Nashville Cats – The Nashville Predators are in town for their only visit to the District this season, and the Caps will lay their six-game home winning streak on the line on Wednesday night against the Preds.
Both the Caps and the Preds are coming off losses in their previous outings; the Caps dropped a 4-2 decision to the Hurricanes in Carolina on Sunday while the Preds drew a blank against Los Angeles on home ice Monday night, falling 3-0. Prior to those losses, the Caps had won eight of nine previous games, and the Preds had pulled points in five of six (4-1-1).
Both teams will be aiming to get back on the beam tonight. The Caps lost their season opener, then reeled off five straight wins. They lost again in Tampa on Oct. 26, then stacked up three consecutive wins. They’re looking to continue that pattern, beginning tonight.
Nashville dropped five straight to start the season, but the Preds corrected to 4-1-1 over their next six games before bowing to the Kings on Monday.
Washington will get defenseman Matt Roy back into its lineup after a 10-game absence because of a lower body injury sustained early in the second period of Washington’s opening night game with the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 12. The Caps activated Roy, and they have returned defenseman Vincent Iorio to AHL Hershey.
Five-on-Five Alive – Eleven games into the 2024-25 season, one of many significant differences in this season’s Caps as opposed to last year’s model is the team’s effectiveness at 5-on-5, all over the ice.
Eleven games into last season, the Caps were 5-4-2, and they had scored just 14 goals at 5-on-5, ranking 31st in the NHL in that category. At the same juncture, Washington had yielded 25 goals against at 5-on-5, ranking in a tie for 19th in the League.
This season, the Caps’ total of 34 goals at 5-on-5 ranks second only to Vegas (40, in one more game than Washington) and they’ve surrendered 22 goals against at 5-on-5, ranking 12th in the League.
“If I could simplify it and say it the best way,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery, “I feel like we're just a way better team offensively, and being able to control play with the puck, so we have the puck more, where last year I felt for long stretches of games – even though we were a quality team, and we were finding ways to win – we didn't have the puck as much, we weren't threatening as much.
“And this year, I feel like we've just gotten so much better at being able to when we get the puck, we transport it and find a way to get it into the offensive zone, and we stay there longer. And if we lose it, we get it back quicker, and then get back into the offensive zone, or attack off the rush. I just feel like we're possessing the puck, which, in the end we are controlling more play this year than last year.”
“The best way to describe it is we’re connected,” says Caps’ forward Connor McMichael. “We all know where the puck should go or where it’s going to go, and we’re just making simple reads and playing off of each other. I think that’s been the biggest help for us. The last game in Carolina was not how we wanted to play it and not how we had been playing in the first 10 games.
“But when we are playing connected, we look way faster, and we are playing way faster. And that takes away a lot of time and space from the opposition.”
There’s also the matter of personnel. Not only have the Caps’ offseason additions meshed rather seamlessly into both the Washington lineup and locker room, a couple of the Caps’ younger players have taken significant steps forward in the early weeks of the season. But it’s not just about personnel, either.
“I think we've just done a really good job of hanging on to pucks more,” says Caps’ defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. “Obviously, adding a guy like [Pierre-Luc Dubois] and [McMichael] taking a step, and [Aliaksei] Protas taking a step, it just adds a whole different dynamic to our team. And I think we've done a good job of just sticking to our game plan, wearing teams out, and understanding things that work for the first half of the game. Let’s say you wear them out, even in one shift, it's like you wear them down with a few shots, pull up, [puck goes] high, shot. And then as they get tired, the nice plays open up.
“And I think we've done a better job of recognizing that and sticking with the game plan, and we got a lot of big bodies that can skate. I know as a [defenseman] it's a chore to deal with a bunch of our guys on the forecheck, so if we just stick to that early and get to our game, and get the game tilted in our direction, and those nicer plays open up, and then we're obviously scoring way more than we were last year. It's been nice.”
Goaltender Charlie Lindgren sees that fast play that McMichael is talking about.
“To me, we’re playing with more speed,” says Lindgren. “I feel like we look like a faster team. We’re getting in on the forecheck quicker, we’re pressuring their attacks, I think the support is better. There’s a lot that stands out about these first 10 or 11 games, and in most of those games, we look like a completely different team than last year.”
Speaking of completely different, another standout area for Washington early this season is the amount of time it has played with the lead. Eleven games into last season, the Caps ranked 31st in the NHL with 124:11 of lead time, out of 672:02 in total playing time. Washington held the lead for less than 20 percent of total playing time at this stage of last season.
In 2024-25, the Caps have held a scoreboard lead for 371:17, ranking second only to the New York Rangers (376:36). Washington has held a lead for nearly 56 percent of the 664 minutes of hockey it has played this season.
In The Nets – Logan Thompson makes his sixth start of the season tonight against the Predators as the Caps’ rotation of netminders continues. Thompson joins Tomas Vokoun as the second goaltender in franchise history to win each of his first five decisions with the team, and he will be seeking to match the mark of Vokoun – a longtime Predators goaltender who won each of his first six starts with the Capitals in 2011-12.
Lifetime against Nashville, Thompson is 3-1-0 in four appearances – all starts – with a 2.28 GAA and a .933 save pct.
Juuse Saros is the likely starter for Nashville; he has started and gone the distance in 10 of Nashville’s first dozen games this season. Saros is 3-6-1 on the season with a 2.83 GAA and a .902 save pct.
Lifetime against the Caps, Saros is 5-3-0 in eight appearances – all starts – with a 2.65 GAA and a .912 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we expect the Capitals to look tonight, and this is how the Predators lined up for their most recent game, on Monday in Nashville:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
15-Milano, 29-Lapierre, 88-Mangiapane
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 16-Raddysh
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Roy
27-Alexeyev, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Extras
13-Vrana
23-Sgarbossa
52-McIlrath
Out/Injured
6-Chychrun (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
NASHVILLE
Forwards
9-Forsberg, 90-O’Reilly, 14-Nyquist
91-Stamkos, 13-Parssinen, 81-Marchessault
17-Jankowski, 82-Novak, 77-Evangelista
68-L’Heureux, 10-Sissons, 36-Smith
Defensemen
76-Skjei, 59-Josi
45-Carrier, 3-Lauzon
7-Del Gaizo, 2-Schenn
Goaltenders
74-Saros
41-Wedgewood
Extras
26-Tomasino
47-McCarron
57-Fabbro
Out/Injured
None
