Capitals ‘real proud of where we’re at’ atop NHL standings

WASHINGTON -- Spencer Carbery pondered the question for a moment and didn’t seem sure how to respond initially.

How does it feel, the Washington Capitals coach was asked, to be alone atop the NHL standings?

“I don’t know how to answer that,” Carbery said following a 4-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Capital One Arena on Saturday. “We feel good.”

The Capitals (31-10-5) have plenty of reasons to feel that way. Following their fourth straight win, they lead the NHL with 67 points, two more than the Winnipeg Jets, who lost to 3-1 to the Calgary Flames on Saturday.

Washington has points in 10 consecutive games (7-0-3), its longest streak since a 13-game stretch (11-0-2) from Oct. 16-Nov. 13, 2019, heading into a challenging five-game road trip that begins against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, MNMT).

After a slow start, the Oilers (29-14-3) have played a lot like the team that reached the Stanley Cup Final last season, going 19-5-1 in their past 25 games, including four straight wins prior to a 3-2 loss at the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.

“It’s always a test against them,” Capitals forward Tom Wilson said. “You’ve got one of the best players in the world. On any given night, he’s going to show up and he’s going to make your life difficult. So, we’ll enjoy this one, travel out there and be ready for it.”

Edmonton won the two games against Washington last season by a combined score of 12-2. But the Capitals are a far different team this season than the one that snuck into the Stanely Cup Playoffs as the second wild card from the Eastern Conference with 91 points (40-31-11) before being swept by the New York Rangers in four games in the first round.

Washington leads the New Jersey Devils by nine points for first in the Metropolitan Division and the Toronto Maple Leafs by seven points for first in the East. The standard has been raised to the point where the Capitals weren’t happy with the inconsistency in their play since the NHL’s holiday break, despite getting points and wins in those games, before putting together a complete victory against the rival Penguins on Saturday.

“We’ve had confidence all year and just try to stay even-keel,” defenseman Jakob Chychrun said. “We weren’t playing our best, but we just try to stick with it and grind out a few wins, get a few points here and there. [Saturday], we had a bit of a better game, and this group’s just resilient and sticks together and tries to get out of a little bit of a -- I don’t want to say slump because we’re finding ways to get points, but we’re not playing our best.”

The win Saturday was another example of how far the Capitals have come. Although Alex Ovechkin was held without a goal -- leaving him with 874 and 21 away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894 -- Washington demonstrated its improved depth and controlled play almost from start to finish.

Chychrun, one of seven players the Capitals added during the offseason to upgrade their roster, scored his 13th goal of the season (third among NHL defensemen) to open the scoring at 7:42 of the first period.

Center Pierre-Luc Dubois, another offseason addition, worked with linemates Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson to hold Sidney Crosby’s line in check for most of the night. Crosby set up Bryan Rust’s 2-on-1 goal that cut Pittsburgh’s deficit to 2-1 at 11:29 of the third period, but Dubois responded on the power play with 2:10 remaining after assisting on Protas’ second-period goal that turned out to be the game-winner.

And goalie Logan Thompson, yet another one of the newcomers, came within 8:31 of posting his third consecutive shutout. He was named the NHL's First Star of the Week on Monday after going 3-0-0 with a 0.33 goals-against average and a .984 save percentage.

"They're not beating themselves,” Crosby said. “I think they're finding different ways to win -- low-scoring, high-scoring games, sometimes special teams. That's what you have to do to win consistently. It's not a secret. That's probably a big part of their success.”

After going 21-6-2 and averaging 3.97 goals per game (second in NHL) through their first 29 games, the goals haven’t come as easily for the Capitals in their 17 games since, dropping to 2.88 per game (17th in the League). But they’ve gone 10-4-3 over that stretch by relying on their defensive-zone play and goaltending, which has limited opponents to 2.06 goals per game (first in the NHL).

“There has to kind of been an expectation every night that we’re going to win, that when we come in on home ice that we’re going to win, and when we go on the road, we have a feeling that we’re going to win,” Wilson said. “And that’s a culture that’s been built. A lot of the new guys came in this year and complemented that, and that’s the first thing. You come in and you’re confident in your group.

“Obviously, you’ve got to go out there play and execute, but coming into the games as a group playing for each other is the most important thing in my mind. So, it seems like we have that, and then the Xs and Os and the execution and work ethic will follow that.”

Carbery has been pushing all the right buttons, showing appreciation for the wins, and where Washington is in the standings, while also stressing the need to clean up parts of the process that have fallen off. He has the Capitals focused on their nine remaining games before the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, which will be held from Feb. 12-20.

“I think we’re happy and the guys should be real proud of where we’re at thus far in the year … and we’ll just continue to build and continue to grind,” Carbery said. “We’ve done a good job. We’ve put ourselves in a real good spot, and now it’s on us to continue that through this last little stretch before the 4 Nations break and then when we get back, we’ll be energized and ready to go for the final stretch.”