. The Caps are actually 18-7-1 against the 14 teams currently out of a playoff position. That’s not much better than their 18-9-4 record against playoff teams and has been an issue most of the season. Washington has won two of the three meetings with Montreal this season.
“Any time you start thinking it’s going to get easier you’re in trouble,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “It’s hard to win games in this league. It’s a game-by-game thing. We can’t let ourselves think beyond that one game.”
