Capitals look to rebound vs. visiting Canucks

The Washington Capitals will try to bounce back, and the visiting Vancouver Canucks hope to build a winning streak when the two teams meet in a Saturday matinee.

Washington is coming off of a 4-1 road loss to the New York Rangers, and even though the Caps hit the post and crossbar at least three times, they lost. Now, Washington, which remains in first in the Metropolitan Division ahead of the hot New York Islanders, wants to do better.

Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the only Caps' goal in the loss, with an assist from John Carlson, who continued his early-season offensive roll. Carlson now has scored a point in eight straight games -- one goal and 12 assists for 13 points. He had 18 points in a nine-game scoring run earlier this year.

Washington fell to 10-2-1 on the road with this loss but now play the next three games at home.

On Saturday, they'll again be without right wing Garnet Hathaway, serving the middle game of a three-game suspension for spitting on an Anaheim player during a brawl behind the net in a game earlier this week. Hathaway did not appeal the suspension.

"It was tough to swallow, because I want to be out there with the guys," he told the team's site. "I let the guys down in the room, and I let the organization down. I respect the league's decision."

Hathaway can come back when the Caps host Tampa Bay on Nov. 29.

Washington also was without Nicklas Backstrom in the New York game due to an upper-body injury, but there had been no word as of Friday morning about his status for this game. But the Capitals did recall defenseman Christian Djoos from Hershey of the American Hockey League and re-assigned defenseman Tyler Lewington there on Friday.

Vancouver's power play carried the day when the Canucks tallied five extra-man goals in a 6-3 victory over Nashville Thursday. They had lost seven of their previous eight before the offense and the extra-man group took care of business in Nashville.

In that game, the power play was spectacular, finishing 5-for-6 overall. They scored their first five goals in extra-man situations.

The Canucks got power-play goals from Elias Pettersson, Tyler Graovac, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat. Their sixth and final goal came was a short-handed empty-netter from Tanner Pearson.

Pearson grabbed a loose puck near the Vancouver net as the Predators were pressuring on the late-game power play, skated to the side just a few steps from his own goal line and fired it the length of the ice for the goal. That sealed the win.

"It was a weird hockey game, to be honest," Vancouver coach Travis Green told the media. "There were so many power plays in the first two periods. It just felt like kind of a choppy game."

Plus, goalie Jacob Markstrom helped with 45 saves. He made 21 stops -- giving up just one goal -- in the third period as Nashville tried to bounce back.

This will be game three of a six-game road trip for Vancouver, one that keeps them away from home for the second half of November.

--Field Level Media