Caps Face Vegas After Layoff

Oct. 10 vs. Vegas Golden Knights at Capital One Arena
Time:8:00 p.m.
TV: NBCSN
Radio: Capitals Radio 24/7
Vegas Golden Knights 1-2-0
Washington Capitals 1-0-1
Although the Capitals won four straight games over the Vegas Golden Knights last spring, the Caps are still seeking their first-ever regular season victory over Vegas.

Four months after winning their fourth straight Stanley Cup Final contest over the Golden Knights, the Caps face Vegas in an early regular season clash in D.C. Vegas won each of the two meetings between the two teams during the 2017-18 season, including a 4-3 win over the Caps in Washington on Super Bowl Sunday.

The Caps come into Wednesday night's main NHL event after a five-day break between sets of back-to-back games. Minutes after raising the first Stanley Cup championship banner in franchise history, the Caps manhandled the Boston Bruins by a 7-0 count in their home opener. A night later in Pittsburgh, the Capitals earned a point in a wild, 7-6 overtime loss to the Penguins.
Now, after two off days and three practice days, the Caps are set to get back in action against Vegas. Wednesday's game also starts Washington's second of a dozen sets of back-to-back games this season, and it also starts the Caps' first stretch of three games in four nights in 2018-19. The Caps visit New Jersey to face the Devils on Thursday night, and they return home to open a three-game homestand against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Did that early scheduling gap feel more like the quirk in the schedule that it is, or a brief extension of training camp?
"A little bit of both, I think," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "You're not deep enough into the season where you can bill it as a rest period. And at the same time, you don't want to have back-to-backs and then get crushed for a couple of days and then back to three [games] in four [nights] coming out of it. We don't have that many games, but it's just about trying to find the perfect balance."
In addition to a couple of spirited practices, the Caps got in a little more off-ice work than they might normally at this juncture of the season, and that can be useful after the short summer.

"We were able to work at a couple of certain areas that we think we can improve on," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "We've shown some video, but in addition to that, we have been able to train off-ice a little bit differently than we normally would be able to do at this spot."
"I find that whatever you put in, you get out," says Carlson. "[The practices] were harder than normal - not [Tuesday's], necessarily, but the other two for sure were a lot harder than normal. If you go into it with a good attitude and think about those days as work days, and getting better and pushing yourself hard, you're going to get a lot out of it."
On the good news front, the Caps will get defenseman Michal Kempny back in the lineup for Wednesday's game. Kempny suffered an upper body injury in a Sept. 25 preseason game against the Blues in St. Louis, and he missed the first two regular season games.
Speaking of the Blues, ex-St. Louis winger Dmitrij Jaskin will make his debut in a Caps sweater against Vegas, sporting sweater No. 23 and skating on Washington's fourth line with Nic Dowd and Devante Smith-Pelly. Claimed on waivers from the Blues a week ago, Jaskin has been practicing with his new teammates, and he has been sitting in on film sessions and meetings, and Caps coach Todd Reirden believes that Jaskin is suitably up to speed to enter the lineup.

"I think Jaskin is getting more familiar with our system," says Reirden. "We will do a little bit more work with him again [Wednesday], but he's ready to go and I'm excited to see what he can add to our group."
After falling to Philadelphia by a 5-2 count on Oct. 4 in their home and season opener, the Golden Knights embarked upon a five-game road trip a day later. Vegas started the trip with a 2-1 shootout win over the Wild in Minnesota, but it stumbled in a 4-2 loss at Buffalo on Monday. The Knights now face the Caps in the middle match of the trip.
Over the summer, the Knights lost offensive-minded wingers and David Perron and James Neal to free agency. Perron finished third and Neal sixth on the team in scoring last season. To mitigate those losses, Vegas added center Paul Stastny via free agency and it swung a deal with Montreal for veteran winger Max Pacioretty.
Pacioretty scored the Knights' lone goal in their shootout win over the Wild, but Stastny hasn't found the scoresheet yet. An undisclosed injury suffered late in Monday afternoon's loss in Buffalo could keep Stastny out of the lineup on Wednesday.