Dec. 2 vs. Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena
Time: 10:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Stream: MonSports.net/Stream
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (12-6-2)
Vegas Golden Knights (15-5-4)
Some two and a half weeks after they met for the first time this season in Washington, the Caps and the Vegas Golden Knights are set to do battle again on Saturday night in Sin City. Washington moves into the back portion of its five-game western road swing when it faces the defending Stanley Cup champions at T-Mobile Arena.
In that Nov. 14 game in the District, the Caps scratched out a 1-0 first-period lead over the Knights on a Dylan Strome goal, and Charlie Lindgren made it stand up until the final minute of regulation when both Connor McMichael and Beck Malenstyn scored into a vacated Vegas cage. Lindgren’s 35-save night earned him his first shutout in a Caps’ sweater and the third of his NHL career.
Three games into their longest road trip of the season, the Caps have won two of three one-goal decisions on the journey to date as they reach Vegas. Most recently, they claimed a 5-4 victory over the Ducks in Anaheim on Thursday night, their second triumph in as many nights.
Playing in his 700th career NHL game, Caps winger Tom Wilson recorded the first hat trick of his career to help lead Washington to victory. Two of Wilson’s goals came on the power play to snap a 12-game drought without a power-play goal, the longest in franchise history. Wilson’s third goal – an extra-man strike with 5:38 remaining in the third period – proved to be the game-winner, pushing the Caps’ mark to 11-3-1 in their last 15 games.
Now in his 11th season in the NHL, Wilson signed a seven-year contract extension over the summer, a deal that kicks in at the outset of the 2024-25 season. Twenty games into the current campaign, Wilson has been one of Washington’s best and most consistent performers, night in and night out. His seven goals ranks second on the team, and with a dozen points, he is third in scoring. Wilson ranks fifth among Washington forwards in power-play ice time per game (2.00) and is fourth among that group in shorthanded ice time per game (1:39) as well.
For the last couple of seasons, Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery has coached against Wilson as an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Now, 20 games into his first season as a head coach, he was asked about his thoughts on Wilson being on his side.
“I always knew he was a gamer,” says Carbery. “And he has proven that to me every day, with just the way he competes, the way he plays the game, how badly he wants to win, and to do the right thing and be in the right spot, and make the right play. He’s a total complete gamer, which I knew. But I think maybe the one thing that I've been able to witness firsthand, which you've seen, he's always had that blend of skill and power. But seeing that firsthand in practice and in games, in the hands and his ability to finish, scoring from the bumper, and making little, small area plays, that's the unique skill of Tom Wilson that separates him from essentially everyone in the world, is that size and power and physicality. But then also that finesse and the touch that he has. And he scores a hat trick in his 700th game, just a great night for him.”
It was a great night for the Caps, too; sweeping a set of back-to-backs in Southern California is never a small task. They had scored just three goals in their three previous games combined before erupting for four in the first frame of Thursday’s game. The Caps and Ducks combined for six goals in the first period, more goals than both teams had combined to score in 13 of Washington’s prior 19 games this season.
And shaking off the power play dry spell was hugely uplifting.
“Huge,” says Anthony Mantha. “I don’t know if you guys saw all the smiles on the ice when it happened, but it was kind of, ‘Finally!’ you know? That’s the feeling.”
“That was a large monkey off our back, especially the way the first one goes in,” says Carbery. I feel like that's kind of the way that it works: it ricochets around and Willie picks that up. And then the second one was a real nice play, and again, finding a way at that net front. We've talked a lot about how to score where you're going to score power play goals, and those were two prime examples of that.”
Vegas is also coming off a satisfying road triumph in which one of its stars made significant offensive contributions on a milestone night. On Thursday night in Vancouver, Golden Knights’ center Jack Eichel skated in his 500th career NHL game, and he notched a goal and two assists to help his club to a 4-1 win over the Canucks.
Thursday’s win in Vancouver quelled a three-game slide (0-1-2) for Vegas. Since starting the season on an impressive 11-0-1 run in the wake of the first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history, the Knights have won only four of their last dozen games (4-5-3).
