The Washington Capitals will look to complete a perfect three-game homestand when they play host to the Seattle Kraken on Sunday.
The Capitals defeated Pittsburgh 5-3 on Wednesday and the New York Rangers 3-1 on Friday after opening the season with two road games. After a trip Tuesday to Carolina to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes, Washington will return to the nation's capital for five straight home games.
The Capitals are 13-1-2 in their past 16 games at Capital One Arena dating to last season.
"To get points when it's still a little sloppy at times is huge, because you could easily have these games go the other way, and now you're dropping crucial points early in the season," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said.
"This is a good time to grind out wins, while you're still trying to get all your lines, all your (defense) pairs on the same page, really clicking and finding consistency amongst the group and getting your structure cemented in, so that almost every time it looks the same in all three zones."
Boone Jenner scored the tiebreaking goal late in the second period Friday, his first score for the Capitals after signing with them as a free agent in the offseason following 13 seasons in Columbus.
"Doesn't matter what time of year, obviously when they're in the division, they're a little bit bigger," Jenner said of facing the Rangers, who are also in the Metropolitan Division. "But at the end of the day, you need to collect points, and I think it was a gutsy way to close out that game and make sure we got them."
Carbery said he pulled Jenner aside in the pregame skate to give him some words of encouragement.
"I just grabbed him for a quick sec because I just wanted to tell him he's come into a new place, he hasn't been rewarded, and I thought he was playing really, really well," Carbery said. "And I said, ‘Listen, I will never evaluate your game on goals and assists. Continue to do the things that you're doing. Whether one goes in for you or not doesn't matter to me because you're helping drive a line that's being very productive and tilting the ice for us.'"
The Kraken opened a five-game trip with a 6-3 victory Friday in Detroit, the third time in five games they've put up six goals.
Frederick Gaudreau scored twice in a four-goal second period for Seattle. Linemates Ben Meyers and Ryan Winterton assisted on both of Gaudreau's goals, with Meyers adding one goal of his own.
"It's huge to be feeling some chemistry with our line," Gaudreau said. "We're the fourth line, but we don't think that way. We think we have a solid line that can contribute."
Brandon Montour had two assists and Philipp Grubauer made 37 saves.
"It's great to play a game like this at the start of a long trip," Grubauer said. "We know we can play this well, but now we have to do it again against some tough teams."
The Kraken announced Saturday that forward Jacob Melanson will be out indefinitely after being diagnosed with an anterior mediastinum hematoma with vascular pseudoaneurysm. He sustained the injury during Seattle's season-opening game at Calgary on Oct. 1.
"Jacob will continue to be evaluated and monitored closely by the medical staff in Seattle through the healing process for a gradual progression to return to hockey," the Kraken said in a statement.
The 23-year-old, who was selected by Seattle in the fifth round of the 2021 NHL Draft, has five points (two goals, three assists) in 38 NHL games over three seasons.
--Field Level Media