The Washington Capitals’ remaining games in the month of January will loom large on if they are a playoff team or not.
The Capitals have a slew of home games in the early and middle stages of the month before a long road trip takes them into February. According to Tankathon, the Capitals have the second toughest strength of schedule remaining in the league (.576 points percentage) and many of those menacing matchups will be played in January.
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery is well aware of this fact.
“I can’t overstate the importance of the next couple weeks for our group and the teams that we play,” Carbery said hours before the Capitals take on the Carolina Hurricanes — a Metropolitan Division rival currently on a four-game winning streak. “This is no different tonight against a really good team that’s rolling really well. In our division, it’s challenging, but this is where we need to prove and show that we’re capable of keeping up with these teams and being in the conversation with these type of teams.”
Six of the Capitals’ 11 games in January come against clubs in the top half of the league in terms of points percentage. Half of those games, all played within the next two weeks, come against Metropolitan Division teams ahead of the Capitals in the standings.
Here is the Capitals’ January opponents ranked by points percentage.
| Team | Record | Points Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| New York Rangers | 26-10-1 | .716 |
| Colorado Avalanche | 25-11-3 | .679 |
| Dallas Stars | 22-10-5 | .662 |
| Los Angeles Kings | 20-9-6 | .657 |
| Carolina Hurricanes | 21-13-4 | .605 |
| St. Louis Blues | 19-17-1 | .527 |
| Seattle Kraken | 16-14-9 | .526 |
| Minnesota Wild | 16-17-4 | .486 |
| Anaheim Ducks | 13-23-1 | .365 |
The Minnesota Wild and Anaheim Ducks are the only two teams the Capitals will come up against that aren’t above .500 in terms of points percentage. The Capitals will play the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues twice in this stretch.
Five of the games will come on the road and there will be one more back-to-back series of games. Carbery isn’t letting that harsh schedule impact how he approaches games though.
“It’s the NHL schedule,” Carbery said. “I know back-to-backs, road – for me, those are just excuses. Just play the games. No one is playing three-in-threes. That’s a rule in the league. No one is allowed to travel more than a certain amount of miles to play a back-to-back. Everybody has gripes with the schedule every year.
“There’s certain parts of the schedule that are light and there’s certain parts of the schedule that are heavy. There’s certain parts of the schedule where you play a lot of divisional opponents and there’s a certain part of the schedule that looks daunting because of the opponents. That’s just the way it works. You gotta find ways to navigate that, get points, and be productive through those stretches.”
As things currently stand, the Capitals sit sixth in the Metropolitan Division with just four points separating them from second. In the Eastern Conference wild card race, they are just one point shy of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second wild card spot and two points shy of the Philadelphia Flyers for the first.
The Capitals hold at least one game in hand over the eight Eastern Conference teams ahead of them in standings points. Two of those teams are the Hurricanes and Rangers. The Capitals will get their first chance at chipping away at Carolina when they square off on Friday night.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
