For more than 400 days, Washington Capitals fans have had to make do with watching the team from afar. Tuesday night, 2,100 lucky ones dressed in red were allowed back into Capital One Arena and were not disappointed as the Capitals beat the New York Islanders for the third straight game, 1-0.
“Just the life in the building,” said head coach Peter Laviolette after the game. “We appreciate the cut out (fans) but just to have some live ones in there that move around and are fired up. That means a lot to us, and we were really appreciative of their support tonight.”
The fans were treated to a possible preview of the postseason as this year’s playoff format will feature teams playing the first two rounds within the division. Once again, Washington shut down the speedy Islanders with solid defense. New York only had 18 shots on goal as Vitek Vanecek recorded the second shut out of his NHL career.
“It wasn’t too many shots, but we try to stay focused whole game,” Vanecek said. “They help me a lot. That’s why they didn’t shoot too many shots.”
The only goal came just 91 seconds into the game as Daniel Sprong, playing in place of Alex Ovechkin for a second straight game, took a pass from Dmitri Orlov and beat Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin top shelf to give Washington an early 1-0 lead.
“The majority of our game was really solid. I think we’re happy with that,” forward Tom Wilson said. “That’s a really solid team over there, so anytime you can take points every night, that’s huge.”
The win improves the Caps record to 32-13-4 and 68 points. It also moves Washington back into first place over the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens come to town Thursday for the first of two critical late-season games.
Washington is now 7-3-0 in its last ten games and is looking more and more like a team that will be a legitimate threat to play deep into the postseason this year.
“It’s a good time of year to be hitting our stride. I think guys are feeling comfortable with the system,” Wilson said. “I think we were feeling comfortable with the system early on, but there was still a little bit of hesitancy, and now I just feel it’s a little smoother. Guys are creating a habit around our systems. We’re playing a little better, and we’ve changed a few things up adjusting on the fly as you have to do nowadays, and the games have looked pretty good as of late.”
The big story Tuesday night, however, was the fans. For the first time since the pandemic started, city officials allowed ten percent capacity of Capital One Arena. Those in attendance reminded the players that the fan base is one of the loudest in the NHL.
“It was great when we were going through the warm-ups they were yelling it was something different,” said Vanacek. “It was better hockey. You can stay focused through the game because they are yelling, trying to push you, so it was great.”
“It felt like your first NHL game all over again,” said Wilson. “There are no words to describe what it feels like to have the fans back in the rink. There’s our support system going into empty rinks night after night wasn’t nearly as fun as skating on to the ice with a bunch of people screaming. Even 2,000 fans make a big difference, and hopefully, moving forward, we can keep adding people. We have such a great fan base it’s a huge advantage.”