Canucks Host Capitals on Wednesday Night as Homestand Continues

The Vancouver Canucks host the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena as the team continues their eight-game homestand.

Wednesday night’s game is Pride Night at Rogers Arena, an essential part of Hockey Is For Everyone, a joint NHL and NHLPA initiative celebrating diversity and inclusion in hockey.

Max Sasson scored his 10th goal of the season on Monday night. He now has 13 goals in 75 career games.

Drew O’Connor picked up his 11th goal of the season and is trending towards his career-high of 16, which he accomplished during the 2023-24 season.

Wednesday will also be the only time this season that the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer, Alex Ovechkin, plays at Rogers Arena. Ovechkin is now up to 917 goals in his career, including 20 this season. The three-time Hart Trophy winner has played in all 50 Capitals games this season.

Quick Hits on the Competition

• The Caps are in a battle for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. They sit three points back of the Buffalo Sabres for the final spot, and are 24-20-6 this season.

• Wednesday night will be the second game of a season-long six-game road trip for the Capitals. They took a 5-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday.

• The Caps are 10-10-3 on the road this season.

• Tom Wilson leads the Caps with seven power play goals this season, but their group as a whole has struggled and sits in 28th place with their 16% conversion rate.

• Five-on-five is where the Capitals have thrived this season. They have the third-best control of the goal share (56.22%), being on the ice for 113 goals scored and 88 goals allowed.

• The Canucks beat the Capitals earlier in the season; Teddy Blueger picked up the game-winning goal in the October 19th game.

• Logan Thompson has started between the pipes in 70% of the Capitals’ games this season. The 28-year-old netminder has a 17-14-4 record, a 0.914% save percentage, and a 2.38 goals-against average.

• On the road this season, the Caps are 10-5-3 when scoring the first goal, but 0-5-0 when their opponents score first.

The Story: Strong Game for Kane

Evander Kane picked up a goal, had five shots on net, four hits, and was second among forwards for ice time (19:10) on Monday night.

He liked the way his team played in the first period on Monday, and he thinks they can build on it for Wednesday’s game.

“We had our looks to get back in the game, and we did at the end there. [We] just [need to] try to continue to have that same effort for Wednesday and now let as many goals fall in the back of our net.”

Kane’s line, which had David Kämpf and Drew O’Connor, played more than any other Canucks trio on Monday, and he liked how they played aggressively throughout the game.

“We committed guys down low and weren’t as concerned about staying above and having a little bit more of an attacking, aggressive forechecking mindset. And it paid off for our line,” said Kane.

Canucks’ Top Performers over the Last Five Games

Elias Pettersson: 2g-1a-3p
Linus Karlsson: 0g-3a-3p
Max Sasson: 2g-0a-2p
Evander Kane: 2g-0a-2p
Drew O’Connor: 1g-1a-2p

When and Where to Watch

Wednesday’s game is at 7:00 p.m. PT, and you can watch the game on Sportsnet or listen to Brendan Batchelor’s radio call on Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network.