Nov. 30 vs. Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center
Time: 10:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Stream: MonSports.net/Stream
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (11-6-2)
Anaheim Ducks (9-13-0)
A night after a hard-earned 2-1 victory over the Kings in Los Angeles, the Caps conclude a set of back-to-back road games with a Thursday night visit to Anaheim to take on the Ducks. Thursday’s tilt is also the middle match of Washington’s five-game western road swing – the team's longest journey of the season – and it concludes the team's slate of November games.
Two nights after opening the trip with a 2-1 loss to the Sharks in San Jose, the Caps flipped the script and nipped the Kings by the same count on Wednesday, cooling a Los Angeles team that had won five straight games and was 9-1-1 in its previous 11 games. With Wednesday’s win, the Caps are 10-3-1 in their last 14 contests.
The Kings scored first in Wednesday's game, and the Caps have now claimed seven comeback victories this season, fourth-most in the NHL. Only Colorado, New Jersey and Toronto have more; each of those clubs has eight.
Charlie Lindgren was again stellar between the pipes, stopping 38 of the 39 shots he faced to earn his fifth win in six January starts. Lindgren’s November heater saw him post a .942 save pct., tops among all goalies with at least five appearances in the month. Lindgren barely nipped Kings’ netminder Cam Talbot (.941) – the goalie he helped defeat on Wednesday – in that category. Lindgren’s 2.01 GAA in November was fifth best among netminders with five appearances in the month.
“I’m feeling obviously really good,” he says. “I’m playing with a lot of confidence. I’ve said it after every game; it starts in practice, it really does. Like [Caps’ goalie coach] Scotty Murray said, ‘It’s what you do in the dark.’ It goes back to your habits, and we’ve been putting some really good work into our practices. We’ve got our forwards that compete with me every single day and make it hard, and they make it fun. But certainly, I’m feeling really good physically and mentally, and I like where I’m at right now. I’ve just got to keep that going; I can’t be complacent, obviously.”
On the wrong side of five coach’s challenges in a span of seven games earlier in the season, the Caps finally got one to go their way on Wednesday in L.A., and it came at a most opportune time. With the Caps leading 2-1 midway through the third, Kings’ center Anze Kopitar fired a blast past Lindgren to culminate a lengthy Los Angeles shift in the Washington end of the ice. But the Caps’ video coaching crew noted that Kopitar entered the zone early, the Caps successfully challenged the call, and the slim 2-1 lead was restored.
“Finally we got a [coach’s challenge] that went our way with the offside there,” says Lindgren. “That was big. It felt like we had been on the wrong side of a few of those, so that was awesome, and it kind of reset us. We were getting pucks out, and the defensemen did a really good job of just boxing out and letting me see the puck. Obviously, they throw a lot of rubber at the net. They’ve got a lot of big guys that make it tough to see, but my guys helped me out a lot tonight.”
Washington has been strong in third periods this season, outscoring the opposition by a combined total of 14-9. The nine goals against are the fewest allowed by any team in any single period this season (h/t Carter Myers).
With only a dozen games on their November schedule, the Caps have still managed a 7-3-1 mark this month, the third highest November win total among all Eastern Conference clubs. Only the New York Rangers (9-2-1) and Florida (9-4-1) have more November victories. Florida is at Montreal tonight while the Rangers are idle.
In its first season under first-year head coach Greg Cronin, Anaheim got out to a 1-4-0 start before reeling off six straight victories. But as the Caps reach town on Thursday, the Ducks are in the doldrums. They’ve dropped seven straight games (0-7-0) and have been outscored by a combined 33-12 in the process.
Much like Washington, the Ducks have struggled offensively at times this season. While the Caps rank 31st in the circuit with an average of 2.32 goals for per game, the Ducks are ahead, ranking 28th with an average of 2.68 tallies per tilt. The tandem of Frank Vatrano (13 goals) and Mason McTavish (10) has combined to account for nearly 40 percent of the Ducks’ goal total to date.
Anaheim is missing some key players because of injury; defenseman Jamie Drysdale (lower body) and forwards Trevor Zegras (lower body) and Isac Lundestrom (Achilles) are all on injured reserve.
The Ducks feature center Leo Carlsson, the second player chosen overall in the 2023 NHL Draft. Carlsson recently became just the 14th player in League history to record a hat trick at the age of 18. Anaheim has carefully managed Carlsson in the early going of his rookie season; he has suited up for just 14 of the team’s first 22 games. Carlsson’s six goals this season are tied for the League lead among NHL freshmen.
