California Nights – The Caps kick off their longest road trip of 2023-24 on Monday night in San Jose, facing a Sharks squad that will be playing its third home game in four nights. The Capitals are in the unfamiliar situation of starting a road trip by sleeping three nights in a hotel before playing their first game of the trip, which will finally take place tonight.
“I think the road trip is really important,” says Caps’ right wing Tom Wilson. “Anytime you’re out on the road and you’re with the guys, and you’re coming together as a group earlier in the year, it’s important to get off on the right foot and to play the right way. As long as I’ve been around, when you come out here, you’re playing some pretty good teams, whether it’s San Jose, Los Angeles or Anaheim. It’s always a tough, tough trip. And now you’ve got Vegas in there, and there’s no easy nights.
“If you have a five-game road trip, it’s important to focus, to have our structure, and to hopefully come back [home] feeling good, and we’re keeping our [standings] position as best as we can.”
Prior to this trip, the Caps had hardly been on the road at all, playing only five of their first 17 games away from the friendly confines of Capital One Arena. They were able to get to California early, adjust to the time change, enjoy a day off in some glorious weather, and get a soild practice in, all while San Jose was playing two games since Washington’s last outing, a Friday matinee against the Oilers in D.C.
“Obviously we came out here with a plan to set ourselves up for success in the first game, and to be ready for them,” says Wilson. “We’ve got to take advantage of probably having rested legs and we’ve got to be sharp. I think we’ll have our energy levels, they’ll be high. If our execution follows that, then it should be a good recipe right out of the gate and we can jump on them. We didn’t have a good finish to our last game, so we want to make sure that we’re getting back to where we want to be.”
Sometime To Return – The last time the Caps played in San Jose was the first time Rasmus Sandin pulled on a Caps’ sweater. Obtained from Toronto ahead of the trade deadline on Feb. 28, Sandin joined the Capitals in the midst of last season’s California road trip. He reported to the club ahead of its game in Anaheim, but he was unable to play in that contest because he had to get some visa issues ironed out.
Sandin suited up for his first game with the Caps on March 4 of this year. The situation was a unique one; the Caps lost both Nick Jensen and Martin Fehervary to injury in their previous game in Anaheim, leading to the recall of Vincent Iorio and Gabriel Carlsson from AHL Hershey.
With Sandin, Iorio and Carlsson all making their Washington debuts in that game, the Caps made franchise history. Aside from season-opening games, it marked the first time ever that Washington had three defensemen debuting for the team in the same game. It went well; Washington won 8-3 with Sandin picking up three helpers, Carlsson two assists and Iorio a single helper on an Ovechkin goal.
Sandin became the seventh skater – and first defenseman – to record three points in his Caps debut.
“I remember that day very well,” says Sandin. “I remember I was pretty nervous before the game. I was enjoying the whole thing, playing with Ovi and the guys that I’d been looking up to since I was a little kid. Since then, I think I’ve matured as a player and as a person as well. I’ve had a great time so far, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to keep getting better every single day, too. But I definitely remember that day very well.”
Last February’s trade was the first for the 23-year-old Sandin in the NHL, but it went as smoothly as it could have gone, from his perspective.
“Obviously, I haven’t been part of anything like it before, switching teams midway through the season,” he says. “But to be honest, I didn’t think it was that difficult. The team here is fantastic, and a great group of guys. They helped me a lot. I think it was good for me too that I didn’t play the game in Anaheim because my visa wasn’t ready. For me to be able to see that game and then have a couple more days to figure out how we play and stuff like that, it was very helpful for me. But looking back on my time here so far is something that I enjoy doing.”
Before joining the Caps, Sandin averaged 16:40 per game over 140 contests with the Maple Leafs. In his 36 games with Washington, he has averaged 23:16 per night in ice time, while amassing three goals and 19 points.
Six-Pack In The Back – It has taken 18 games, but tonight for the first time this season, we are expecting to see the Caps suit up the top six defense group they envisioned when they made the July 1 trade to bring in blueliner Joel Edmundson from the Montreal Canadiens. With Martin Fehervary ready to come off injured reserve and suit up tonight, the Caps finally have their entire top six available to them tonight.
Edmundson missed the first 14 games of the season with a hand injury sustained in training camp, and Fehervary and Trevor van Riemsdyk have also had brief absences from the lineup because of injury. Alex Alexeyev, Hardy Häman Aktell, Lucas Johansen and Dylan McIlrath all combined to fill in during that time, and to keep the Caps rolling along while missing as many as three of their blueline regulars.
“This will be the first time – if Marty's able to go -- of us being the six guys, the way it looked in the summer, and the way that the roster was constructed,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “These will be the six, and then there'll be some competition with Lucas, Alex, and Häman Aktell.
“I think they've done a great job as young defenseman, being put in right away into some really difficult situations, playing some minutes, playing against some good teams, playing some tough matchups, and they’ve been able to produce from a standpoint of playing winning hockey, of being able to be reliable, being able to help the team win a game 2-1, or 4-3 on the road or whatever it might be. They deserve a lot of credit for that, and now they got to continue to build on their individual [work] if they get an opportunity to get into the lineup, which inevitably will happen. But it is nice to get those six guys in there and see what that looks like from a roster standpoint. And that's the way that we projected in the summer.”
Both the staff and the group is excited to see how the six will look over a stretch of games.
“Yeah, for sure,” says Sandin. “If I’m not completely wrong, I think this is the first game where we don’t have any injuries from the back end. We’ve been a little unfortunate that way. At the same time, it’s been good for some of the other guys to get in and get a couple of games, and the guys who have stepped in have played really well for us, obviously. We still have some steps to go to get better, but I’m excited to see all of us play together [tonight]. We have six [defenseman] that can play, but the guys who stepped in played fantastically as well.”
Devo-tion – With Nicklas Backstrom stepping away from the game at the beginning of this month and with T.J. Oshie out with an upper body injury and not traveling with the team, there were only four members of Washington’s 2018 Stanley Cup championship team on the flight to San Jose: John Carlson, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson.
Not to worry, kid. When the crew got to San Jose, an old friend was waiting for them.
Devante Smith-Pelly, member of the Caps’ 2017-18 Stanley Cup championship team, is riding with the Capitals on this road trip, filling in for radio analyst Ken Sabourin and also doing some on-camera work for washingtoncaps.com. Smith-Pelly retired from the game less than a year ago and has been doing some work on the media side since.
“It was great to see him,” says Carbery. “We spent some time together when he had a brief stint down in Hershey, so I got to know him. And it was good to see him, chat with him, catch up with him.
“And this is weird, but I think it’s funny, too. His wall play on breakouts, I always remember him coming down from Washington. And he had obviously won a Stanley Cup and accomplished a ton in his career, and showing our wingers how you executed off the wall in breakouts was amazing to watch, and he was fantastic. Great guy, and so it was great to see.”
When the Caps won the Cup in the spring of 2018, Smith-Pelly and fellow fourth-liners Chandler Stephenson and Jay Beagle were a primary reason why. In addition to being a great energy and forechecking unit and killing penalties, that trio – and Smith-Pelly in particular – delivered some timely offense throughout those playoffs.
When it was all said and done, Smith-Pelly’s seven playoff goals (in 24 games) were tied for fourth on the team with Lars Eller; only Ovechkin (15), Kuznetsov (12), and Oshie (8) had more. Smith-Pelly had seven goals in 75 games during the 2017-18 regular season, the first of his two-season stint with Washington.
In The Nets – Darcy Kuemper gets the start for Washington on Monday night in San Jose. He is 3-1-1 in his last five starts, with a 2.53 GAA and a .910 save pct. Lifetime against the Sharks, Kuemper is 9-4-4 with a shutout, a 2.74 GAA and a .910 save pct. in 19 appearances (18 starts).
For San Jose, we’re expecting to see Mackenzie Blackwood between the pipes tonight. He is 2-9-2 on the season with a 3.80 GAA and an .897 save pct. Lifetime against Washington, Blackwood is 2-9-1 with a 3.81 GAA and an .870 save pct. in 13 appearances, all starts.
All Lined Up – Here is how we believe the Capitals and Sharks might look when they take the ice at Capital One Arena on Monday night:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
24-McMichael, 17-Strome, 45-Phillips
15-Milano, 29-Lapierre, 21-Protas
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 39-Mantha
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Jensen
6-Edmundson, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
35-Kuemper
79-Lindgren
Injured
19-Backstrom (upper body)
67-Pacioretty (torn Achilles’ tendon)
77-Oshie (upper body)
Scratches
27-Alexeyev
46-Johansen
96-Aube-Kubel
SAN JOSE
Forwards
72-Eklund 11-Kunin, 68-Hoffman
20-Zetterlund, 64-Granlund, 10-Duclair
9-MacDonald, 7-Sturm, 62-Labanc
54-Smith, 22-Carpenter, 90-Bailey
Defensemen
38-Ferraro, 6-Emberson
83-Okhotiuk, 4-Burroughs
5-Benning, 33-Addison
Goaltenders
29-Blackwood
36-Kahkonen
Injured
18-Zadina (upper body)
23-Lindblom (lower body)
39-Couture (lower body)
48-Hertl (mid-body)
84-Rutta (undisclosed)
94-Barabanov (finger)
Scratches
44-Vlasic
71-Knyzhov
