“Caps stay home to house sharks”.

Dec. 3 against the San Jose Sharks at Capital One Arena

Time: 7:00 p.m

TV: MNMT

Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7

San Jose Sharks (9-13-5)

Washington Capitals (17-6-1)

After an eventful week of roller-coaster hockey that saw them become the only team in the NHL to win four games, the Caps put their four-game winning streak on the line against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night.

The Caps won four games in six nights – three of them on the road – and scored four or more goals in all four victories. The really great thing is that they have conceded four or more goals in each of their last three games and won all three games. This is a first in the franchise’s fifty-year history.

Washington won all four games in comeback fashion, and they won all four with significant contributions from their power play, which has been red-hot over the last three weeks (13-for-29, 44.8 percent). For the first and second times this season, the Caps scored game-winning power play goals at Florida (by Jakob Chychrun last Monday) and Tampa Bay (by Tom Wilson on Wednesday). Washington scored two goals with the extra man in Friday’s 5-4 win over the Islanders and scored three power-play goals in the second period of Saturday’s 6-5 win in New Jersey over the Devils.

On November 9th, the Caps woke up and found themselves at the bottom of the NHL power play rankings with an 8.7 percent success rate. That night against the Blues in St. Louis, Alex Ovechkin and Connor McMichael both scored on the power play in an 8-1 win over the Blues, starting a remarkable upward trend that has continued, with Ovechkin not being on the roster in both games most recently six games.

Washington has scored with the extra man in five straight games, eight of the last nine and, beginning with the Nov. 9 game in St. Louis, nine of the last 11 games.

“I liked a lot of things structurally,” Caps coach Spencer Carbery said of his team’s extra-man unit. “But I think perhaps the most impressive thing the group did is that Alex was out there, and that’s where a few things come into play. First of all, we had to put something together pretty quickly because we’ve had a staple there for years, in one spot and obviously part of it. So these five guys had to come together… and it was really impressive to see them get on the same page so quickly as they did when Alex was out.

“And then take a little bit of (responsibility): ‘We have to step up; “We need to provide some offense in some of these games, without (Ovechkin) and without his shot.” And I feel like they did a really good job as a group of five of really coming into their own, holding the bull grabbed the horns and implemented our power play offensively. These numbers are incredible since the greatest power play player of all time was not on the roster. You have to take a step back and really appreciate what these five guys are doing.”

To boil it down to the last six games Ovechkin has missed: The Caps are 8 for 20 (40%) on the power play, they have scored on the power play in five of the six games, and they have several in each of the last two contests Power play goals scored. The aforementioned game in St. Louis is the only other contest this season in which Washington has scored more than a power play.

Eleven different Capitals skaters have scored power play points this season, and nine did so in the six games Ovechkin missed. On Saturday night against the Devils in Newark, the Caps scored three power play goals on three occasions in a 10-minute span, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead.

Not only were they without Ovechkin, they were without Dylan Strome on Saturday night’s first two power plays in New Jersey, and they faced the Devils’ fourth-ranked penalty kill team. With 11 points (one goal, 10 assists), Strome is the Caps’ best power play scorer; Ovechkin (four goals, three assists) and John Carlson (one goal, six assists) are tied for second with seven points each.

It was Strome who converted the double minor penalty that gave the Caps a four-minute power play midway through the period, but he was unavailable because he was stitched up; It was the second time in three games that Strome gave his team a game-changing double-minor power play because he took a stick to the grill.

Don’t worry, boy. PL Dubois moved from the second unit to the first and set up McMichael for the equalizer at the front end of the double minor. Then Lars Eller jumped over the boards and prepared the starting signal for Chychrun. Late in the period, Rasmus Sandin scored on a separate power play with help from rookie Ivan Miroshnichenko.

Eller, Sandin and Miroshnichenko all scored their first power play points of the season in the second period of Saturday’s game. And Sandin’s goal was the third extra goal scored by a defenseman in Washington’s last four games. In the Caps’ first 20 games of the season, Carlson’s opening power-play goal on October 12 – the first goal the team scored this season – was the only one scored with a defender’s stick blade.

“It’s nice to see these guys step up in the moments they get the opportunity,” Carbery said. “If we need a different look later, it gives us the confidence to put Sandin, Dubie and Miro in the right places to be successful.”

The Caps’ three-week power play streak catapulted them from 32nd in the NHL on November 9th to 14th in the league (at 22.7%) on December 2nd, and the Caps are now sixth in the special rankings Team Index (106); New Jersey leads with 114.7.

San Jose’s record is deceptive. The Sharks have lost nine straight games (0-7-2) this season and have gone 9-6-3 since then. San Jose has won just three of 14 away games (3-7-4), but has picked up a point in six of its last eight away games (3-2-3).

For the Sharks, Tuesday’s game is the second stop on a six-game road trip that began with a 4-2 win at Seattle on Saturday night. San Jose has won three of its last four games, scoring 22 goals; They beat the Kings 7-2 and defeated the Kraken 8-5 in their recently completed homestand.

After Tuesday’s game in Washington, the Sharks will travel to Tampa Bay, Florida, Carolina and St. Louis. San Jose’s next home game is a week away on Saturday, Dec. 14 against Utah.

Notes: Both Alex Ovechkin (broken fibula) and Sonny Milano (upper body) were on the ice for the first time since their respective injuries. Two weeks to the day after his injury in Utah, Ovechkin skated alone. Milano, who was injured against Nashville on Nov. 6, wore a light blue non-contact sweater…Carlson, Strome, Nic Dowd and Brandon Duhaime each had “maintenance days” and did not skate on Monday.