Take Five – For the first time in nearly three years, the Caps bring a modest four-game home winning streak into Thursday’s night’s game, a Halloween night matchup with the Montreal Canadiens. Washington dropped its season opening game here to New Jersey on Oct. 12, but it has reeled off consecutive victories over Vegas, Dallas, Philadelphia and the New York Rangers since.
Tonight, the Caps seek to extend their home winning streak to five games for the first time in five years, since a five-game spree from Oct. 16-Nov. 18, 2019.
Play It Cool – Matt Roy and Jakob Chychrun – the two defensemen Washington added on July 1 of this year are both out of the lineup with injuries, and neither will play Thursday against the Canadiens. Roy suffered a lower body injury early in the second period of Washington’s Oct. 12 season opener against New Jersey, and Chychrun left Tuesday night’s game with the Rangers early in the first period; he has an upper body ailment.
Dylan McIlrath has done an excellent job filling in during Roy’s absence, and tonight Alex Alexeyev draws into the lineup for the first time this season, filling in for Chychrun. Alexeyev’s 2024-25 season debut comes a day after his wife gave birth to their first child, son Ivan.
Washington’s first-round choice (31st overall) in the 2018 NHL Draft, Alexeyev’s NHL career has been played in fits and starts to this point. He made his NHL debut on Dec. 29, 2021 against Nashville, but didn’t get a second game until more than 10 months later. When he finally did get into the lineup on a regular basis for four straight games, he suffered an upper body injury seconds after recording his first NHL point in a game against Seattle in December of 2022.
Late in the 2022-23 season, the Caps made a slew of trades, and Alexeyev was suddenly installed as a regular. On March 1, 2023 in Anaheim, he stepped into his first game in more than five weeks and calmly and efficiently logged over 25 minutes – still a single-game career high for him – in a Washington win over the Ducks.
As the Caps’ seventh/eighth defensemen once again last season, Alexeyev had lengthy gaps of 24 games and later 11 games without seeing action last season. But each time he is required to step in and temporarily fill the skates of a Washington blueline regular, the 24-year-old Alexeyev has been able to do seamlessly.
“I would actually say it’s part of his mental makeup,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery of Alexeyev’s ability to quickly shake off weeks of rust when called upon. “I coached his first year pro (2019-20) in Hershey. He came in from [WHL] Red Deer, and I feel like what Al's done is he came to pro hockey, and he wasn't really sure who he was going to be from an identity [standpoint of], ‘Here's what I am as an NHL defenseman.’
“And it took him a few years to really figure that out and go, ‘Okay, this is me. This is what I'm going to do. This is how I'm going to make it. This is how I'll be an everyday NHL player.’ And he now has a crystal clear understanding of what makes him successful at this level.
“What I'm getting to is, when he comes into the lineup, where some guys come into the lineup that have been sitting and they feel like, ‘I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to have an impact. I’ve got to catch the coach's eyes. I’ve got to impress;’ and he has a very clear understanding of what is impressive to us as coaches and to our management. [And that] is getting out of games clean, breaking pucks out well, defending well, not getting beat in any 1-on-1 situation. Be good with your regroup touches, your [offensive] zone blue line touches, and get out of that hockey game.
“So, sitting for a while, and sitting for a while, he doesn't come in trying to save the world. He comes in and goes, I know exactly what I need to do for 16 to 18 minutes tonight.”
Alexeyev is expected to be partnered with veteran righty Trevor van Riemsdyk tonight.
The Underside Of Power – Early last season, the Capitals endured a lengthy stretch of time without scoring a power play goal. From Oct. 29-Nov. 29 of last year, the Caps went a month and a dozen games without scoring on the man advantage; the drought reached 0-for-34 before Tom Wilson broke the spell in the first period of a Nov. 30, 2023 game in Anaheim.
Wilson recorded his first career NHL hat trick that night, scoring twice on the power play to halt the long dry spell.
As they venture into tonight’s game with the Habs, the Caps are again thirsting for some offense on their power play. John Carlson scored Washington’s first goal of the 2024-25 season a mere 10 seconds into the team’s initial extra man opportunity of the season on Oct. 12 against New Jersey, and Wilson bagged one from the slot in the Caps’ second game of the season, three nights later against Vegas.
Since then however, Washington has been without a power-play goal in six straight games, going 0-for-21 during that stretch.
“I think we started overthinking things,” says Wilson. “We weren’t putting ourselves in positions where we were complimenting each other, and we were shooting pucks. We were too perimeter, and I think we’ve got to get back to what we know works, the stuff we’ve had success with in the past. And obviously we’re going to throw some different things in there and some different looks, but just trusting our instincts.
Last season’s Caps team was an offensively challenged group – especially in the early going – but the team somehow managed to thrive even while its power play was stuck in neutral; Washington forged an 8-3-1 record during its dozen-game drought last season.
This year’s model has more offensive wherewithal, more offensive diversity and has crafted a more multi-faceted attack, enabling the Caps to post a 5-1-0 record in the midst of its power outage.
Even though the team is having success, the frustration in its extra-man unit is palpable.
“Definitely, yep, yep,” says Carbery. “I don't know at what point is that – 0-for-10, 0-for-12, or 0-for-14 – but you definitely can feel it. Some frustration starts to sink in, and we're trying to keep the groups as process-related as possible, of doing the right things. And I thought [assistant coaches] Kirk [Muller] and [Mitch Love] did a good job of pointing out; last game [Tuesday against the Rangers] was one of our better nights on the power play. It didn't go in, but the process was good for the most part. We generated, call it five, six or seven scoring chances for.
“And if you continue to do that, those will fall, and you'll get on a run where two of those pucks will find the back of the net. So we’re trying to preach that, and talk to the guys about that, of getting ourselves into those [good] situations.
“So how did we get in? We had some good entries. We had some good puck recoveries. Puck movement was clean and crisp on the tape, and we’re just trying to stay with that. But there is zero doubt that as it builds and as the puck doesn’t go into the net for you, it becomes a little bit frustrating. But I feel like the guys did a pretty good job last game, and now we’ve just got to be in the moment tonight of, if we go 0-for-1, so be it; we’re going to score on the second one. If we go 0-for-2, we’re going to score on the third one, and stay with that mindset.”
The Caps’ 7.4 percent success rate with the extra man ranks 31st in the 32-team circuit, ahead of only Buffalo (6.9 percent).
“At the end of the day,” says Wilson, “it’s on the five guys who are on the ice to go out and make it happen. It doesn’t matter what you’re drawing up, it doesn’t matter what plays you’re doing. We’ve got to go out and make plays. Those couple of games against Philly, they have a smothering PK and you don’t feel like you have much. But we’ve got to get back to feeling good about our power play for sure.”
In The Nets – Charlie Lindgren starts for Washington tonight, going up against his former employers, the Montreal Canadiens. Lindgren signed with the Habs as a free agent on March 30, 2016, and he started and won his NHL debut for the Canadiens in Carolina a week later. Lindgren spent five seasons in the Habs’ organization, compiling a 10-12-2 mark with a couple of shutouts, a 3.00 GAA and a .907 save pct. in 24 career appearances, all starts.
Now in his third season with the Capitals, Lindgren has earned 40 of his 55 career victories with Washington. He makes his fifth start of the season tonight; he enters with a 2-2-0 mark to go along with a 2.52 GAA and an .895 save pct. on the season. Lifetime against Montreal, Lindgren is 2-1-0 in three appearances – all starts – with a 2.70 GAA and a .908 save pct.
For the Habs, we’re expecting to see Cayden Primeau between the pipes tonight. The son of longtime NHL power forward Keith Primeau, the younger Primeau was Montreal’s seventh-round choice (199th overall) in the 2017 NHL Draft. He turned pro after two seasons of collegiate hockey at Northeastern, and he is now in his sixth season with the Habs; last season was the first in which he spent the entire campaign at the NHL level.
Primeau has made five appearances – three starts – this season, and he has fashioned a 1-1-1 record along with a 4.02 GAA and an .871 save pct. His lone career appearance against Washington was a start on Feb. 10, 2022 in Montreal. Primeau was pulled from that one after yielding four goals on 14 shots – including the first two NHL goals of Joe Snively’s career – in what ended up being a 5-2 Washington win.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we expect the Capitals and Canadiens to look when they take the ice in the District on Thursday night:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
13-Vrana 23-Sgarbossa, 88-Mangiapane
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 16-T. Raddysh
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
27-Alexeyev, 57-van Riemsdyk
38-Sandin, 52-McIlrath
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Extras
15-Milano
29-Lapierre
Out/Injured
3-Roy (lower body)
6-Chychrun (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
MONTREAL
Forwards
13-Caufield, 14-Suzuki, 51-Heineman
20-Slafkovsky, 15-Newhook, 77-Dach
17-Anderson, 71-Evans, 11-Gallagher
40-Armia, 28-Dvorak, 91-Kapanen
Defensemen
8-Matheson, 21-Guhle
48-Hutson, 58-Savard
47-Struble, 52-Barron
Goaltenders
30-Primeau
35-Montembeault
Extras
55-Pezzetta
72-Xhekaj
Out/Injured
31-Price (knee)
44-Perreault (undisclosed)
49-Harvey-Pinard (leg)
64-Reinbacher (knee)
92-Laine (knee)
