Vacation’s Over – Two months after they started the 2024-25 NHL season with a 5-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils in DC, the Caps take to the ice in Columbus on Thursday. Somewhat ironically, tonight’s game ends a stretch of four nights without a game, the first break of that length for the Capitals since they entered their Oct. 12 opener against New Jersey having had the previous week off. The Devils were playing their fourth game of the season.
“Unique, but well received and needed at this point,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of his team’s longest lull in the action in two months. “I feel like it’s a good little break for us to use to recover and rest – physically and mentally – and gear us up for this last stretch before the holiday break; we have seven games in 12 days starting Thursday in Columbus.
“It’s much needed, because we’ve been going pretty hard, and there’s been some travel involved and some late nights and some real difficult circumstances.”
Twenty-seven games into the 2024-25 season, the Capitals are thriving when they play on one or zero days of rest (14-3-0) this season, but they are much more ordinary when coming in off a break of two or more days (5-3-2).
“I can feel that, yeah,” says Carbery. “We talked about this as a staff last year. The more we play as a group, we feel like we just get into a good rhythm, and then we just keep playing and playing. And then when you’re off for a couple of days, ‘rust’ isn’t the right word because how much rust can you build in two days?
“I think it’s [about] getting out of the game rhythm. Sometimes, I’ve walked away from games feeling like it takes us a little bit to get back into that game mode. Now, we need to learn from that and make sure that we’re doing a better job of it this time, and that we are ready for Columbus on Thursday.”
For Columbus, Thursday’s game is the middle match of a three-game homestand that started inauspiciously with a 5-3 loss to Philadelphia on Tuesday. The homestand opener against the Flyers was not a good game for the Jackets, who were playing their first game back in the Eastern time zone after five games in eight days out west.
The Jackets are still smarting from that performance, and they haven’t forgotten being on the short end of a 7-2 score in Washington on Nov. 2 in the first meeting between these two Metro Division rivals this season.
“I would say they’re a difficult opponent no matter what you’re coming off of,” says Carbery of the Jackets, “whether it’s a back-to-back or four days off. They play well in this building (8-4-1), that’s number one, so they’re a good home team.
“Two, if you look at some of the opponents they’ve beaten this year, they can play with anybody in the National Hockey League. If you’re just looking at their overall record and you go, ‘Ah, what’s this team about?,’ go take a look at some of the games and some of the teams that they’ve beaten and how they’ve played in those games against the Jets [this past Sunday in Winnipeg], but even go back further to Colorado. You can go back to a lot of the games that they’ve played.
Although the Caps have won each of their last five visits to Ohio’s capital city, three of the victories were by a margin of one goal and the last two were achieved in overtime. In seven of the last 11 meetings between Washington and Columbus, one or both sides have scored four or more goals. Columbus has been a high-event team this season; the Jackets have scored four or more goals in 11 of their 28 games, and they’ve yielded four or more goals against on 16 occasions.
“Now, it’s going to be important to get re-engaged very quickly, because sometimes with that much time off, it takes you a little bit to get going,” says Carbery. “and that’s what we’ll guard against tonight, making sure our start is on time and we’re ready not only with the physical part of it, but with the puck touches and making sure that we’re clean with the puck and we’re not fighting it early. That’s what we have to be on guard for as a group.”
Fight The Power – While the Caps are seeking to extend their franchise record nine-game road winning streak tonight, Columbus is seeking to halt an ignominious streak of its own. The Jackets have yielded at least one power-play goal against in each of their last 14 games, the longest streak of its kind in the NHL in 15 years, since the 2008-09 Tampa Bay Lightning, and tied for the 19th longest streak in League history.
During the life of the streak, the Jackets have managed a respectable 7-6-1 record. Of the 18 teams with longer streaks, two managed to win double digit games, and there’s a well-known common denominator to each.
In the early 1980s, the Edmonton Oilers endured a 15-game stretch in which they surrendered at least one power-play goal against, and they came out with a 10-4-1 record. Just over a decade later, the Los Angeles Kings strung together a 19-game streak, tied for third longest in League history. Yet those Kings went 12-5-2 during the life of the streak. The common denominator is – of course – the presence of Wayne Gretzky on both teams.
The all-time NHL record for most consecutive games yielding a power-play goal against is 22 straight games, achieved by the 1985-86 New Jersey Devils.
In The Nets – Charlie Lindgren starts for the Capitals in Columbus tonight, seeking his ninth win of the season. Both Lindgren and Logan Thompson have won three games during the life of Washington’s current seven-game point streak (6-0-1). The Caps are the only NHL team with two goaltenders with eight or more victories each; nine clubs in the circuit do not have a goaltender who has reached eight wins as of yet.
Lindgren has won five of his last six starts, yielding two or fewer goals against in three of the six games. Lifetime against the Blue Jackets, Lindgren is 4-1-2 in seven appearances – all starts – with a 3.22 GAA and a .900 save pct.
For Columbus, Jet Greaves will see his first NHL action of the 2024-25 season. The Jackets signed the 23-year-old native of Cambridge, Ont. as an undrafted free agent on Feb. 20, 2022 and he debuted against the Leafs in Toronto late in the following season, stopping 46 of 49 shots in an April 4, 2023 game.
Greaves went 3-6-0 in nine appearances (eight starts) with the Jackets last season. He picked up his first NHL win in his first appearance of last season, stopping 41 of 43 shots in a 5-2 win over St. Louis just over a year ago, on Dec. 8, 2023.
Greaves will be making his first career appearance against Washington tonight. Prior to being recalled from AHL Cleveland, Greaves was 8-4-2 in 15 appearances this season, with a 3.21 GAA and a .902 save pct. He was named AHL Goalie of the Month for November, in which he posted a 7-1-0 record with a 2.37 GAA and a .927 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we believe the Caps and the Blue Jackets might look when they take to the ice on Thursday night in Columbus:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
24-McMichael, 17-Strome, 16-Raddysh
29-Lapierre, 20-Eller, 88-Mangiapane
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 63-Miroshnichenko
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Roy
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Extras
13-Vrana
27-Alexeyev
52-McIlrath
Out/Injured
8-Ovechkin (fractured fibula)
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
COLUMBUS
Forwards
21-van Riemsdyk, 23-Monahan, 91-K. Johnson
10-Voronkov, 4-Sillinger, 86-Marchenko
27-Aston-Reese, 19-Fantilli, 24-Olivier
82-Pyyhtia, 7-Kuraly, 62-Labanc
Defensemen
8-Werenski, 15-Fabbro
9-Provorov, 78-Severson
2-Christiansen, 22-Harris
Goaltenders
73-Greaves
90-Merzlikins
Extras
3-J. Johnson
40-Tarasov
Out/Injured
17-Danforth (lower body)
38-Jenner (upper body)
44-Gudbranson (upper body)
59-Chinakhov (upper body)
