Golden Knights, Capitals limp into matinee meeting (Feb 03, 2018)
WASHINGTON -- Two NHL division leaders coming off three-goal losses will kick off Super Bowl Sunday with a matinee in the nation's capital.
The Vegas Golden Knights, who sit atop the Pacific Division, visit the Metropolitan-leading Washington Capitals.
The Golden Knights (34-13-4) allowed three goals in the first 21-plus minutes Friday night and dropped a 5-2 decision in Minnesota, falling to 2-1 on their six-game road trip. The loss came one night after the Golden Knights set a record for victories by an expansion team with a win at Winnipeg.
"We looked like a tired team for the first time this year," Vegas coach Gerard Gallant told NHL.com. "There's no excuse. You play back-to-back, everybody plays them, but I didn't like our team tonight. We had no compete and we didn't win one-on-one battles and that slow start, and that was most of the game."
Erik Haula had a goal and an assist, and former Capitals player Nate Schmidt scored for Vegas.
"It's tough on the road when you get down early and you're not playing like you want to and you give all the confidence in the world to the other team," Haula told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "We weren't good enough. No excuses."
The Capitals fared no better than the Golden Knights in their Friday road game. Evgeni Malkin had two goals and two assists for the division-rival Pittsburgh Penguins in a 7-4 victory over Washington.
Alex Ovechkin had two goals and an assist, and Braden Holtby allowed six goals and made 27 saves before being pulled for Washington (30-16-5), which has lost four of its past six games (2-2-2).
"Got behind. Battled back over the course of two periods there," defenseman Matt Niskanen told NHL.com. "We were able to find some offense, but couldn't play defense today."
The Capitals fell behind 2-0 for the second straight game but came back to tie it at 3 before succumbing.
"We're playing some really quality teams," Capitals coach Barry Trotz said after Saturday's practice.
"The Penguins are probably the hottest team in the league and then (the Golden Knights) are probably the second hottest and Columbus (who Washington faces twice in the coming week) is a quality team, so we've got a lot of quality teams that we're playing so it's just gonna have to raise our game. The tough competition, the urgency in other people's games. It's gonna make us better, it has to."
One way the Capitals can get better, Trotz said, is to score first.
"I think we've given up the first goal in nine straight games. We have one of the better records when we give up the first goal, but at the same time, I don't want to be chasing the game," he said. "I know our record when we're not chasing the game is outstanding. It's a lot better than when we're chasing the game. So we've got to get off to better starts."
Sunday will be the Knights' first visit to Washington. The Capitals hold a 17-7-1-0 record all time on Super Bowl Sunday.
In the teams' first meeting, on Dec. 23 in Las Vegas, Alex Tuch, Oscar Lindberg and William Karlsson scored first-period goals in a 3-0 Golden Knights win. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 26 shots for the shutout.
Fleury is 21-12-2 with a 2.53 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage against Washington during his career.
Karlsson, who leads the Golden Knights with 27 goals, has gone four straight games without one.
Ovechkin has 10 points in his past seven games (five goals, five assists).
Washington's T.J. Oshie was fined $5,000 for cross-checking Pittsburgh's Kris Letang during Friday's loss.
