October 17 vs. Nashville Predators at Verizon Center     
Time: 7:00 pm
TV: Comcast SportsNet
Radio: 820AM, 1500AM and XM
Pre-Game: Pre-Cap Podcast at 2 p.m. and Two-Man Advantage Live Pre-Game video show at 5:45 p.m., both on www.washingtoncaps.com

Nashville Predators (2-4)
Washington Capitals (3-2-2)

Washington concludes its three-game homestand on Saturday night when the Nashville Predators visit Verizon Center. The game is the lone meeting between the Caps and Preds this season.

The Capitals ended a four-game winless streak (0-2-2) with a sound 4-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night. Suffering from back spasms, starting goaltender Jose Theodore left the game after the first period with the score even at 1-1. Semyon Varlamov came on in relief and stopped all 15 shots he faced the rest of the way.

Alex Ovechkin scored his first two career goals against the Sharks and Alexander Semin notched his first career goal against San Jose. Although Ovechkin supplied the game-winner and Semin got the Caps started with a 5-on-3 goal in the first period, Matt Bradley’s third-period goal was also a big one. It came while the Caps were trying to protect a 3-1 lead against the top regular season team from 2008-09.

Bradley’s goal came after David Steckel won an offensive zone draw, something that has happened with regularity this season. Steckel leads the NHL with a 68.1% face-off winning percentage.

“It’s a huge goal,” says Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “And even though he didn’t get credit for an assist on it, I thought he was great against Joe Thornton a lot of the night, him and [Nicklas Backstrom]. Joe Thornton is an elite player, really good on face-offs. I thought they did a real good job against them."

Steckel was quick to deflect credit for his face-off prowess to his teammates for quickly gaining possession of the puck in the immediate wake of the draws.

“The wingers and defense did a great job tonight and won a couple that were right behind me,” relates Steckel. “[The Sharks] are a great face-off team and before the game [Thursday] that was our goal, to win in the face-off circle.

“On the left side I always tell whomever asks that I should never get beat on that side. I won it back, we cycled the puck all night long and we got pucks to the net, and it took a good bounce for Brads.”

While the Caps could still use a more regular injection of secondary scoring, the combination of good goaltending, strong team defense, goals from top stars, and a timely injection of energy from the bottom six forwards proved to be too much for the Sharks.

“I think that was our best line tonight,” said Brendan Morrison, of the Steckel-Bradley-Quintin Laing trio after the game. “It seemed like all night long they were down low cycling the puck, they were grinding on their [defense] and they were wearing down their big line a little bit, too. They played a great game.”

Theodore will likely miss Saturday’s game against Nashville, leaving Varlamov to get his first start since he was pulled in the second period of a 6-5 loss to Philadelphia on Oct. 6.

Boudreau believes that having Varlamov come in cold might have been preferable to having time to think beforehand, as he would have had in a starting situation.

“It couldn’t have worked out better for us in this situation in that it didn’t give him time to think about it,” says Boudreau. “Just let him go in there and play.

“As a script goes, with Varly having his struggles the two previous games to come in and shut down a team like this, that must do a lot for his confidence, I would believe.”

The Caps’ newly cobbled top line of Ovechkin with Morrison and Mike Knuble also delivered, scoring a pair of goals in a span of 28 seconds. That trio also allows the Caps to have a potent second unit of Semin, Backstrom and Brooks Laich.

Although Semin’s goal came on the power play, Boudreau believes having Semin and Ovechkin on separate lines will make for some tough nights for opposing teams and coaches.

“When him and Alex are on different lines and they’re both playing well,” says Boudreau, “it makes it very difficult on other teams, I think.”

Nashville is in the midst of some struggles. The Preds have dropped four straight, most recently suffering a 3-1 home ice loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night. For Nashville, Saturday’s game against the Capitals is its third contest in four nights.

The game in Washington is also the start of a five-game road stretch, Nashville’s longest of the season. The Preds were 16-21-4 on the road last season, registering the team’s fewest number of road wins since prior to the lockout.

Outscored by a combined total of 12-1 in previous losses to Edmonton and Dallas earlier in the week, Nashville managed just 13 shots in Thursday’s loss to the Hawks. The Preds have been outscored by a combined 20-8 over the first six games of the season. Only four different players – Jason Arnott, Patric Hornqvist, Steve Sullivan and Martin Erat – have scored for Nashville this season.

Compounding the Preds’ offensive problems is a weak power play that has cashed in just 1 of 20 (5%) chances in the early going. The team’s only power play tally came two weeks ago in its season opening contest at Dallas on Oct. 3.

Nashville has also been very ordinary in its own end of the ice this season. The Preds have a team goals against average of 3.29 and an .890 save pct. Goaltender Pekka Rinne, who wrested the starting job away from incumbent Dan Ellis last season with a 29-win campaign and a 2.38 GAA, is 0-3 with a 3.46 GAA in his first four appearances of 2009-10.