Familiarity Breeds Contempt – For the fourth and final time this season, the Caps and Penguins are set to battle tonight at Capital One Arena. Games between these two longtime rivals have taken on an additional aura over the last two decades, thanks to the enduring star power that both captains – Washington’s Alex Ovechkin and Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby – have brought to the game and the League since they debuted just under 19 years ago.
Tonight’s tilt is the biggest regular season game between these two titans in quite some time, because both teams still have viable playoff hopes and possibilities with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season. Washington is looking to put an end to a poorly timed three-game slide (0-2-1), while Pittsburgh is seeking to extend a late-season six-game point streak that has hoisted it back into postseason contention.
“For us, we know the circumstances surrounding [Thursday],” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “It’s our biggest game of the year, on home ice, at the most important time of the year. And now with the runway getting extremely short, our guys understand what’s at stake.”
Every player on both teams is capable of reading the standings and seeing what’s at stake.
“They’re making a push right now,” says Caps’ left wing Max Pacioretty. “Hopefully, we can play with that kind of emotion of the rivalry tonight; that’s kind of what this group needs, I don’t want to say to get pulled into the fight emotionally, but to have an emotional game to spark things again, and that’s what we’re looking to do tonight.”
Thursday’s contest is one Caps-Pens game that doesn’t need the weight of the rivalry to hype its importance. The importance is built into the standings and, to Carbery’s point, the length of the runway remaining. But the rivalry is still there, and it adds to the importance. That rivalry is even stoked long before the Capitals and the Penguins are actual Capitals and Penguins. The two teams’ AHL affiliates are only a couple hours apart in eastern Pennsylvania, and they play one another two or three times as frequently as the Caps and Pens do at the AHL level.
By the time players matriculate to the NHL, they don’t have to be taught to hate the other team. It’s been baked in already.
“You see a lot of the players come up,” says Caps’ center Mike Sgarbossa, who started the season at Hershey. “I think there’s five or six of us from Hershey, and I don’t know how many they have, but probably around the same. So you’re familiar with them; the rivalry is still there, the bad blood is still there.
“When we play them in Hershey, I think we play them 14 times, which is a lot. So you don’t forget, and anytime you see those guys you really want to stick it to them. That’s been our vibe in Hershey for the last six years whenever we play them, or even Lehigh [Valley], too. We’re excited about it, but I think we can handle it tonight.”
In his second pro season, Hendrix Lapierre has had plenty of experience playing against the Baby Pens with Hershey, but his experience in the Caps-Pens skirmishes is limited to the last two, on Jan. 2 and March 7 of this year in Pittsburgh, both Washington wins.
“Pittsburgh has a lot of players that I played against last year, that are making an impact and playing great,” says Lapierre. “It’s kind of funny to see. Last year, we were battling in the American Hockey League and now we’re battling for a playoff spot at the NHL level. But I don’t think about that too much, honestly.”
Now in his first full NHL season, Beck Malenstyn is another veteran of the battles between Hershey and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. At the NHL level, the Caps and Pens tangled eight times in the pandemic abbreviated campaign of 2020-21, but that season aside, Washington and Pittsburgh have not faced each other more than five times in a season since 1992-93 when both were co-denizens of the Patrick Division. But in the AHL, the Bears and the Baby Pens still see a lot of each other. Too much, some would say.
“Obviously it’s a little bit different [at this level],” says Malenstyn. “But the energy in those games is still definitely the same. Both of the franchises have a long history of playoff encounters and things like that, and it just makes the games A) really easy to get up for, and B) just a lot of fun to play in. I definitely won’t complain about not playing a team 12 or 13 times a year; that’s a positive. But these kind of games are a lot of fun to be a part of.”
Back In The Saddle Again – Following a six-game absence for an NHL suspension, Caps’ right wing Tom Wilson returns to the lineup tonight, just in time to take on the Penguins. After winning each of the first three games of Wilson’s suspension, the Caps dropped each of the last three (0-2-1).
“It’s felt like a long time,” says Wilson. “I’m ready to go; it’s crunch time. A couple of weeks left here, so I’m excited to get back in there and help in whatever way I can.”
With T.J. Oshie missing Tuesday’s game in Buffalo and having been ruled out of tonight’s game against the Pens as well as Friday’s game in Carolina, the Caps are likely to have a couple of lefties populating the right side of their forwards corps tonight, even with Wilson back in the lineup.
“It’s huge to add him back to the lineup,” begins Carbery, “from a bunch of different departments: leadership, locker room presence, bench demeanor, and then all the things he brings from a strategic standpoint. He plays in every situation – penalty kill, power play, 5-on-5, gives us some help on that right side, playing the wing. A very welcome addition to the group.”
During his two weeks of game inactivity, Wilson has been on the ice working hard and working late. Any bumps and bruises he may have accrued over the first three-quarters of the campaign have had a chance to heal up a bit, and the focus to getting back up to game speed is the main thing now.
“It’s one of those things where getting back up to game speed is always difficult,” says Wilson. “But all you can do is work as hard as you can and prepare as much as you can over these last couple of weeks to try and make sure you’re ready to go. I’ve had a lot of puck touches, a lot of skill work, some good conditioning, and I’m just excited to get back out there and get up to speed again.”
Wilson has a dozen goals in 41 career games against the Penguins, his highest total against any opponent. Each of the two goals he scored against Pittsburgh this season – one of which was shorthanded – was the all-important first goal of the game.
In The Nets – Charlie Lindgren gets the net again for Washington tonight against the Penguins. With his start tonight, Lindgren is appearing for the 20th time in the Capitals’ last 22 games. He has yet to go consecutive starts without helping the team to at least one standings point, a streak he is seeking to extend tonight against Pittsburgh.
Lifetime against the Penguins, Lindgren is 1-1-0 with a shutout, a 2.00 GAA, and a .946 save pct. in two appearances, both starts.
Alex Nejdelkovic gets the nod in net for Pittsburgh tonight. Nejdelkovic has earned 14 of Pittsburgh’s 34 victories on the season, but after notching just two victories in the team’s first 27 games of the season – a span in which Tristan Jarry recorded nine wins – Nejdelkovic is 12-4-5 since Dec. 13, a stretch in which Jarry is 10-14-3.
In his last five games, Nejdelkovic is 4-0-1 with a 2.17 GAA and a .928 save pct. Lifetime against Washington, the 28-year-old Ohio native is 0-1-0 with a 2.38 GAA and an .864 save pct. in two appearances, both in relief. Nejdelkovic will be making his first career start against the Capitals tonight.
All Lined Up – Here’s how the Caps and the Penguins might look on Thursday night in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 24-McMichael, 43-Wilson
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 63-Miroshnichenko
67-Pacioretty, 29-Lapierre, 15-Milano
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 23-Sgarbossa
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Jensen
27-Alexeyev, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
35-Kuemper
Injured/Out
19-Backstrom (lower body)
25-Bear (NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program)
77-Oshie (upper body)
Scratches
2-Iorio
31-Shepard
96-Aubé-Kubel
PITTSBURGH
Forwards
19-Smith, 87-Crosby, 17-Rust
8-Bunting, 71-Malkin, 67-Rakell
10-O’Connor, 20-Eller, 48-Puustinen
18-Puljujarvi, 77-Carter, 52-Bemstrom
Defensemen
73-Joseph, 58-Letang
28-Pettersson, 65-Karlsson
5-Shea, 3-St. Ivany
Goaltenders
39-Nejdelkovic
35-Jarry
Injured/Out
7-Ludvig (illness)
27-Graves (upper body)
43-Harkins (hand)
55-Acciari (lower body)
83-Nieto (lower body)
Scratches
None
