Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes – Two nights after nailing down their first win of the season, a 4-2 victory over Vegas, the Caps are looking to close out their season-opening three-game homestand on a high note when they host the Dallas Stars at Capital One Arena.
Not only are the Stars an elite NHL outfit that rolls into town with a perfect 4-0-0 mark on the season, Dallas has dominated the Caps in the District over the years. In the quarter of a century since the Capitals moved from suburban Maryland to downtown D.C., Washington has prevailed in only three of 19 games (3-11-5) between the two teams at the big barn on F St.
But the Stars aren't going to finish the season undefeated. Downing Dallas is always a tall task for the Caps, but if they can muster a thorough team performance the likes of which they put forth on Tuesday against the Golden Knights, they'll give themselves a chance to claim a point or two against the Stars.
“I think they do [things] a little bit different than Vegas,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery of the Stars. “I think their [defense] corps is similar to Vegas; they’re big, strong, and they win a lot of pucks down low and make it difficult to get to the interior.
“So those are similarities to Vegas, but I also think that their offensive game is as unique and as good as anybody in the League. I think they’re sitting at number one in odd-man rushes for; their rush game and transition game – from essentially their whole lineup – is right up there with New Jersey, Edmonton, Colorado and those types of teams.”
Dallas has yielded only five goals in its four games this season, with only three of the five being scored at 5-on-5. But as Carbery points out, they’re also a challenging and dangerous offensive outfit to go up against.
“They do a couple different things structurally,” says Carbery. “They do a really good job of pushing your [defense] back in the neutral zone, which creates a lot of underneath space for their [defensemen] to get active – even middle speed coming underneath. And it’s hard to defend, because when you don't have gap in the neutral zone and you’ve got a ton of speed coming at you, and you get caught flat-footed, there's a lot of dangerous opportunities that they create off of that, so you have to defend that really well.
“And this is probably because they have such quality goaltending and [Jake] Oettinger is that, overall, but he is playing phenomenally right now. If you feel like you’ve got some blood in the water and you’re going to get a good chance at one end, and it’s about to come back, if you don’t finish and you don’t execute, it’s [going to be] a 2-on-1 or a 3-on-1 coming back the other way.
“And that’s where they have almost embraced that: ‘We know we’re lethal off the rush, and we are going to execute on that 2-on-1 or 3-on-1, and we are getting a Grade A [scoring chance].’ And there’s a good chance it ends up in the back of your net with the talent they have and the speed of [Roope] Hintz, [Wyatt] Johnston, [Logan] Stankoven, all these guys that have come up through their system who are now elite level players. They make you pay if you give them odd-man rush opportunities.”
Roll Call – Coming off an uplifting team victory against a difficult opponent on Tuesday night over Vegas, the Caps are now faced with another daunting foe as the seek to string together wins for the first time in the young season. Tuesday’s game gives them a blueprint with which to work, but every night and every opponent are different.
“We obviously didn’t want to start 0-2, especially with Dallas coming up,” says Caps’ center Dylan Strome. “They’re two good hockey teams. We’ve got to find a way of doing a lot of what we did last game; I thought we worked really hard, and we were talking about that before the game, how we thought we lost too many battles in the New Jersey game. But we found a way to win more battles against Vegas, and the results showed that.
“We’re going to need more of the same tonight against a really good team – obviously, they’re 4-0 – so it’s a big test.”
Washington was in a difficult spot in its season opener on Saturday; it was the first game of the season and the first game the team had played in a week. Meanwhile, its opponent – New Jersey – was already suiting up for its fourth regular season game. And that disparity was evident as the night wore on.
Just the feeling of being in the rhythm of the regular season again should help the Caps going forward.
“The Jersey game was our first game in a week and the first game since the playoffs last year where you’re playing against a full NHL team,” says Caps’ center P-L Dubois. “And that’s the other thing; the game is very different in the preseason than it is in the regular season; it’s easier in some ways and harder in others.
“In the Jersey game, there were some good minutes and some bad minutes, and I think that’s to be expected when it’s a first game like that. But against Vegas, I thought we did better. And now it’s Dallas, and next week we’ll have a back-to-back.
“Sometimes, not much time to think and not much time between games helps to just get back in the flow of things. We’re about to play our third game, and some teams out there are about to play their sixth. And once you get up to that fourth, fifth, sixth game [of the season], everybody is pretty much on the same page.”
Get Up Jake – One of the many highlights of the win over Vegas was Jakub Vrana scoring a goal in his first game back with the Capitals. Drafted in the first round (13th overall) of the 2014 NHL Draft, Vrana totaled 76 goals and 209 points in 367 games scattered over five seasons in Washington.
Dealt to Detroit in April of 2021, Vrana later landed in St. Louis as well. But injuries and some off-ice struggles left the 28-year-old winger without much interest from the rest of the NHL when he hit the market as a free agent this past summer. The Caps invited him to training camp on a PTO [player tryout] agreement, and Vrana was able to crack the roster and sign a one-year deal with Washington.
After sitting out the season opener as a healthy scratch, Vrana got a sweater against Vegas. He scored the game’s first goal on his first shot in his second tour of duty in Washington, a gratifying moment for him and a thrill for the many fans with fond feelings for the 2017-18 Stanley Cup champion.
But it’s a process for Vrana. He came to camp. He made the roster. He signed the contract. He got into the lineup, and he scored. The next challenge for Vrana is simply to remain in the lineup on a regular basis, and it will take more than just offensive production to achieve that.
“It feels awesome, obviously,” he says of his storybook return on Tuesday. “The plan was to come here for training camp, try to get a contract, and then just come here every day and work hard for a chance to play here again during the regular season.
“And now, that has happened. As a player, I think you want to build on that, right? So right now, the focus is tonight’s game. And I’m just going day by day, trying to build off the good things, try to have a good game and build off that. I’m not looking too far ahead. I’m just going day by day.”
Scoring goals is hard in the NHL, but you can’t win without them. Players with Vrana’s speed, skill and goal-scoring ability will always be in demand. But to gain the coaching staff’s trust to the degree that you become a lineup fixture, players need to do more than just score goals. They need to be responsible and dependable away from the puck, and in the defensive zone.
“Yeah, I’m aware of that,” Vrana says. “I think that’s my main focus, just being good in my overall game. With my game, the goals will come, and the chances will come. I did have a lot of chances during the preseason. I scored one goal, but I felt like I could have popped three or four for sure because I had a lot of chances. With me having chances, the goals are just a matter of time.
“So I’m really focusing on having a good overall game, being in the right spot, making small, little plays that a lot of people don’t see. I’m trying to focus on that, and then the rest will come. So far – talking to the coaches and everything – I think I’m doing a good job with that. Of course, there is always room for improvement, but so far I’ve been happy with my overall game.”
In The Nets – Charlie Lindgren will be between the pipes for the Capitals tonight against Dallas. Following Wednesday’s practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex, Carbery briefly discussed the Caps’ mindset on how they’ll operate with the tandem of Lindgren and Logan Thompson.
“We’re just going to play it by ear, and we’ll try to get both of those guys as involved as possible, especially early in the season, get them both playing,” says the Caps’ bench boss. “I don’t think there’s going to be a set plan of alternating. We’ll just continue to try to get them involved.”
Lindgren started the opener on Saturday and Thompson was in net for the season’s second game against Vegas on Tuesday.
Lifetime against Dallas, Lindgren is 2-2-2 in six appearances – all starts – with a 2.47 GAA and a .920 save pct.
On the day the Stars announced an eight-year, $66 million contract extension for goaltender Jake Oettinger, he gets a night off in the District. Casey DeSmith gets the net tonight for the second time this season and the second time as a member of the Stars. A college teammate of Caps’ defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk at University of New Hampshire, DeSmith is a native of New Hampshire. Now in his seventh NHL season, he spent the first five years of his career in Pittsburgh and he was with Vancouver last season.
DeSmith authored a perfect debut with Dallas on Sunday, pitching a 25-save shutout against Seattle in his first starting assignment with his new team. The Caps have seen a fair amount of him over the years; he owns a lifetime 4-2-1 record against Washington in seven appearances (all starts), along with a 2.38 GAA and a .915 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we expect the Capitals and Stars to look when they take to the ice at Capital One Arena on Thursday 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-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)
DALLAS
Forwards
21-Robertson, 24-Hintz, 53-Johnston
27-Marchment, 95-Duchene, 63-Dadonov
14-Benn, 22-Bourque, 11-Stankoven
10-Back, 18-Steel, 15-Blackwell
Defensemen
55-Harley, 4-Heiskanen
23-Lindell, 5-Lundqvist
2-Smith, 46-Lyubushkin
Goaltenders
1-DeSmith
29-Oettinger
Extras
28-Petrovic
Out/Injured
3-Dumba (lower body)
91-Seguin (lower body)
