Back-To-Back – A night after Alex Ovechkin became the first player in NHL history to score 900 goals in the League, the Caps are right back at it, concluding their fourth set of back-to-back games this season with a Thursday night Metro Division tilt in Pittsburgh against the Penguins.
The Caps are 1-1-1 on the second night of back-to-back games this season, but they’ve scored exactly one goal in two of those three games, and a total of five in the three games combined.
With 16 wins on the second night of back-to-backs since Spencer Carbery took over behind the Washington bench in 2023-24, the Capitals rank third in the NHL over that span. Fourteen of those 16 victories have come on the road, which is tops in the League over that stretch.
Tonight, the Caps’ challenge will be resetting and refocusing less than 24 hours after Ovechkin’s milestone goal, and to handle an upstart Pittsburgh squad that has played well this season, but is coming off a bad beat against the Leafs in Toronto earlier in the week.
“That will be the challenge,” begins Carbery, “playing against a rested [Pittsburgh] team that is extremely dangerous offensively, especially this year; they’ve been producing at a pretty high clip. So, that’s where our maturity as a group needs to show through today.
“Great win on home ice last night, lots of positives, [Ovechkin’s] 900th. Then you get on the road and you travel, and it’s our job as a group, our job as a coaching staff, to get it cranked back up tonight on the road.”
Diamonds In The Back – We wrote a bit in this space yesterday about the Capitals’ offensive contributions from the back end, and that group went off in Wednesday’s 6-1 win over St. Louis. At least one defenseman had a hand in five of the six Washington goals Wednesday night, and five of the six blueliners picked up a point.
Last season, Washington’s offensive contributions from its blueline corps were the most the team has had in over three decades, and all six regular defensemen hit the 20-point plateau for the first time in franchise history. After the win over the Blues, Washington defensemen have figured in 70 percent of the team’s goals (26 of 37) this season.
“I think it goes a little bit under the radar last year of how productive our [defense] corps was,” says Carbery. “And if you look at our group, [our] back end, [and our] goaltending, that's the real strength of our roster. Our forward group is great, but our [defense] corps, one through six or one through eight, you could argue, and then our both goaltenders, that's the real foundation of our group.
“So, anytime that they're contributing, it's just a big part of how we can produce offensively. And I thought all six of those guys last night were excellent, big reasons why we spent so much time in the offensive zone, kept pucks alive, and made really good decisions with our shot selection. From [Trevor van Riemsdyk] to [Rasmus Sandin] to [Jakob Chychrun] to John [Carlson]. I thought they were all really [good]. Marty sets up that goal – the Carlson goal – he plays a huge role in that, moves his feet, gets down the wall, drops it to [Ryan Leonard]. “I thought our [defense] corps as a group and individually were excellent.”
Heading into tonight’s game with the Penguins, Washington’s eight goals from its back end are tied for second in the League, and its point and assist totals also rank in the top ten despite having played one or two fewer games than the other upper echelon teams in that regard.
The Caps have gotten 38.5 percent of all their assists from the back end, the highest rate in the League, and their 32.4 percent point rate from the blueline also leads the circuit.
Including the lone assist on Ovechkin’s momentous marker, Chychrun had three assists in the win over St. Louis, the third time in his career he has had three helpers in a game and his first since Dec. 15, 2023. The last time a Capital had more than three assists in a game was Carlson’s four-apple night – three of them of the primary variety – on April 17, 2021 against the Flyers in Philadelphia.
“I think we that was just a well-rounded game for us,” said Chychrun after the contest. We're happy with that effort, with that performance. It's the way we want to play. And yeah, when our [defensemen] are breaking out clean, getting up the ice, they’re usually able to generate some looks. And tonight, we found a way to obviously put a bunch in, so those ones feel good.”
With 10 points (three goals, seven assists) on the season, Chychrun is tied for 10th place among all NHL blueliners in scoring. With nine points (three goals, six assists), Carlson is tied for 16th.
In The Nets – On the second night of a set of back-to-back games, Charlie Lindgren gets the net for Washington in Pittsburgh. Lindgren is making his fifth start and appearance of the season, and thus far this season, he has had what former Caps coach Barry Trotz used to call “junk mail” starts.
Tonight marks the back half of Washington’s fourth set of back-to-backs this season, and Lindgren has had the back end of each of them. His only other start was an afternoon game with a 12:30 pm puck drop.
The gritty goalie has played better than his record (1-2-1) or his numbers (3.46 GAA, .880 save pct.) would indicate; he has yielded 14 goals against, and 10 of the 14 have come before the five-minute mark of the second period, and four of them have come on the power play.
Lindgren has also been criminally under supported offensively; the Caps are averaging just 1.73 goals per game with Lindgren in the crease, and his lone victory was a 1-0 shutout in his first start of the season on Oct. 12 against the Rangers in New York.
Of the 53 NHL goaltenders with at least four appearances to date this season, Lindgren ranks dead last in offensive support from his teammates. With Logan Thompson in net this season, the Caps have supported him with 3.24 goals for per game across his nine starts.
“Usually on the front half of back-to-backs, [Thompson] has gotten all of those opportunities thus far,” says Carbery. “Now, I will say, in the back half of the back-to-back, Chucky needs some run support. We need to help him in those starts. This will be our fourth [back-to-back] and Chucky, almost every one of his starts has come in those situations, so it’s a challenge for our group. We’ve got to do a job for him in those spots, because if those are the starts that he’s getting just because of the way the schedule has played out thus far, we’ve got to do a job in front of him.”
Lindgren has logged 242:27 in the crease thus far this season, and he has had the luxury of playing with a lead for just 35:07, or 14.5 percent of his time between the pipes. Contrast that with Thompson, who has played with the lead for 43.4 percent of his time in net.
Last season, the Caps held a lead for 37.9 percent of their 4975:34 of hockey, sixth best in the NHL and second among Eastern Conference clubs, trailing only NHL-leading Tampa Bay (42 percent of all time with the lead). Thompson ranked seventh in the NHL in lead time with 1203:46 (47.5 percent) and Lindgren ranked 32nd, playing 29.7 percent of his total time in net with the lead.
Lifetime against the Penguins, Lindgren is 1-3-0 in four appearances – all starts – with a 2.54 GAA and a .922 save pct.
We are expecting to see Arturs Silovs in goal for the Penguins on Thursday, as Tristan Jarry was placed on injured reserve after his Monday night start against the Leafs in Toronto. A former Canuck, Silovs started his tenure as a Penguin with an opening night shutout over the Rangers in New York. He is seeking to shake off a personal three-game slide (0-1-2) on Thursday against the Capitals.
Silovs will be facing the Caps for the first time in his NHL career tonight.
All Lined Up – Here’s how the Capitals and the Penguins might look on Thursday night in Pittsburgh:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 72-Beauvillier
21-Protas, 24-McMichael, 43-Wilson
15-Milano, 29-Lapierre, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 34-Sourdif
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Healthy Extras
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
81-Smallman
Injured/Out
53-Frank (upper body)
80-Dubois (lower body)
PITTSBURGH
Forwards
17-Rust, 87-Crosby, 81-Kindel
18-Novak, 71-Malkin, 39-Mantha
41-Koivunen, 43-Heinen, 53-Tomasino
19-Dewar, 46-Lizzotte, 15-Koppanen
Defensemen
28-Wotherspoon, 65-Karlsson
5-Shea, 58-Letang
27-Graves, 75-Clifton
Goalies
37-Silovs
1-Murashev
Healthy Extras
24-Dumba
45-Brunicke
Injured/Out
11-Hallander (undisclosed)
13-Hayes (upper body
16-Brazeau (upper body)
30-Blomqvist (lower body)
35-Jarry (undisclosed)
55-Acciari (upper body)
67-Rakell (upper body)
82-Jones (lower body)
