Dec. 20 vs. New York Islanders at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:30 p.m.
TV: TNT, MNMT
Stream: MonSports.net/Stream, MAX
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
New York Islanders (15-8-8)
Washington Capitals (15-9-4)
Following a successful four-game road stretch, the Caps make a brief stop at home to host the New York Islanders on Wednesday night. Washington is catching the Isles on the second night of a back-to-back set; New York hosted Edmonton on Tuesday night. Wednesday’s game is the front end of a set of back-to-backs for the Caps; they’ll depart immediately after the game for a Thursday date with the Blue Jackets in Columbus.
The Caps went 2-1-1 during those four road games, finishing on a high note with a 2-1 shootout victory over the Hurricanes in Carolina on Sunday. The Capitals took a much-needed – and richly earned and deserved – off day on Monday, and they returned to the ice on Tuesday morning for their first full team practice session in a week or so.
Ahead of Tuesday’s practice, the Caps made some roster moves as well. On Monday, Washington waived defenseman Lucas Johansen and it loaned winger Joe Snively to AHL Hershey. On Tuesday morning, the Caps placed right wing T.J. Oshie on injured reserve, and they recalled forwards Hendrix Lapierre and Ivan Miroshnichenko from Hershey. Finally, once he cleared waivers on Tuesday, Johansen was loaned to Hershey as well.
The 19-year-old Miroshnichenko could make his NHL debut here on Wednesday night against the Islanders. He skated the right side of a line with Lapierre and Evgeny Kuznetsov at Tuesday’s practice, a trio that’s been carefully crafted to include the Russian-speaking Kuznetsov.
“That is not a coincidence,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “I think that’s important, to make him feel as comfortable as possible, not just from someone being able to communicate the pre-scout, things that are going on – ‘Here’s what we do in this situation,’ – but on the ice as well, and on the bench, just sort of walking him through scenarios – ‘Hey, here’s what we need to do here; you’re next up.”
If Miroshnichenko makes his NHL debut on Wednesday against the Isles, and if Lapierre and Connor McMichael are also both in the lineup, it will mark the first time that each of Washington’s three first-rounders from 2019-2022 are in a regular season NHL lineup together for the first time. With wingers Sonny Milano (upper body) and T.J. Oshie (lower body) both on injured reserve, and with the recovering Max Pacioretty not quite ready for prime time yet, this seemed like a good time for the Caps to get their first look at Miroshnichenko at this level.
“Just before the break, we felt like getting a little bit of a different look up front for us,” says Carbery. “So we flipped [Snively], and Osh is going on IR. That gives us a need up front, and we’re looking at some options for these last three games [before the NHL’s holiday break].”
Neither Milano nor Oshie is expected to play in the three Caps games remaining before the holiday break, and Pacioretty is also unlikely to play before the break. Even so, Carbery wasn’t ready to commit to Miroshnichenko being in the lineup on Wednesday. The Caps are still carrying 13 healthy forwards, and they also have Matthew Phillips available.
“We’ll talk about it,” says Carbery, asked if the teenaged Russian winger would make his debut against the Islanders. “I don’t want to commit to anything 100 percent at this moment. We’ll – as a staff – figure that out in the next four or five hours, and then go from there.”
Lapierre and Miroshnichenko are linked numerically; the former was the 22nd overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft and the latter was the 20th pick in the 2022 Draft. Lapierre had a successful 11-game stint with the Caps earlier this season, putting up a goal and two assists while averaging 10:06 per night in ice time.
Miroshnichenko received news of a Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis months before the 2022 Draft, and the resulting medical uncertainty caused his draft stock to drop. Given a clean bill of health prior to the 2022-23 season, he skated for Omsk Avagard in the KHL before beginning his North American pro career with Hershey this season. In 27 games with the Bears prior to his recall, Miroshnichenko totaled 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) and 13 PIM.
“The two biggest things, I got used to life in North America first of all, and for sure North American hockey,” says Miroshnichenko of his Hershey experience, speaking via the translation of teammate Aliaksei Protas. “Because it’s a little different, compared to men in the NHL and men in the KHL. It’s a different game, more physical and the guys are a little bit faster and more physical at the same time in the AHL, trying to prove themselves. So it helped me a lot, too. That’s probably the two biggest things.”
If Miroshnichenko suits up for action on Wednesday, he becomes the 10th player aged 25 or younger to skate for the Capitals this season. That matches the team’s total from 2023-24.
In their Tuesday night home ice tilt with Edmonton, the Isles spotted the Oilers a 1-0 lead on the first shot of the night, a Leon Draisaitl goal. But Isles goaltender Ilya Sorokin shut the door the rest of the way, stopping each of the last 31 shots he faced to help his team to a 3-1 victory, and halting a two-game slide (0-1-1).
All three Islanders goals came on special teams tallies in the second period; Anders Lee and Bo Horvat scored power-play goals and Simon Holmstrom netted his League-leading fifth shorthanded goal of the season, more than 24 NHL teams had going into Tuesday’s slate of NHL activity.
Following Tuesday’s Caps’ practice, Carbery had some sage words about underestimating the Islanders – or any team, for that matter – simply because they played and traveled the night before. Given their own 5-0-0 record in the back half of back-to-backs this season, the Caps should already be well aware. Washington’s Sunday victory over the Canes was achieved on the second night of a set of back-to-backs.
“The one thing that I think is important for our group is because I feel like it’s a funny thing in this League with the back-to-backs, and teams playing back-to-backs,” says Carbery. “You saw it [on Sunday] against Carolina, and Carolina played great; that game could have gone either way.
“But now we get a team on a back-to-back, so thinking [Wednesday] night is going to be any easier than your prototypical [game], is a mistake. And we’ve seen that a couple of times. We played Nashville [on Saturday] on a back-to-back in their building, thinking it was going to be [easier], and it’s not the way it works in this League.
“And we’ve shown that against teams playing on back-to-backs. Dallas Stars [two weeks back], same thing. They get in at three in the morning in our building, and I felt like they carried play against us. We end up losing that game in a shootout. So it’s important for our mindset [Wednesday] night for a New York team that plays [Tuesday] and is going to be coming into our building.”
