Oct. 25 vs. New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center
Time: 7:30 p.m.
TV: TNT
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (1-3-1)
New Jersey Devils (3-1-1)
A night after suffering a 4-1 setback at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs at Capital One Arena, the Caps are in New Jersey to take on the Devils in the back half of the set of back-to-back games, Washington’s first this season. All 32 NHL teams were in action on Tuesday night, but the Caps-Devils contest from Newark is the lone NHL game on Wednesday.
Over nearly a half a century of history in the NHL, the Caps have had more than their share of difficult starts to seasons in the past, and they’ve had far worse starts in terms of wins and losses. But after notching just one goal in falling to 1-3-1 with Tuesday’s loss to the Leafs, the Caps have now gone five straight games at season’s outset without scoring as many as three goals in a game, a franchise first.
Washington has yet to play with a lead in over 305 minutes of hockey this season, and it has yielded the game’s first two goals in each of its five games.
The Caps’ lone goal in Tuesday’s game was a power-play goal for captain Alex Ovechkin, his first goal of the season and the 300th power-play goal of his career. The goal was also the 3,000th power-play goal in Washington’s franchise history, meaning that Ovechkin has accounted for a tidy 10 percent of the franchise total by himself.
Before scoring his milestone goal on Tuesday, Ovechkin was denied on a penalty shot try by Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll. It was the 13th penalty shot of his career – and first since Jan. 19, 2016 – tying him with Vincent Lecavalier for the most in NHL history. Ovechkin has scored on two of his 13 penalty shot tries, failing to score on each of his first five and each of his last six attempts.
Wednesday’s game will mark the NHL debut of Caps’ goaltender Hunter Shepard, who will get the start for Washington. Backup goaltender Charlie Lindgren suffered an upper body injury during an Oct. 16 morning skate, and he has been sidelined since. Darcy Kuemper started his fourth consecutive game in Tuesday’s game against Toronto, so opportunity finally knocks for Shepard.
“For me, it’s not a great decision to put someone in a vulnerable spot – meaning Kuemps – in a back-to-back this early in the season,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery, in explaining the decision to start Shepard in New Jersey. “Chuckie’s misfortune is Shep’s opportunity to step in and play in the NHL.
“It’s great. He has earned every inch of what he has gotten in his career, and he has continued to prove people wrong at every single level. Anytime you see that from an athlete/life standpoint, I feel like you pull for people like that. I’m excited for him to get his first NHL start [Wednesday] night.”
Shepard is a fourth-year pro who helped lead the AHL Hershey Bears to their 12th Calder Cup championship this past June, winning the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the playoff MVP in the process. In each of the last eight seasons – from the NAHL to the NCAA to the ECHL and finally the AHL – Shepard has posted a save pct. of .915 or better, a remarkable run of consistency. Now, two weeks before his 28th birthday, he is finally slated to make his NHL debut.
Shepard has had a few stints as an AHL recall; he has been on the bench as a backup, he has taken warmups, and he also saw some NHL preseason action last month.
“I’ve tried to treat every time I’ve been up here, even the games I’ve backed up in, I’ve tried to treat them like I’m playing, because you want to be ready for whenever your opportunity comes,” said Shepard after Tuesday’s morning skate. “Hopefully whenever it does come, I’ll feel like I’m ready. I’ve played at every other level, so if I’m not ready now, I’m probably not going to be ready. But I feel confident for whenever my time comes. At this point, I’m ready to get in there and give it a go.”
Wherever Shepard has played – at every level – he has stopped pucks, and he has won. He wasn’t drafted, but he helped lead U. of Minnesota-Duluth to consecutive NCAA National Championships in his sophomore and junior seasons. Shepard started his pro career in 2020-21, signing an AHL contract with Hershey. After a single season as a pro, the Caps signed him to a two-way NHL deal in the summer of 2021.
“As long as you’re still moving up to the next level at some point,” says Shepard, “and you’re still playing and getting games – at whatever level you’re at – and an opportunity to move up to the next level, that’s the important thing. And you can’t control any of that stuff. That’s the one thing I feel like I’ve learned; it doesn’t matter how any other goaltender is playing. If I don’t do my job and take care of my stuff, then I’m not going to have a job at the end of the day anyways.”
While the Caps were facing the Maple Leafs in D.C. on Tuesday night as part of the NHL’s “Frozen Frenzy,” a night in which all 32 NHL teams were in action on the same night with start times staggered every 15 minutes, the Devils were on the road in Montreal. New Jersey skated away with a 5-2 victory.
Jack Hughes had four assists for the Devils in Tuesday’s victory over the Habs, his second straight four-point game and his fourth multi-point game in five games this season. Hughes has started the season with a five-game point streak, and he has 14 points (four goals, 10 assists), tied with Detroit’s Dylan Larkin for the League scoring lead (Larkin has played in two more games than Hughes).
Of at least as much concern to the Caps is New Jersey’s power play, which is tops in the NHL at 44 percent. Washington has yielded at least one power-play goal in each of its five games this season, and the Caps’ 68.2 percent kill rate ranks 31st in the League. With an average of 4.4 times shorthanded per game, Washington is the NHL’s fifth most penalized team.
