Checkout Time In Vegas – The Caps take to the ice for a late Sunday afternoon game – local time – in Vegas against the Golden Knights today, the middle match of their three-game road trip. The Capitals canceled a Saturday practice and players enjoyed a day off here, and they did not conduct a morning skate ahead of Sunday’s contest.
Sunday’s game pits the NHL’s two most prolific offensive teams; the Capitals lead the circuit with an average of 4.19 goals per game, and Vegas is a close second at 4.12 goals per game.
“I don't think you ever know how these [games] are going to play out,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “You would think that there would be a bunch of chances both ways, but I think also sometimes you come into these situations, and both coaches and both teams are stressing the importance of being able to check and being able to defend the things that they do at a high level. So that's what we're going to focus on. Obviously, we want those offensive pieces to come to life for us, but we also understand and know that in order for us to have success, we're going to have to do a job checking against the things that they do really well.”
Two nights ago in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche, the Capitals did a great job of checking against the Avs’ ever-dangerous top six forward group, limiting them to just four shots on goal in the game, and keeping the NHL’s leading scorer – center Nathan MacKinnon – from recording a shot on goal for the first time in 79 regular season games. But that stifling performance is no guarantee of success against a similarly lethal Vegas lineup tonight.
“It gives you a little bit of confidence, playing on the road against a top Western Conference team,” says Carbery. “And difficult environments; [both are] hard buildings to play in and this is no different. But we also have to guard ourselves against being overconfident of thinking that any slice of what we did the other night was easy. All the little things that we had to do took a ton of work, a ton of effort, and a ton of commitment and it’s going to have to be to that exact same level this afternoon.
The Caps are seeking to preserve their perfect record against Western foes in the early going; they’re 5-0-0 against denizens of the Western Conference this season.
Washington may need to make a lineup change in Sunday’s game; left wing Brandon Duhaime is ailing with a lower body injury suffered on Friday night in Denver and his presence in the lineup will be a game time decision according to Carbery. If Duhaime needs to sit this one out, Hendrix Lapierre would draw into Duhaime’s lineup slot on the left side of the Nic Dowd trio.
The Caps are seeking their first ever regular season victory in Vegas. They come into Sunday’s game with an all-time record of 0-5-1 in this barn. They’ve been outscored by a combined 25-11 in those half dozen previous visits.
Vegas is returning from its annual Fathers’ Trip, and the Golden Knights swept the two road games, winning in Anaheim and in Utah. Vegas is 8-2-1 in its last 11 games, and the Golden Knights boast the NHL’s second-best power play, a unit that is humming along with a 34.8 percent conversion rate this season.
The Golden Knights have scored at least one power-play goal in 13 of their 17 games this season, and in each of the four games they failed to do so they had only one or two man-advantage opportunities.
Two By Two – With his fourth multi-goal game of the season on Friday in Denver, Caps forward Connor McMichael vaulted into the team lead in goals. McMichael now has a dozen goals in 16 games to start the season, and he is just six goals shy of matching his total of 18 from 2023-24. Last year’s total is his career best, achieved in 80 games.
McMichael’s total of a dozen goals in 16 games is tied for seventh most in franchise history at this stage of the season. Eleven of McMichael’s goals have been scored at 5-on-5; he leads the League in 5-on-5 tallies and is tied with Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl for the NHL lead in even-strength goals.
Since opening night of the season, McMichael has been on a line with P-L Dubois and Tom Wilson, and the trio has outscored the opposition 14-10 in just over 160 minutes of 5-on-5 time together.
“I don’t want it to stop; nobody does, but especially me and Tom,” says Dubois of his linemate’s early season hot spell. “Whatever he needs, we’re there for him.”
In The Nets – Former Golden Knights goaltender Logan Thompson returns to Vegas for the first time as a member of the Capitals. Acquired from Vegas in a late June trade, Thompson’s first start as a member of the Caps came on Oct. 15 against the Golden Knights in Washington, and he prevailed by a 4-2 score in that game, making 24 saves.
For Thompson, that Oct. 15 victory was the first of seven straight triumphs as he established a franchise record for most consecutive wins by a goaltender at the outset of his career in Washington. In his most recent start on Wednesday against Toronto, Thompson’s streak was halted in a 4-3 overtime loss, but he has helped his team to at least a point in each of his first eight starts with the Capitals.
“A great personality and a ton of competitive fire, which I’m sure the fans and everybody here knows about Logan,” says Carbery of Thompson, when queried by local Vegas media as to what the former Vegas goalie has brought to the Caps this season. “He’s just been a good fit in our locker room, his personality and interacting with the guys, right from day one.
“When he gets on the ice, you can see the competitiveness of him wanting to win, whether it’s in practice and it’s a small area game or whether it’s a game. That’s probably the biggest compliment I could give him thus far into the season, is that in his starts – I feel like every single time, maybe other than one – the game has been hanging in the balance and there has been a chance one way where the game could flip. But he has made a big save, a timely save at a critical moment of the game that you look back on that potentially preserves the 2-1 win or keeps the game tied at 2-2 and lets us win the game 3-2 on a late goal.
“There are a ton of those, which to me shows the sort of competitiveness of who Logan is as a goaltender and as an athlete.”
Lifetime against Vegas, Thompson is 1-0-0 in just a single appearance, the aforementioned game in Washington in mid-October. Over the course of his career at T-Mobile Arena, Thompson is 30-15-2 with a pair of shutouts, a 2.43 GAA and a .917 save pct. in 48 games (44 starts).
For Vegas, we are expecting to see Adin Hill between the pipes today. Hill is 8-3-1 on the season with a shutout, a 3.16 GAA and an .886 save pct. Lifetime against the Capitals, Hill is 0-3-0 with a 3.44 GAA and an .857 save pct. in three appearances, all starts.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we believe the Capitals and Golden Knights might look when they take the ice on Sunday night in Vegas:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin 17-Strome, 21-Protas
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
13-Vrana, 20-Eller, 88-Mangiapane
22-Duhaime or 29-Lapierre, 26-Dowd, 16-Raddysh
Defensemen
6-Chychrun, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Roy
42-Fehervary, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Extras
27-Alexeyev
29-Lapierre
52-McIlrath
Out/Injured
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
VEGAS
Forwards
49-Barbashev, 9-Eichel, 16-Dorofeyev
48-Hertl, 10-Roy, 55-Kolesar
21-Howden, 71-Karlsson, 26-Holtz
70-Pearson, 22-Schwindt
Defensemen
15-Hanifin, 7-Pietrangelo
3-McNabb, 27-Theodore
17-Hutton, 2-Whitecloud
6-Korczak
Goaltenders
33-Hill
35-Samsonov
Extras
None
Out/Injured
14-Hague (undisclosed)
61-Stone (lower body)
90-Lehner (hip)
95-Olofsson (lower body)
