November 17 vs. Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena
Time: 8:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Caps Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (11-4-1)
Vegas Golden Knights (11-4-2)
Two nights after opening their three-game Western trip, the Caps move on to Las Vegas where they’ll face the Golden Knights on Sunday night. The Capitals started the journey with a flourish, turning in a staunch defensive performance that resulted in a 5-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in Denver on Friday.
As they move into the middle match of their road trip on Sunday, the Caps are also beginning a set of back-to-back games, their third in as many weekends in November. Washington makes its first ever visit to Utah on Monday to conclude the trip, and the Caps will return home on Tuesday. They’ll open a two-game homestand on Thursday against the Avalanche.
With a pair of goals in Friday’s win, Connor McMichael vaults into the team lead with a dozen on the season in just 16 games. The 23-year-old McMichael is two-thirds of the way to matching his single-season career high of 18, established last season.
Defensively, the Caps limited a dynamic Colorado attack to 19 shots on net, with only four of those coming off the sticks of the Avalanche’s top six forwards. Colorado’s top six was limited to four shots, and the NHL’s leading scorer Nathan MacKinnon was held without a shot on goal for the first time in 79 games, since Nov. 27 of last year.
Friday’s win was particularly satisfying because the Caps let a late two-goal lead slip away on Wednesday in Washington in a 4-3 overtime loss to Toronto. With a two-goal lead entering the third period once again on Friday in Denver, the Caps were diligent and dialed in, and they played an assertive third period that frustrated the Avalanche.
Washington’s win over the Avalanche marks the fifth straight time the Capitals have followed a loss with a win in their next outing; they have yet to lose consecutive games in any fashion. The Caps have outscored the opposition by a combined 25-10 in those five games in the immediate aftermath of their losses.
“We talk a lot about it,” says Caps’ center P-L Dubois. “Good teams don’t lose two in a row. It’s also easier said than done, but it’s the resiliency of this group. We thought we played two good periods against Toronto, and then in the third we kind of let it go. And good teams find ways [to win], and they did.
“Tonight, going into the third, we wanted to learn from our mistake and I thought we did a really good job of that.”
Washington limited the Avs to five shots on net in the third on Friday; Colorado had 11 more attempts blocked and it missed the mark half a dozen times as well.
“I felt like right from the drop of the puck in the third period, our guys were so dialed in,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “And you could just feel that they … weren’t going to replicate the same things that happened against Toronto. And so everybody [was making] the unselfish plays, advancing pucks, good structure, good reads, good puck decisions; it was just littered throughout the period. And then you have a lead and you’re protecting it, and it’s not good for the fans because it’s a low-event period, there’s nothing really going on – a bunch of chip-outs and maybe three or four scoring chances both ways. But that’s exactly how you close out a game against one of the best teams in the NHL.”
Going into Saturday’s extensive slate of NHL activity, the Caps own the second-best points percentage (.719) in the Eastern Conference, trailing only Carolina (.733). And although they’ve been able to avoid losing streaks, they’d like to start stacking some wins together. So far, the month of November has consisted of alternating wins and losses for Washington (4-2-1).
While Vegas is the site of Washington’s greatest triumph in its 50-year history – the Caps won the Stanley Cup here on June 7, 2018 – the Caps are still seeking their first-ever regular season win in Sin City. They’re 0-5-1 in their previous six visits to Vegas – excluding playoffs when they were 2-1 – and they’ve been outscored by a combined 25-11 in those six games here.
The Golden Knights are fairly lethal against the rest of the League on home ice. They won each of their first eight home games this season before finally falling to Carolina by a 5-2 count in their most recent home contest, this past Sunday at T-Mobile.
As the Caps landed in Vegas in the wee hours of Saturday morning, their plane pulled into Harry Reid International Airport here at virtually the same time as the Golden Knights did as they returned home from a successful two-game road trip, the team’s annual Fathers’ Trip. Vegas earned a 3-2 win over the Ducks in Anaheim on Wednesday, and they defeated the Utah Hockey Club in Salt Lake City on Friday night, coming from behind to do so.
Down 2-1 entering the third period, Vegas got a tying tally from Tomas Hertl on the power play, and then William Karlsson’s goal with 1:13 remaining in regulation gave the Golden Knights their first lead of the game. Karlsson added an empty-netter to salt the game away, lifting Vegas to a 10-0-1 all-time mark on their Fathers’ Trips.
Sunday’s game closes out the season’s series between the Caps and the Golden Knights. Washington picked up its first victory of the 2024-25 season over Vegas on Oct. 15 in Washington, a 4-2 triumph.
