Game Preview: After A Week Off, Blue Jackets Start Five-Game Road Trip In Nation's Capital

WASHINGTON CAPITALS

25–13–9 (59 points; .628%) ROSTER / SCHEDULE

7:00 P.M. – TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8TH CAPITAL ONE ARENA  WASHINGTON, DC

BALLY SPORTS OHIO ESPN+ (Out of Market)

The Columbus Blue Jackets begin an unusual road trip Tuesday when they face the Washington Capitals from D.C.'s Capital One Arena.

It's the first of five games played away from Nationwide Arena, all of which are rescheduled as a result of postponements earlier in the season due to COVID-19. Tuesday's game was originally set for late April, but an array of schedule changes necessitated the game be moved up. 

The remaining four games of the road trip will be games the Blue Jackets missed earlier in the season, with trips to Buffalo, Montreal, Calgary, and Chicago. The NHL used February, which was originally set for a pause so that players could participate in the Winter Olympics, as a time to make up the 98 games that needed rescheduled.

Because of the odd scheduling, both teams are coming off extended breaks. It will be the Blue Jackets' first game since an 8-4 loss to the Florida Panthers back on January 31st, and the Capitals' first action since losing to the Edmonton Oilers 5-3 on Wednesday, February 2nd.

Columbus' loss to Florida snapped a brief two-game winning streak, but the offense remained hot despite the loss. The four-goal output gave them 15 in the last three games, breaking a cold streak where the club had scored just seven times over the previous five games. 

RE: WASHINGTON

As of early Tuesday, the status of Alex Ovechkin remains up in the air. The future Hall-of-Famer was placed into the league's COVID protocol last week, but his status for Tuesday's game remains up in the air. If he's out of the lineup, the Capitals will be within their leading goal scorer (29) and leading point-getter (58). 

Washington has three other forwards who have hit double-digit goals this season: Evgeny Kuznetsov (14), Tom Wilson (13), and Conor Sheary (11). With more than half the season in the books, those totals are a little low for the typically potent offense from the Capitals. They're still 11th in the league in goals per game, not bad by any means, but if it holds, it'll be their first time out of the top ten since the 2013-14 season.

The Capitals are still in good position for another Stanley Cup Playoff berth, though. Their 59 points has them in 4th in the metro division, but only six points behind Carolina for first (the Hurricanes have four games in hand). They have one of the two wildcard spots by more than a dozen points, and well over a 90% chance to make the postseason per MoneyPuck and FiveThirtyEight. 

Goaltending is the main reason for that. Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek have split this this season, each appearing in 24 games. Vanecek has been slightly better (.915 save percentage/2.39 goals against) than Samsonov (.902/2.88), but both have put together a good season. Which goalie gets the start Tuesday is an unknown though, and it's possible that neither play. Here's Washington head coach Peter Laviolette:

Laviolette described the Capitals goalie situation as "up in the air" for tomorrow. Vanecek (upper body) worked out off ice and Laviolette is unsure if he'll be available for tomorrow.

Samsonov did not practice today.

— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) February 7, 2022

STORYLINES

• BLACK & BLUE JACKETS
  Everyone is hurt. Jake Bean is out approximately four weeks with a groin injury, Eric Robinson sprained his MCL and will miss six weeks, Alexandre Texier will miss a few more weeks with a fractured finger. Emil Bemstrom is in what has just become known as "the protocol." 
  
  To offset the absences, the Blue Jackets have recalled forwards Trey Fix-Wolansky and Brendan Gaunce — they skated between Jack Roslovic at Monday's practice. Both are likely to be in the lineup Tuesday — Fix-Wolansky would make his NHL debut, while Gaunce would be making his Blue Jacket debut. He has six goals and ten assists in 118 career NHL games, mostly with the Vancouver Canucks (he played one game for the Boston Bruins during the 2019-20 season). 
   
• Z-PEEKE
  Zach Werenski and Andrew Peeke are relatively new as linemates on the top Columbus defensive pairing, but there's some potential there. Six Blue Jacket defenseman have played 100+ minutes together this season, and the Werenski-Peeke pairing checks in at #2 in expected goals against, at 2.82. There's some work to be done, but that's an intriguing pairing of contrasting styles of play and worth a look as the rebuild continues.
   
• LAINE!
  Patrik Laine has three consecutive multi-point games, the first time he's done that since his 2017-18 sophomore season when he had five straight games of two or more points. The Jackets have a decision to make on Laine over the next couple of years, but he seems to be finding his game in his second season with Columbus.

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