Back Again – Long Island has become a familiar landscape for the Capitals, who will supply the opposition for the New York Islanders’ home opener tonight at UBS Arena. Just over six months ago, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin made NHL history here, scoring his 895th career goal on April 6 to surpass Wayne Gretzky (894) for the top spot on the NHL’s all-time goals ledger.
Although they lost that game, the postgame locker room scene was unforgettable as Ovechkin’s teammates showered him with suds, the suds that form atop cold malt beverages.
“Walking in here [to the visiting locker room], some guys were saying it still smells like beer,” says Caps center P-L Dubois. “I don’t know if that’s ghost beer or if it’s real.”
The Caps returned nine nights later, with Dylan Strome supplying the heroics in a 3-1 Washington victory; he accounted for all his team’s offense that night, recording his first hat trick with the Capitals.
Tonight’s game marks the Caps’ third visit here in their last five regular season road games.
In The Middle Of It All – Dubois skates in the 600th game of his NHL career tonight, just over eight years after his NHL debut, which also came against the Islanders on Oct. 6, 2017 in Columbus. The Jackets won that game 5-0, with Dubois and current teammate Sonny Milano both scoring their first NHL goals that night.
“I remember it like it was yesterday, says Dubois. “It was against the Islanders, and they had Thomas Greiss in net. I was extremely nervous. I missed a 2-on-1 [scoring chance] a shift or two before I scored my first NHL goal, and I remember thinking, ‘I’m never going to score another goal.’ And then two shifts later, I score. That was fun; it was the fifth goal of the game [in a 5-0 Columbus win].
“Sonny scored his first NHL goal that game, too: I think he had the game-winner though, so he has bragging rights. But yeah, it was a pretty cool feeling. I had my family there; it was a surreal moment.”
Dubois is the fifth member of the 2016 NHL Draft class to reach the milestone. Over the course of his NHL career, Dubois has appeared in 599 of his teams’ 619 games (96.8 percent) over that span.
Metro Pictures – Tonight’s game against the Isles and Sunday’s contest in Manhattan against the Rangers are the first two of Washington’s 26 games against Metropolitan Division opponents this season.
“The beginning of the year is important,” says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. “Everyone is interested to see where everybody stacks up. And you want to build momentum, especially in your division. You want to end up in the right spot early and just kind of continue to push forward.
“So, I think these are huge games for us. We'll start with the first one, and our focus is to be dialed in here for the weekend and make sure that we're doing everything we can to take both games.”
After dropping their season opener to division rival New Jersey last season, the Caps went on to win eight of their next nine games to forge a blistering 8-2-0 start through their first 10 games. Five of those eight victories came against Metropolitan Division opponents.
“Early in the season, you want to just improve as every game goes on,” says Dubois. “You’ll never start at 100 percent in game one; you’re going to start 100 percent of something, but it’s never the finished product.
“For us, game one was game one lost, and then we move on. We want to play better and better as the season goes on, and I thought we did that last year, and that’s why we were successful. There’s no reason why we can’t do that again.”
Washington won eight of its 13 road games (.615) against Metro Division foes last season, the most of any team in the division.
New Addition, New Edition – The Isles won the draft lottery for the 2025 NHL Draft, sliding into the No. 1 overall slot and taking defenseman Matthew Schaefer, who became the youngest defenseman in League history (18 years, 34 days) to record a point in his NHL debut when he assisted on Jonathan Drouin’s goal against Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.
“Elite, elite, elite skater is what jumps off the page,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of the Isles prized rookie. “And to start with that as a foundation as a defenseman is a pretty good start. That was apparent in the Pittsburgh game. And there was a couple different instances where he can really showcase his agility, his quickness, lateral mobility, all that stuff. And strength and size and all that stuff will come with maturity and as he develops in the NHL. But you can see he's an elite, elite skater.”
Drouin, who the Isles signed as a free agent, will be sitting out tonight’s game; he was given a one-game NHL suspension for cross-checking Pittsburgh forward Connor Dewar. Because the Caps have seen a lot of the Isles in recent regular season games – and because New York’s roster is quite similar to last season’s – the Caps may be able to use that April 15 game in their pre-scout of the Islanders for tonight’s contest.
“You always walk away from those games and you put something in the back of your mind,” says Carbery. “Or you pack it away for, ‘Okay, they did this well,’ or ‘This personnel looked like this’, and ‘This coaching staff is trying to do this.’ I think you just take, and you learn more and more each time you see a team and see a coach and see the individual players about that group.
“I would say what we started to see happen last year – and the first game against Pittsburgh [this year] – this is a much more dynamic team than maybe we always equate the Islanders like way back. But even Barry [Trotz] was here and Matt Martin and those teams, they had a real identity.
“I think that identity is shifting a little bit, to where they are much more dynamic offensively, tons of plays from each line, off entries, getting middle ice, finding slot line passes. If you watch some of the goals that they scored the other night, those are some high, high-end plays, and some of the opportunities and scoring chances that they created against Pittsburgh.
“That's what we sort of thing you look like at, and then you start to get a feel for what a team does well. And I think that's what's been sticking out lately, about the Islanders.”
In The Nets – With a set of back-to-back games in the New York metropolitan area this weekend, both Washington goaltenders will be seeing game action this weekend. Tonight, it’s going to be Logan Thompson in the nets for the Caps, making his second straight start. He was sharp in stopping 19 of 21shots he faced on the night.
Lifetime against the Islanders, Thompson is 2-1-1 with a 2.70 GAA and a .904 save pct. in four appearances, all starts.
For the Isles, we are expecting to see Ilya Sorokin in net. In the season opener against Pittsburgh on Thursday, Sorokin stopped 24 of 28 shots in a 4-3 New York loss. Lifetime against the Capitals, Sorokin is 4-4-1 with a 2.22 GAA and a .926 save pct. in nine appearances, all starts.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we expect the Islanders and the Capitals to look when they take the ice for Saturday’s at UBC Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
24-McMichael, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
21-Protas, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
72-Beauvillier, 29-Lapierre, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 34-Sourdif
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Roy
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
2-Iorio
15-Milano
47-Chisholm
Injured/Out
52-McIlrath (lower body)
NEW YORK
Forwards
27-Lee, 13-Barzal, 21-Palmieri
11-Duclair, 14-Horvat, 51-Heineman
49-Shabanov, 44-Pageau, 10-Holmstrom
16-Gatcomb, 53-Cizikas, 7-Tsyplakov
Defensemen
28-Romanov, 77-DeAngelo
3-Pelech, 6-Pulock
48-Schaefer, 24-Mayfield
Goalies
30-Sorokin
33-Rittich
Healthy Extras
32-MacLean
34-A. Boqvist
Injured/Out
18-Engvall (lower body)
29-Drouin (NHL suspension)
40-Varlamov (lower body)
