Nov. 6 vs. Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena
Time: 7:30 p.m.
TV: ESPN+, Hulu
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
Washington Capitals (7-5-1)
Pittsburgh Penguins (8-4-2)
The Caps finish up a set of back-to-back games and break the seal on their first extended road trip of the season – a four-game journey spread out over the next eight days – when they visit the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Thursday night.
As they open the trip against their Metro Division rivals, the Caps will need to quickly reset and refocus against the rested Penguins. Their 6-1 drubbing of the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday in Washington was fueled by the 900th goal in the illustrious career of Caps captain Alex Ovechkin, a goal that – naturally – also turned out to be the game-winner.
Ovechkin’s milestone marker came early in the game’s second period, lifting the Caps to a 2-0 lead. By the end of the frame, the Caps had chased St. Louis starter Jordan Binnington to the bench and they’d opened up a 5-0 lead over their guests.
Tom Wilson and Anthony Beauvillier had two goals each, and the Washington blueline corps had a hand in five of the six goals, combining for a goal – off the stick of John Carlson – and seven points in the victory.
Logan Thompson made 23 saves to improve to 6-3-0 on the season, and he limited the opposition to two or fewer goals for the ninth time in as many starts this season. With Wednesday's performance, Thompson became the fifth goaltender in the last 20 years to allow two or fewer goals against in nine consecutive appearances to begin his season. His 1.45 GAA and his .938 save pct. are both tops among all NHL goaltenders with as many as four appearances on the season to date.
Most importantly, Wednesday’s win halted a four-game slide (0-3-1) for the Capitals, sending them on their eight-day excursion on a winning note. Following a couple of good practice days, Caps coach Spencer Carbery sensed his team was dialed in hours before puck drop for Wednesday’s game.
“I felt it this morning,” said Carbery after Wednesday’s game. “I don’t usually make predictions on the game or anything like that, but I knew our team was extremely focused and we were going to get a very urgent game from our team, of the approach and the seriousness we were going to have with the game [Wednesday]. I knew that. It doesn’t mean you’re going to win those games, but I just knew we would be very, very urgent with our game all over the ice. And I thought that was the case. Even though it was a little bit touch and go early, I thought we carried the play, had some great [offensive] zone shifts. This was as good of an [offensive] zone game as we’ve had all year, by far.”
Playing without P-L Dubois for the first time since they learned the big center would be out of action for an extended period, the Caps had a number of players step up in his absence. Washington’s blueline group was outstanding, and its bottom six played emphatically, combining to set up its first power play of the game and Wilson’s first goal of the game, an extra-man tally that came on the 12th anniversary of his first NHL goal, which also came on the power play.
Hendrix Lapierre’s line – with Sonny Milano and Ryan Leonard – was an offensive zone fixture in Wednesday’s game, creating a raft of scoring chances and high danger looks at the net. All that was lacking was the finishing touch, but if they can maintain a similar level of play the goals should follow.
“I thought they were good for the most part tonight,” says Carbery of the Lapierre line. “I thought they had some great [offensive] zone shifts, some great entries. Sonny and Leno, I just watched the first five minutes and they get a great opportunity right away, their first shift.
“Sonny Milano finds a way down the wall, through the neutral zone, gets an entry, gets it across to Leonard, [who] rips it on net, just misses the far side. I thought they were around the puck; they did a lot of good things.”
In its first season under first-year head coach Dan Muse, Pittsburgh is off to a stronger start than most expected. Right from its opening night shutout over the Rangers in New York, Pittsburgh has kept the points coming in and it has yet to go more than two games without collecting a point.
The Pens come into Thursday’s game with Washington on the heels of consecutive losses; they reeled off four straight wins the last time they were in this position. The Penguins dropped the last two games of a four-game trip – falling in Winnipeg and Toronto, respectively – after starting the season with a torrid 5-1-1 mark in their first seven road games.
Monday’s loss to the Leafs in Toronto likely stings Pittsburgh, and the Penguins will likely be looking to atone. The Pens had a commanding 3-0 lead after 40 minutes of play in that game, limiting the Leafs to just eight shots on net in the process. But in the third, Toronto erupted for four goals at 5-on-5 in a span of just over 10 minutes, and Pittsburgh ended up on the short end of a 4-3 regulation loss.
The Pens also lost goaltender Tristan Jarry to a lower body injury in that game; he stopped 16 of 20 shots while going the distance. Joel Blomqvist, the young Pittsburgh goaltender who was sharp against the Capitals last season, was placed on injured reserve with a lower body injury in late September.
With Jarry out for a few weeks, Arturs Silovs is likely to shoulder most of Pittsburgh’s netminding duties in the interim. Silovs was obtained from the Canucks in a July trade. Pittsburgh recalled Sergei Murashov from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on an emergency basis Wednesday, and he will support Silovs in Jarry’s absence.
The 21-year-old Murashov – a Russian in his second season as a North American pro – posted a 5-2-0 record with a shutout, a 1.73 GAA and a .931 save pct. in seven starts with the Baby Pens this season. Murashov was the Pens’ fourth-round choice (118 th overall) in the 2022 NHL Draft.
