Saturday Morning Film Show – The Caps and Red Wings are set to kick off a weekend set of home-and-home matinees, starting with a Saturday afternoon tilt here in the District. Ahead of today’s game with Detroit – and ahead of the NHL’s annual holiday roster freeze – the Caps made a transaction late Friday afternoon, loaning winger Bogdan Trineyev to AHL Hershey and recalling winger Ivan Miroshnichenko from that same club.
Miroshnichenko will step into Trineyev’s spot in the lineup as the Caps come off a terrific Thursday night performance in what was a 4-0 whitewash of the Toronto Maple Leafs here.
A couple of hours ahead of today’s game, Caps coach Spencer Carbery outlined the reasons for Friday’s roster move.
“So, a couple things come into play,” says the Caps’ bench boss. “First of all, Bogdan playing two games coming up, getting his first NHL game, I felt like the Winnipeg game, I thought he played well. As a team, [we were] not great, but I thought he showed some really good things in that game, and so it earned him an opportunity to play again. We get him into the Toronto game and I thought he was even better in that game in the limited amount [of ice time]; I think he had about 10 minutes – no special teams – but he was really solid on that line. He had a huge shot block, a diving play in the third period to get a puck out of the defensive zone. He was good with the puck good with his coverage, so I was impressed, and he did a real good job.
“With sending him back down and calling up Miro, it's kind of twofold. Miro has done a really good job down in Hershey thus far this year. We've been following him, and from all the reports that we've gotten from the coaches down there, he's been competing extremely hard, the details are getting better in his game. He's gotten off to a real good start. So we've sort of been tracking that, looking for an opportunity to get him up and get him into our lineup at some point. And then with the roster freeze and the potential of Ryan Leonard being activated at some point, we needed a roster spot to be able to [do that]; we couldn't send Bogdan down after today, so we wouldn't have been able to activate Ryan Leonard. So that's sort of a twofold thing with one of the nuances of the CBA.”
Miroshnichenko will step into the right side of the Nic Dowd line with Brandon Duhaime, a unit we saw last season on several occasions. In over 82 minutes of 5-on-5 time together last season, those three players outscored the opposition 3-1 while controlling 54.94 percent of all shot attempts. That’s excellent, given that the three took just 26.42 percent of their face-offs together in the offensive zone.
Young And Daily Growing – After a successful 111-point regular season performance in 2024-25, the Caps brought back most of their roster from last season with only a few exceptions. Perhaps the most noteworthy of the changes was the addition of rookie forward Justin Sourdif in a June trade with Florida.
Sourdif, Florida’s third-round pick (87th overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft, is a player the Caps have always liked. But they had no second- or third-round picks in the 2020 Draft, and didn’t have an opportunity to choose Sourdif between their selection of Hendrix Lapierre in the first round and Bogdan Trineyev in the fourth round.
More than a third of the way through the 2025-26 season, Sourdif has proven to be a another in a string of sage acquisitions for the Capitals’ pro scouting group. The 23-year-old BC native arrived in DC with just four games worth of NHL experience, but he has been a critical component for the Caps as they try to navigate their way through the middle of the season without top six center P-L Dubois, who has been limited to just six games this season because of surgery on his abdominal and adductor muscles.
Sourdif started the season skating the right side of a line with Nic Dowd and Brandon Duhaime, but with the Caps struggling in early November after Dubois went down on Halloween night, Carbery installed Sourdif in the middle of a line with Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson, and the effect has been good.
Despite taking just 47.11 percent of their draws in the offensive zone, the Sourdif trio has outscored the opposition by 11-4 at 5-on-5, and it has given Carbery a line he can deploy against opposing top lines to neutralize them.
Like most of the team, the Sourdif line scuffled a bit on last weekend’s road trip to Winnipeg and Minnesota. But ahead of Thursday’s 4-0 win over the Leafs, Sourdif and his linemates had a meeting to discuss and reflect on their performance.
Then they went out and held the powerful Toronto line of Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies and William Nylander to exactly zero shots on net at 5-on-5 in Thursday’s victory. Oh, and the Sourdif line also generated two goals of its own, including Protas’ game-winner – the first goal of the contest – in the first period.
“Credit to him and that line,” said Carbery of Sourdif after the game, “because he I talked to him this morning and met with him, and they weren't happy with their performance in Minnesota and Winnipeg either. And so, what do they do? Pro him, and Willie get together and talk about it. And what's changed? What do we need to do to get back on track?
“And so, there's three guys that not only care, but they're just so dialed in with what they need to do in their line, and they're going to fix things. When things go off track, they're going to take it upon themselves; they're not going to wait for me. They get it right back on track. And that's pretty impressive, because he gets the Matthews match up all night at home. On the road, I can't get him against Kyle Connor all night, because they can control that match up. I can't get him against [Kirill] Kaprizov all night, so they're playing against some different guys, but tonight he's got Nylander, Knies and Matthews for majority of the night. And a huge response from that line, because they were, they were great tonight.”
After Friday’s practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex, Sourdif discussed his role as the center of a line with defensive responsibilities, a heavy role for a first-year player in the League.
“You’ve got to come into it knowing that if you’re able to outwork them to a man, then your chances of success tend to go up,” he says. “We had a meeting as a line; we obviously didn’t like the previous three games that we had. Some good things, some bad things; I know the Winnipeg game was kind of a bad one for us, and we talked about it in Minnesota, where we thought we had a few more chances, we just weren’t getting the bounces. But it still wasn’t quite good enough, and we wanted to change that.
“We can’t let it slide too much; you don’t want to lose two, three, four [games] in a row. You want to axe it and get back in the win column as soon as possible. I thought we just came out with a lot of energy, even though there was a lot of power play and penalty kill going on. I thought the team did a nice job of just staying kind of even-keeled and patient, and the lines were rolling at 5-on-5. I thought it was just a really good effort from the whole team.”
It was, for sure. Sourdif contributed a pair of assists to the cause, but Carbery said on Friday that he’s not concerned with the offensive output from Sourdif this season.
“I want to tread very carefully, because I don’t want to put any expectations [on him],” says Carbery. “I feel like his progression is the approach that I've taken with [Connor McMichael], with [Protas], and Marty Fehervary back in the day. It’s not applying pressure to produce offensively, so what Sourdy is doing right now, I could care less what his goals and assists look like at the end of the night, and I can care less about what it looks like at the end of 82 games.
“What it's about is, can he be a impactful player, where he's putting together good shifts, he's able to give us solid minutes, he's a reliable player, he's controlling plays, putting pucks to good spots, he's using his skill set, he's using all those different things? That's all I care about. He's done a tremendous job of doing that thus far.
“The next step – maybe next season – is, can he become a little bit more productive? And again, I say that very cautiously, because I could care less if he is productive this year from a goals and assists production standpoint. He makes a great play [Thursday] night, sets up a goal; I’m glad he got rewarded. So that's going to come.
“So how does he get there? What does he need to do? And that's just as you get more comfortable in the league, as you get into scoring situations, as you get 2-on-1s, as you get a shot in the slot like he had [Thursday] night, can he get it off a little quicker? Can he shoot it a little bit like [McMichael] has developed his shot? Can he get to the inside a little bit more? Can he finish around the net? Can he get to the net front? All those things that [for] Pro and Mikey, it didn't happen overnight. It took more than one season to develop that. But I'm confident that Justin will get there, and he'll put the necessary work in to get there, but I'm not concerned whether it happens in the next five or 10 [games], or even this season.”
Sourdif has averaged 13:27 in nightly ice time, and he has chipped in three goals and six assists for nine points in 33 games thus far, all while winning exactly half of his 244 face-offs to date; he is one of only two rookies to take at least 200 draws this season and win at least half of them to this point. But it’s been easy to see why the Caps were excited about bringing him into the organization, too.
He has quick feet, plays with speed through the middle of the ice, has some playmaking ability, and is effective in winning puck battles and staying on his feet. He’s also very coachable, and he has a good hockey IQ. As a young player, he has a good sense of when to dump pucks and try to get in on the forecheck versus entering the zone with possession and looking for a play.
“I think it all depends on maybe the team you play,” says Sourdif. “Every team has different structure. Some teams, they're more aggressive, where you have to dump the puck in, and you know you might have to rim it. And other teams are a little more passive, and they try to contain you once you cross the blue line where you're limited with options.
“The games where I’m able to get some speed and skate through the neutral zone, obviously, I like that. But I'm not afraid to forecheck the puck and try and turn it over, either. Just having the ability to be able to do both comfortably, and if I don't have an option, getting the puck in, and if I do, I’ll take that.”
In The Nets – Coming off a 22-save shutout over Toronto on Thursday, Logan Thompson gets today’s starting assignment in the front end of a set of weekend home-and-home games with Detroit.
With a 14-7-3 mark on the season, Thompson is one victory shy of the League lead, currently held by a quartet of netminders. He has limited the opposition to two or fewer goals against in 18 of 24 starts this season, and has had just one instance all season of yielding more than two goals against in consecutive starts.
Lifetime against the Red Wings, Thompson is 2-1-0 in three appearances – all starts – with a 2.35 GAA and a .901 save pct. Over the course of his NHL career, Thompson is 13-4-2 in 19 afternoon games – all starts – with two shutouts, a 2.37 GAA and a .916 save pct.
For Detroit, we are expecting to see veteran John Gibson in goal this afternoon. In his first season with the Wings, Gibson is 10-7-1 in 19 appearances, with two shutouts, a 3.07 GAA and an .890 save pct.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Gibson is 3-6-4 in 14 appearances – all starts – with a shutout, a 2.99 GAA and a .905 save pct. Over the course of his NHL career, Gibson is 3-9-2 in 14 afternoon appearances – all starts – with a 4.53 GAA and an .866 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Capitals and the Red Wings might look on Saturday afternoon in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
72-Beauvillier, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
21-Protas, 34-Sourdif, 43-Wilson
15-Milano, 24-McMichael, 53-Frank
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 63-Miroshnichenko
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
47-Chisholm, 38-Sandin
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
29-Lapierre
52-McIlrath
57-van Riemsdyk
Injured/Out
9-Leonard (upper body)
80-Dubois (lower body)
DETROIT
Forwards
58-Finnie, 71-Larkin, 23-Raymond
93-DeBrincat, 18-Copp, 43-Leonard
85-Soderblom, 29-Danielson, 92-Kasper,
27-Rasmussen, 37-Compher, 21-J. van Riemsdyk
Defensemen
77-Edvinsson, 53-Seider
8-Chiarot, 44-Sandin-Pellikka
20-Johansson, 25-Bernard-Docker
Goalies
36-Gibson
39-Talbot
Healthy Extras
52-Hamonic
Injured/Out
22-Appleton (lower body)
88-Kane (upper body)
