Different Days – As they take to the road against the Lightning on Saturday, the Caps own the third-best record in the League from a points pct. (.833) standpoint, and they rank among the NHL’s top five in goals per game (fourth at 4.33), scoreboard lead time (third, 226:14) and shot suppression (fifth, 26.8 shots against per game). And they carry a five-game winning streak, matching their best winning run from last season.
The Capitals have also put a crooked number on the scoreboard in eight of the 18 periods of hockey they’ve played to this point of the season. Last season, the Caps were in their 11th game when they notched their eighth multi-goal period of the season. Similarly, six games into last season, Washington was dead last in the NHL in lead time; the Caps had a scoreboard lead for just 37:56 of their first six games, which represented 365:47 of total playing time.
While the Caps are second in the NHL in shooting pct. (15.2%) early this season, they were 30th at the same point last season, and their 7.41% rate was less than half of this season’s figure.
“I think it goes without saying, and it was a big part of last year,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery of being able to play with the lead more frequently. “When you play with the lead, it helps. It’s no secret why. Teams that are leading have the records that they do, and for us to be able to play from in front, it takes a little bit of time to get comfortable with that. And you’ve seen it through us; we’ve had some good moments and some not-so-good moments of protecting leads and being really, really comfortable.
“I feel like last year, we got extremely comfortable. When we got up 1-0, it was lights out, game [over]. We could play 20 minutes if we got the lead in the first minute of the third. Or if we got it in the first five minutes of the game, we felt comfortable for 55 minutes, protecting that one-goal lead. And that’s what you ultimately want to get to.
“Now there are swings in games and teams are going to grab momentum and that, but playing from in front is an absolute objective, and it’s a position of strength of you can make the other team chase you. There’s a lot of benefits from it, and there’s challenges that I feel like you get better with experience, at being able to control teams and put games away when you do have the lead.”
One of those benefits is not chasing the game every night, and another is not making your goaltenders feel like they have no margin for error if they give up a lead-changing goal.
“It always helps when you’re playing with the lead,” says Caps’ netminder Charlie Lindgren. “Last year it was no secret – especially at the start of the year – that goals were hard to come by. For me personally, last year it felt like the score had to stay low. As a goalie, you kind of want that pressure and you want to play in those of environments. And we did a really good job of just playing good defense last year, too.
“But this year, it feels like we’ve got the ability to score, and we’re finding ways to put the puck in the net. And I think we’re really good at playing with the lead; we’ve still got that same identity as last year, where we were still more defensive minded first and we wanted to protect our net. But now we have that ability when there is a turnover to be made or there’s a chance to go out and score, we’re finding ways to put the puck in the net. So it’s been nice.”
Two Of A Mind – When the Caps’ hockey operations department added seven new players to the fold in less than two weeks last summer, the coaching staff then had to develop plans of how to best utilize those players. One of those decisions was the choice to pair franchise defenseman John Carlson with a player of similar talents and pedigree, Jakob Chychrun.
For much of his 16-year NHL career, Carlson has been paired with a steady, stay-at-home time of defender such as Karl Alzner, Michal Kempny or Martin Fehervary. But Carbery and company opted to put their biggest offensive weapons on the same pairing, and the early returns have been staggeringly good.
“We were certainly hopeful that it was going to look this way,” begins Carbery, “and that they could create that chemistry where there’s two offensive-minded players that can read off of one another, and be able to create, but also make sure that we’re backing each other up and it doesn’t just turn into firewagon hockey with two offensive-minded – quote, unquote – defensemen. And we’ve felt like both guys have done a really good job with that.
“When Chych is up in the rush, John – except for [Tuesday night in Philly] when they were leading that 2-on-1 rush, which was odd to see, two [defensemen] on a 2-on-1 – other than that instance, and it was a good read by both of them on that one, but they’ve just done a really good job of reading off of one another and backing each other up. They’ve been able to play in 5-on-5 situations against other teams’ top lines and defend fine. And if we have a [defensive] zone shift, so be it, they can handle that. And they also give us a bit of a jolt in the arm offensively, and they keep pucks alive in the [offensive] zone, and you see what Chychrun can do with his individual skills set. It’s been a good balance from that pair, early on.”
Of all the defense pairings that have spent at least 50 minutes skating together this season – Chychrun and Carlson have logged over 63 minutes together in Washington’s first six games – only two have managed a better share of their teams’ goal total with that duo on the ice.
With Carlson and Chychrun on the ice together, the Caps have outscored the opposition 8-1. Minnesota’s tandem of Jacob Middleton and Brock Faber have outscored foes by a 4-0 count in their 79:24 skating together this season, and the Chicago duo of Connor Murphy and Wyatt Kaiser has outscored the other squad 3-0 in just under 55 minutes together.
The only defensive duos who have been together for more than eight goals for to this point in the season are Winnipeg’s Dylan Samberg and Neal Pionk and New Jersey’s Brenden Dillon and Dougie Hamilton. The Winnipeg duo has outscored the opposition 9-7 in 108:40 together while the high-event New Jersey tandem is underwater; they’ve been outscored by a combined 12-9 total in 130 minutes scattered over 10 games.
No defensive duo in the League has been nicked for more goals against than the Dillon-Hamilton twosome.
Hey Brother, Pour The Wine – Caps winger Taylor Raddysh is a former member of the Lightning; he was a second-round pick (58th overall) in the 2016 NHL Draft. He made his NHL debut with the Bolts in 2021-22 before being dealt to Chicago at the trade deadline that season as part of the package that brought Brandon Hagel to Tampa Bay.
Raddysh’s older brother Darren still skates for the Bolts; he – along with Hagel – was one of just three Bolts to skate in all 82 games for Tampa Bay last season. On Friday night ahead of Saturday’s Caps-Lightning skirmish, the Raddysh brothers got together in Tampa to break brotherly bread together.
But instead of dining out at one of Tampa’s many fine eateries, Darren invited his younger brother over for a home-cooked meal.
“He’s actually cooking for me,” says Taylor. “I used to play there, but I’m not really craving any restaurants, so he offered to cook. I’ll go to his house for a bit, see him and his wife, spend most of the night there, and then he’ll drive me back to the hotel later at night.
When we chatted with Taylor Raddysh about his dinner plans with Darren on Friday, the menu was unknown, as was the method and whether or not a grill would be involved.
“I don’t know, but he’s actually pretty talented,” says Taylor. “He has the patience for cooking and he enjoys it; it’s something he likes to do even in the summer. And I’m kind of the opposite; I’m not really a cooker, so we’ll see. He just got a new house there, so we’ll see what he’s working with. I don’t know if he’s got a barbecue or anything yet.”
In The Nets – As the Caps head into their seventh game of the season on Saturday night in Tampa, they continue the goaltending rotation that has served them quite well for the season’s first two weeks. Lindgren has had the starting assignments in all the odd-numbered games to date, and he gets the nod in net on Saturday.
In his most recent outing in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Lindgren stopped 17 of 18 shots – with 10 of those saves coming in the first period – to earn his second victory of the season. He enters Saturday’s game with a 2-1-0 record, a 2.36 GAA and a .905 save pct. Lifetime against the Lightning, Lindgren is 2-0-1 in four appearances – three starts – with a 1.84 GAA and a .937 save pct.
Andrej Vasilevskiy starts for the Lightning tonight. He notched his seventh straight season with 30 or more victories in 2023-24, and he led the NHL in wins in each of the first five of those seasons. In the early going of 2024-25, Vasilevskiy has scuffled a bit; he lugs a three-game losing streak into tonight’s contest. On the season, he is 3-3-0 in six appearances – all starts – with a 3.13 GAA and an .871 save pct.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Vasilevskiy is 9-10-1 in 20 appearances – all starts – with a 3.27 GAA and a .900 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we expect the Capitals and Lightning to look when they take to the ice at Amalie Arena on Saturday night:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
88-Mangiapane, 29-Lapierre, 13-Vrana
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 16-T. Raddysh
Defensemen
6-Chychrun, 74-Carlson
42-Fehervary, 52-McIlrath
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Extras
15-Milano
27-Alexeyev
Out/Injured
3-Roy (lower body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
TAMPA BAY
Forwards
59-Guentzel, 21-Point, 86-Kucherov
38-Hagel, 71-Cirelli, 14-Geekie
13-Atkinson, 20-Paul, 23-Eyssimont
28-Girgensons, 11-Glendening, 41-Chaffee
Defensemen
77-Hedman, 90-Moser
27-McDonagh, 81-Cernak
68-Lilleberg, 48-Perbix
Goaltenders
88-Vasilevskiy
31-Johansson
Extras
43-D. Raddysh
Out/Injured
None
