All Over Again – Eleven nights after forging a 5-2 win over the Hurricanes here in Raleigh, the Caps are back to close out the road portion of their regular season slate with Carolina. Tuesday’s game at Lenovo Center is also the front end of a set of back-to-backs for the Caps, who head home to open a five-game homestand on Wednesday against the Montreal Canadiens.
As they get set to face the defending champs for the second time in less than two weeks, the Caps know they won’t have the same lineup that overcame the Canes here on Oct. 2. Defenseman Matt Roy suffered a lower boy injury a night later in Tampa, and he has not played since. Center Pierre-Luc Dubois missed Saturday’s homestand finale with Seattle, and he did not make the trip south for this game and won’t play tonight.
Alex Tuch, who scored a pair of first-period goals – his first in a Washington uniform – in the season opener here, took a maintenance day and did not practice on Monday. And although he did travel with the team, there is some doubt as to his presence in tonight’s lineup.
“Lineup-wise, there’s just too many things going on,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery in prefacing remarks to his meeting with the media following Tuesday’s optional morning skate. “So, it will be game-time [decisions] for a lineup with the back end and up front. But Logan [Thompson] will play in net.”
The Caps played well enough to win each of their first four games of the season, but too many careless mistakes blunted their performance in Sunday’s 5-3 loss to Seattle. Bouncing back from bad beats is a hallmark of recent vintage Washington teams, but doing so in this building against this team isn’t easy under any circumstances, and the Canes have won five straight since the Caps’ last visit, and they’re likely to be stinging from their own subpar performance that evening.
“Not our best,” says Carbery of the Seattle game. “We made way too many mistakes that we had control of, and it can’t happen. It can’t happen.
“And so, now, to get right back at it and come on the road in Carolina, and play against the defending Cup champs, that’s the way we’re looking at it; it’s a good opportunity to get back at it and show more about what our identity looks like, and how we can be a smarter team, and look better than we did the other night.”
Thompson was in net here on Oct. 2 when he made 31 saves to earn the first of his three victories on the season.
“The recipe for that game that we played against the Carolina Hurricanes is the recipe we’ve got to bring to the rink for every game,” says Thompson. “You chip pucks in, you play simple hockey, you work hard, and you get the puck back. I think when we’re doing that, that’s when we’re at our best. When we limit the turnovers and the silly mistakes and keep it simple, I think that’s the best brand of Washington Capitals hockey.”
Driver 8 – Caps captain Alex Ovechkin is set to play his final regular season game in Raleigh. Some 22-plus years after he was drafted to the Caps in this building – during its RBC Center days – Ovechkin will play his 49th regular season game here tonight. In the prior 48 contests, he has totaled 59 points (33 goals, 26 assists), and his goal, assist and point totals here represent his highest career totals of any venue aside from Capital One Arena.
On June 26, 2004, the Caps called out Ovechkin’s name as the first overall choice in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. He was the first of three first-rounders for the Caps – along with Jeff Schultz (27th overall) and Mike Green (29th overall) – in that Draft, and the first of 13 players Washington chose in what was a nine-round draft in those days.
“Obviously, I got drafted here,” Ovechkin said this morning. “And this is my first road game [since] I announced that it was going to be my last year. And I have such great memories here, drafted first overall, and it’s a special place for me.”
Asked about comparing the feeling of walking into this building for the first time in 2004 and doing so for the last time in the regular season this morning, Ovechkin responded thusly:
“Obviously lots of things changed, but I remember those days were pretty cool days for me. You were nervous because you didn’t know if you were going to be first or who was going to be first. And we had a nice time with the family.
“Those days, you can’t go back. But the memories are still there.”
Ah, the memories.
Twenty-one years ago yesterday – on Oct. 12, 2005 – Ovechkin played here for the first time, skating in his fifth NHL game and his first road game. Although he scored the game’s first goal – with a lone assist from Andrew Cassels – the Caps were rolled by the Canes that night, 7-2. Under coach Peter Laviolette, Carolina would go on to win the Stanley Cup at the end of that season.
Ovechkin’s goal gave the Caps a first-period lead, and when Carolina defenseman Niclas Wallin inadvertently sent the puck into his own net during a delayed penalty on the Caps, Washington’s Dainius Zubrus was given credit for the goal that lifted his team to a 2-1 lead early in the second period.
“I don’t remember much, but I think it was Andrew Cassels [who] passed it to me,” the captain recalls, of his first NHL road goal.
Yes, it was Cassels who set him up, but it was Ovechkin who settled a bouncing biscuit on the rush – without breaking stride – before beating Carolina’s Cam Ward with a backhander from in tight.
Carolina scored the next six, netting four of them in the third period, scoring the most goals it had managed in a home game since 2001.
Ovechkin’s goal set a Caps franchise record for most consecutive games (five) with a point by a rookie from the start of his career, breaking the mark shared by Ryan Walter and Milan Novy (four). Ovechkin eventually extended that mark to eight straight games, naturally.
Green was recalled from AHL Hershey in time to make his NHL debut that day, which was also his 20th birthday. Jeff Halpern had been Ovechkin’s linemate in his first NHL games, but Halpern didn’t play that night because he was observing Yom Kippur.
Here’s how the Caps lined up that night, 21 years and one night ago in Raleigh:
8-Ovechkin, 9-Zubrus, 24-Willsie
12-Friesen, 25-Cassels, 20-Sykora
18-Pettinger, 16-Sutherby, 17-Clark
27-Clymer, 15-Gordon, 10-Bradley
19-Witt, 44-Eminger
47-Muir, 6-Heward
34-Biron, 52-Green
37-Kolzig, 1-Johnson
Eleven nights ago, when the Caps opened their regular season schedule here, Ovechkin helped started the scoring at 6:33 of the first period, assisting on Alex Tuch’s first goal as a Capital and Washington’s first goal of the season.
These days, Ovechkin has two teammates – Ilya Protas and Cole Hutson – who hadn’t been born yet while their captain was roaring through his rookie season in 2004-05. He also has a teammate who played junior hockey with Andrew Cassels’ son (Cole Cassels), and that would be Boone Jenner.
In The Nets – Thompson makes his 200th career start tonight in Raleigh. In his 199 previous starts, Thompson has 119 victories (he has two relief victories as well, for a total of 121). Thompson’s total is tied – with the late Terry Sawchuk and Ray Emery -- for the 17th most in League history for a goaltender with 200 starts. With a win tonight, Thompson could tie former Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen (120) for 16th. Hockey Hall of Famer Bill Durnan won 134 of his first 200 starts to head the list, which is littered with other Hall of Famers as well.
Among active goaltenders, only Igor Shesterkin (127), Jake Oettinger and Andrei Vasilevskiy (124 each) and Andersen had more wins through their first 200 starts in the NHL.
Lifetime against Carolina, Thompson is 2-2-1 in five appearances – all starts – against Carolina, with a 3.37 GAA and a .903 save pct.
Brandon Bussi was in the Carolina nets for the Oct. 2 meeting between the Metro Division rivals, but the Canes will go with Pyotr Kochetkov in tonight’s rematch. Bussi started each of Carolina’s first two games of the season, and the two have alternated starts since. But Kochetkov now gets his first set of consecutive starts this season; he was in net for Carolina’s fifth straight win on Sunday night in Philadelphia, making 18 saves in a 4-1 win over the Flyers.
Lifetime against the Caps, Kochetkov is 3-1-2 in seven appearances – six starts – with a 2.60 GAA and an .869 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how we expect the Canes might look when they take the ice Tuesday night in Raleigh, and here is how the Caps looked at Monday’s practice, given that their lineup tonight – as noted above – will be the result of some game-time decisions (Tuch would likely replace Miroshnichenko in this alignment if he is able to play):
WASHINGTON
Forwards
63-Miroshnichenko, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
21-A. Protas, 62-I. Protas, 8-Ovechkin
9-Leonard, 22-Jenner, 25-Kyrou
72-Beauvillier, 34-Sourdif, 53-Frank
Defense
6-Chychrun, 27-Liljegren
42-Fehervary, 73-Desharnais
44-Hutson, 4-Holl
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Injured/Out
3-Roy (lower body)
38-Sandin (lower body)
80-Dubois (illness)
Healthy Extras
52-McIlrath
53-Frank
CAROLINA
Forwards
28-Carrier, 20-Aho, 37-Svechnikov
71-Hall, 22-Stankoven, 53-Blake
27-Ehlers, 77-Jankowski, 48-Martinook
50-Robinson, 82-Kotkaniemi, 44-Deslauriers
Defense
74-Slavin, 5-Chatfield
19-Miller, 26-Walker
4-Gostisbehere, 6-Reilly
Goaltenders
32-Bussi
52-Kochetkov
Injured/out
11-Staal (lower body)
24-Jarvis (upper body)
Healthy Extras
8-Valimaki
