Checkout Time In Vegas – The Caps conclude their last multi-game road trip of the season on Saturday night in Vegas against the Golden Knights. After splitting the first two games of the trip with a loss in St. Louis on Tuesday and a comeback win in Utah on Thursday, the Caps are seeking to head back home on Sunday morning with a winning record to show for a trip that began on Monday.
“Important game for us,” says Washington winger Brandon Duhaime. “We know where we’re at and we know the situation we’re coming into here. We need a big two points and just a good compete game for us, for sure.”
Washington has earned a point in six of its last seven games (4-1-2). At Saturday’s morning skate, Ethen Frank was on the ice in a normal full contact sweater after missing the last two games with a lower body injury, but Caps coach Spencer Carbery says his team will deploy the same group of players from Thursday’s win in Utah.
“Similar lineup, same players will play,” he says.
After being limited to two or fewer goals scored – excluding empty-net goals – in 10 of its previous 11 games, Washington erupted for six goals plus an empty-net marker in Thursday’s 7-4 victory over the Mammoth in Utah. Washington defensemen contributed seven points (one goal, six assists) to the offensive cause, and the Caps have now scored exactly seven goals in a game twice this month, while combining to score a total of just 16 in their other nine March games.
“I’m not trying to say that the games were the same and looked the same, and we created the same amount of opportunities,” says Carbery. “That’s not the point. But there are some bounces to it and some confidence to it, some guys feeling good.
“The goaltender plays a part. [Joel] Hofer played excellent in St. Louis, so that that plays a role. Now, did we do some things offensively to threaten the net, and counter, and be able to score a big power-play goal that makes a difference in the hockey game? Yeah, we did do that in Utah, and we need to do a lot of those same things tonight against a really good defensive team.
“The Utah game, we'll take it. We'll take the two points, but we are going to have to be better defensively, because we gave up a significant amount of chances in that game and get away with one.
Miro Image – Washington winger Ivan Miroshnichenko is expected to be in the lineup for the third straight game tonight. On his second shift of the game in the trip opener in St. Louis, he fired a shot from out toward the right point that hit the left post square on. In his first shift of the contest two nights later in Utah, Miroshnichenko clapped a slapshot from a similar location, and it went left post and in to give Washington an early one-goal lead.
In the third period, Miroshnichenko carried a puck down the left side and dragged it straight to the cage before trying to make a cross-crease feed to Hendrix Lapierre; the puck glanced off the skate of Utah defender Mikhail Sergachev and bounded in for the first two-goal game of Miroshnichenko’s NHL career.
Drafted in the first round (20th overall) in the 2022 NHL Draft, Miroshnichenko is now in the final season of his three-year entry level contract, and the Caps need to figure out what kind of player he can be and what his NHL upside is. In 45 NHL games, he has totaled five goals and seven assists for a dozen points while averaging 10:45 per night in ice time.
Today, we asked Carbery what steps Miroshnichenko must take to move up the lineup, earn more ice time, play with higher caliber players and establish himself as a bona fide regular in the NHL.
“I think Miro is finding his identity at the NHL level, and so you saw some of it the other night.” says Carbery. “So what does he do? And what is he going to need to do at the NHL level? He's a goal scorer, he's going to have to find ways to create scoring opportunities. So, he did that the other night. [Lapierre], great delay. [Miroshnichenko] shoots the puck. It gets through, it doesn't get blocked, it gets on net, it goes in the net.
“Is that going to happen consistently? Probably not. But what it means is he got a puck to the net there. If it gets saved, now it leads to an [offensive] zone shift. Second part of what he did on his second goal, he moves his feet, he drives the net, he throws a puck across the crease. Does it go in off of Sergachev’s skate, that probably won't happen a lot of times? Yes, but the process to what he did of driving that puck to the crease and the net created something positive for our group. So, that's number one.
“And then the second thing is just his ability to become a reliable, solid, understand all the reads, plays, decisions that need to be made consistently shift to shift, and your compete and your physicality and being in the right spot, all of that stuff. For a young player, it's just so important that you just stay on it with the consistency of it. And that's what his challenge will be down the stretch here.”
In 138 regular season games scattered across three seasons at AHL Hershey, Miroshnichenko has 44 goals and 54 assists for 98 points. He has added 10 goals and 17 points in 28 playoff games.
Miroshnichenko just turned 22 in February, and he has already overcome quite a bit in his young life and career, namely Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In its 2022 Draft Guide, Red Line Report ranked Miroshnichenko 12th overall, with the one-sentence descriptor, “Sniping bulldozer would be No. 2 if not for Hodgkin’s.”
In its more in-depth sketch of Miroshnichenko’s game some four years ago, RLR said this:
“Would be our #2 overall prospect on merit alone, but that must be tempered by his Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis - health is a serious concern. Skill-wise, he’s an absolute stud sniper and a constantly dangerous beast. Powerful specimen who plays much bigger/stronger than listed size. Bulldozes his way through traffic. Team captain at all international U-17 and U-18 events. Terrific playmaker who sees the ice beautifully. Lurks dangerously and pounces on loose pucks. Can stickhandle in a phone booth. Long, powerful stride with good straight line speed, but even better east-west lateral moves. Also one of the 2-3 best finishers in this year’s class. Gets heavy shots away like lightning with power and accuracy. Deadly 1-timers from the circle on the PP. Makes sharp, sudden cuts off the wall to attack the slot. Great package of power and finesse - makes plays under pressure. Star qualities.”
That sounds a lot like the type of player the Caps are going to be going after in the offseason trade/unrestricted free agent market. Not every player ascends to the lofty level of some pre-draft expectations and prognostications, but the Caps owe it to themselves to find out if one of the stud scorers they need to add to their lineup might already be within the organization.
Ladders – Caps captain Alex Ovechkin had a hat trick in this building on Washington’s most recent visit on Nov. 17, 2024, and he enters tonight’s game on the heels of a hat trick in his most recent game, Thursday night in Utah.
Tonight, Ovechkin moves up a rung on a different ladder altogether, the NHL’s all-time games played ledger. Ovechkin is expected to suit up for regular season game No. 1,565 here tonight, and that would move him ahead of ex-Detroit defense great and Hockey Hall of Famer Nicklas Lidstrom (1,564) and into 15th place on the NHL’s all-time list. Ovechkin would then be third all-time in games played with a single franchise, trailing only Gordie Howe (1,687) and Patrick Marleau (1,607).
Ovechkin would also have the third-most games played by any European-born NHL player, falling in behind ex-Caps Jaromir Jagr (1,733) and Zdeno Chara (1,680).
In The Nets – Logan Thompson gets the net for Washington tonight, starting for the 14th time in Washington’s last 16 games. Thompson enters tonight’s game on the heels of a 36-save performance in Utah on Thursday night, when he picked up his first road victory since Jan. 23 in Calgary.
While that sounds like a long time, Thompson was on injured reserve for a chunk of that span, and the NHL also paused operations for about three weeks to accommodate League participation in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Also, in the four starts he made between road victories, the Caps failed to score more than one goal in any game, combining for three goals in the four games.
Of the 52 NHL netminders with at least a dozen road starts this season, Thompson ranks 35th with an average of 2.78 goals per game in offensive support, down more than a goal and a half from his League-leading rate of 4.34 goals per game last season.
Lifetime against his former Vegas employers, Thompson is 3-0-0 in three appearances – all starts – with a 2.01 GAA and a .936 save pct.
For Vegas, Adin Hill is the likely starter in net tonight. He has started each of the Golden Knights’ last three games (1-1-1) and nine of their last 10 games (3-5-1).Hill is one of four different netminders the Golden Knights have deployed this season, and his total of 24 starts is second to Akira Schmid’s 29. Hill is 9-9-4 on the season with a shutout, a 3.07 GAA and an .868 save pct.
Lifetime against Washington, Hill is 0-3-0 in three appearances – all starts – with a 3.44 GAA and an .857 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and the Golden Knights might look on Saturday night in Sin City:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
72-Beauvillier, 34-Sourdif, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 29-Lapierre, 63-Miroshnichenko
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 38-Sandin
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
44-Hutson, 3-Roy
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
27-Liljegren
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
64-Kampf
Injured/Out
53-Frank (lower body)
VEGAS
Forwards
49-Barbashev, 9-Eichel, 61-Stone
92-Marner, 48-Hertl, 16-Dorofeyev
19-R. Smith, 21-Howden, 10-Sissons
22-C. Smith, 26-Dowd, 55-Kolesar
Defensemen
3-McNabb, 27-Theodore
15-Hanifin, 6-Korczak
5-Lauzon, 4-Andersson
Goalies
33-Hill
40-Schmid
Healthy Extras
17-Hutton
20-Saad
42-Bowman
Injured/Out
46-Rondbjerg (lower body)
71-Karlsson (lower body)
79-Hart (lower body)
