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The Washington Capitals needed a spark.
It’s been an up-and-down year for the Capitals; center Nic Dowd described it Monday night as “peaks and valleys,” a fitting analogy for a team that went 6-2-0 in its first eight games but is 3-6-2 since. Ahead of Saturday’s game against the New Jersey Devils, Washington Coach Spencer Carbery executed one of his options to help his team find some life by shaking up his forward lines.
That decision sent forward Connor McMichael from second-line center to top-line winger, playing with center Dylan Strome and captain Alex Ovechkin. It worked to near-immediate effect. McMichael, who hadn’t scored in nine games, lit the lamp for just the second time this season.
McMichael said afterward that he felt a weight had been lifted off his shoulders when he scored. To watch McMichael on the ice that night, though, it looked like that weight was gone even before the puck went into the net.
“Obviously, I haven’t been playing at the level I want to,” McMichael said Saturday. “Any time you can help the team win and find the back of the net, it’s huge.”
Although the Capitals lost in a shootout, the chemistry on the new-look line was enough for Carbery to keep them together Monday against Los Angeles. Carbery also made two other changes to his combinations, swapping Dowd and center Hendrix Lapierre in the bottom six. Dowd moved up to play with Anthony Beauvillier and Ryan Leonard, while Lapierre centered Brandon Duhaime and Ethen Frank.
The Capitals’ 2-1 win over the Kings wasn’t an offensively explosive performance, but the new lines established some stability and flow in an important victory amid a difficult stretch for Washington.
“Definitely a little bit of a shake-up. I don’t think me and [Duhaime] have been apart since he’s been here, so we kind of had to hash it out this morning,” Dowd said, chuckling. “But I thought both lines, all four lines to be honest, played really well and found some good balance. It was good.”
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McMichael tallied an assist on a goal for Ovechkin that stood as the game-winner after the Kings cut Washington’s lead to 2-1 midway through the second period. In the sequence, McMichael made a sharp cutback behind the net to get free from Kings forward Kevin Fiala, then found Ovechkin waiting in the low slot.
For Carbery, McMichael’s assist put the best qualities of his game on full display — and emphasized what a boost he’s gotten from the move back to the wing.
“A lot of guys, what they would do is they would go into that puck and they would just throw it out front,” Carbery said. “He cuts back, accelerates and creates the wide-open passing lane, instead of just throwing it on his backhand to the weak side, which, that takes jump. … It’s a great play to set that goal up, and just speaks to his — and that’s the best part of his game, right? His ability to accelerate, move his feet and attack with speed. That’s his bread and butter.”
McMichael has played both center and wing for the Capitals this year, and likely will continue to move back and forth throughout his career. His versatility makes him a valuable weapon for Washington, though he’s previously indicated center is his preferred position.
But when the Capitals really needed to start turning things in the right direction, and really needed increased offense throughout the lineup, a shift to the wing seems to have brought McMichael back to life.
For reasons Carbery can’t quite explain, McMichael has been better able to use his speed and skating ability over the last two games as a winger, and it’s made all the difference.
“He looks a lot better. Noticeable speed,” Carbery said. “That’s the thing that jumps out. For whatever reason, when he was playing the middle, I don’t know, maybe it was the draws or maybe it was the matchups, maybe it was the responsibility of playing center and taking the opening draw and all the low coverage of playing 200 feet, but now he just looks quicker in a lot of situations. His speed now jumps off.”
McMichael’s teammates, too, are seeing the spark of energy that he has since Carbery shook things up.
“I love him as a player,” Dowd said. “I think he’s — in my opinion, he’s one of the best players on our team. When he’s going, he’s pretty dangerous. You noticed that last game. You noticed that tonight. Great vision. The great thing about him is he’s got all the skills, and then he has jam to his game. You can’t teach that. Makes a great play tonight.
“I love seeing him play well. He’s going to be a big part of our success.”
Game summary
Capitals’ solid start pays of with a win
Just when it appeared the Washington Capitals were in danger of entering a potentially irreversible spiral, they upped their game.
The scuffling Capitals hosted the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night at Capital One Arena for a matchup that had the makings of a long night for the home team. The Kings, Washington Coach Spencer Carbery said, are one of the best defensive teams in the NHL, and they entered the game with a 9-1-2 record on the road.
But the Capitals grabbed the lead with an inspired first period, and they were able to hang on to it the rest of the way for a 2-1 victory. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren, making his first appearance since Nov. 6, made 30 saves for his second win of the season.
Defenseman Matt Roy, a 2015 Kings draft pick who spent his first six years in the NHL with Los Angeles, scored his first goal of the season just 3 minutes 41 seconds in. Roy worked his way to the front of the net and tipped a shot from winger Aliaksei Protas past former Capitals goalie Darcy Kuemper (23 saves), who is in his second season with the Kings.
Washington (9-8-2) didn’t find another goal in the period but largely controlled play while looking comfortable and cohesive on both ends of the ice. The Capitals had a 14-8 edge in shots through 20 minutes.
Captain Alex Ovechkin scored his sixth goal of the season and the 903rd of his career at 1:51 of the second period to double Washington’s lead. Ovechkin waited in the low slot for a feed from forward Connor McMichael behind the net, then picked a corner over Kuemper’s shoulder.
Fellow future Hall of Famer Anze Kopitar got the Kings (10-6-4) on the board with a power-play tally at 13:27. His goal seemed to give Los Angeles some life, and the Capitals needed Lindgren to hold strong to preserve their lead.
To open the third period, Washington had a handful of dangerous scoring chances, but Kuemper stopped them all. The Capitals had to kill a penalty and did so, but the momentum from that power play kept the Kings on the hunt for the tying goal.
It was a tense final stretch as Los Angeles kept the Capitals on their heels. Winger Tom Wilson drew a slashing penalty with 34.5 seconds left, which allowed the Capitals to finish the win, just their third in the past 11 games.
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