The Capitals won Friday night in a 7-6 shootout without Tom Wilson, who missed last night and also will miss the next five as part of his suspension for high-sticking Toronto’s Noah Gregor last week, meaning he’ll miss almost half of the Caps’ final 14 (counting Friday).
Not the best timing, and a bit longer of a suspension than Bailey Johnson, who covers the Caps for WaPo, told G&D Friday afternoon she expected.
“I saw that Noah Gregor said today he didn't think Tom meant to do it, and he's not injured, which sometimes sways the outcome a little bit or they occasionally take that into consideration, but I would imagine that he'll get at least a couple of games,” Johnson said. “The in-person hearing gives them the opportunity to suspend for more than six games or more, but I would be surprised if he got that many, but we’re probably looking at at least a couple of games here, I would guess.”
Such a wide variance, for a few reasons.
“It's a really tricky one. It's one of those where it's so egregious and violent that you almost think he couldn't possibly have actually meant to hit him in the face, because it would be so beyond the pale if that was an intentional play, but also Tom's history doesn't give him a lot of leeway in the benefit of the doubt in those situations with the league,” Johnson said. “It's been three years since he's been suspended, which might help his case, but he obviously has a lengthy disciplinary history, and that doesn't usually engender a whole lot of benefit of the doubt.”
With now 13 left, the Caps are one point behind Detroit for the second Wild Card spot with a game in hand, and they’re also two points behind Philly for the guaranteed third divisional playoff spot (also with a game in hand), so now is the time to make hay.
“They’ve got to win a bunch of them, because they've got a really difficult schedule coming up,” Johnson said. “They have Winnipeg on Sunday, who they just lost to in Winnipeg last week, and Detroit on Tuesday might be the biggest game of their season, given that's the team they're directly chasing for the second Wild Card spot right now. They need to string some wins together, and they've done a relatively good job of that over this last stretch to keep pace, but they haven't quite gone on the true winning streak that they need to go on to really solidify their chances – it’s kind of been win two or three, lose one, which is better than going on a losing streak, but they certainly can't afford to lose multiple games in a row right now. They need to kind of get themselves on a roll and start to build some momentum.”
And who needs to step up, especially with so many players out, to get them there?
“You look at guys who are going to have to step up in absences of guys like Protas and Oshie, so that's a guy like Connor McMichael, who's been playing well lately, and if Matthew Phillips, who they just called back up to slot in on the wing, can give them anything, that would be huge,” Johnson said. “Mike Sgarbossa comes back into the lineup and has an opportunity there playing on the right side, Hendrix LaPierre has been strong, Ivan Miroshnichenko too, and Ovechkin's got back-to-back two goal games and is playing well right now. A lot of guys, it’s kind of a ‘by committee’ thing where they pretty much all need to raise their level a little bit if they're going to make a push.”