Capitals at Wild
The Minnesota Wild are off to the best start in franchise history after finishing a strong road trip and look to continue their surge when the reigning Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals pay a visit Tuesday night. The Wild have accumulated 24 points - most ever through 17 games for the club - after going 5-2-0 on a monster road trip and have not lost in regulation at home this season (5-0-2).
Minnesota won its third straight contest Sunday with a 3-2 triumph at St. Louis - its third game in four days after flying in from the west coast - while scoring the only goal of the third period. “It says that they’ve got a lot of character,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters. “They wanted to win. You could tell there wasn’t a lot of energy out there. We didn’t have a lot of push in their zone. We were pretty opportunistic when we had to be.” The Capitals, who have won seven straight in the series, are going in the opposite direction after managing 11 goals on a just-completed five-game homestand (2-2-1) - including two combined in two straight defeats to end it. “Just that little extra seems to be lacking,” Washington defenseman John Carlson told reporters. “. … We’re just a little blah right now. We’re used to trusting ourselves to make some plays that right now aren’t happening, so maybe it’s time to pivot back to a little more simpler game and build up that execution point.”
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCS Washington, FS North (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE CAPITALS (7-6-3): Washington entered the week 29th in the league in penalty killing after giving up six goals in 16 opportunities over the last four games and at least one in 12 of 16 contests. “It’s not getting it done,” head coach Todd Reirden told reporters of the penalty kill. “You can continue to look at it different ways. … but right now it’s costing us games. We can’t expect to win when you’re giving up penalty-kill goals like we are at the rate we are.” Center Nicklas Backstrom owns a five-game point streak and is tied with captain Alex Ovechkin at 19 points - one behind team leader Evgeny Kuznetsov.
ABOUT THE WILD (11-4-2): Forward Mikael Granlund leads the team with 18 points after scoring the game winner in the third period Sunday for his fourth goal in three games and 10th of the season, prompting Boudreau to tell reporters: “He’s our best offensive player.” Zach Parise owns three goals in the last four outings and is second on the team with 16 points while Jason Zucker rebounded from a four-game point drought by scoring once and setting up three others the last two contests. Defenseman Jonas Brodin recorded three of his five points in the past two games with a goal, a pair of assists and a plus-5 rating.
OVERTIME
1. Washington G Braden Holtby (5-4-2, .903 save percentage) is 1-2-0 in his last three games after allowing six goals combined.
2. Minnesota G Devan Dubnyk (8-3-2, .933 SP) allowed two or fewer goals in seven of his last nine starts.
3. Ovechkin and Kuznetsov each have six power-play goals, one behind the league lead through Sunday’s games.